Joseph R. Kraft, MD was a doctor and pathologist and served as Chairman, Department of Clinical Pathology and Nuclear Medicine, St. Joseph Hospital, Chicago, Illinois for 35 years, and was appointed Chairman Emeritus upon retirement.

His book (which is not highly technical and intended for a general audience) Diabetes Epidemic & You, is based on his cumulative experience of 14,384 oral glucose tolerances with insulin assays (now known as “Kraft Tests”) performed at St. Joseph Hospital, Chicago, Illinois from 1972 to 1998.

Dr. Kraft’s major discovery was that glucose tolerance can be totally normal despite insulin levels still being high and that this remains undiagnosed in clinical practice today. These high insulin levels, known as hyperinsulinemia are essentially early diabetes and increase the risk for a host of chronic diseases.

The full value of this discovery is only beginning to be realized, owing both to the technical and organizational challenge of conducting Kraft Tests at scale and the widespread ignorance of their diagnostic value by both the general public and medical practitioners.

Watch an interview with Dr. Kraft here.