Eyes On The Prize Of Glucose Monitoring

People with diabetes have to monitor their blood regularly, and this should not be a shock to anyone, but unless you are in the trenches you may not have an appreciation for exactly what that entails and how awful it can be. To give a quick idea, some diabetics risk entering a coma or shock because drawing blood is painful or impractical at the moment. The holy grail of current research is to create a continuous monitor which doesn’t break the skin and can be used at home. Unaided monitoring is also needed to control automatic insulin pumps.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, gave up where Noviosense, a Netherlands company owned by [Dr. Christopher Wilson], may gain some footing. Instead of contact lenses which can alter the flow of fluids across the eye, Noviosense places their sensor below the lower eyelid. Fluids here flow regardless of emotion or pain, so the readings correspond to the current glucose level. Traditionally, glucose levels are taken through blood or interstitial fluid, aka tissue fluid. Blood readings are the most accurate but the interstitial fluid is solid enough to gauge the need for insulin injection, and the initial trial under the eyelid showed readings on par with the interstitial measurements.

Hackers are not taking diabetes lying down, some are developing their own insulin and others are building an electronic pancreas.

Via IEEE Spectrum.

17 thoughts on “Eyes On The Prize Of Glucose Monitoring

  1. While my type II diabetes is nowhere near the nightmare that type I is, having a way to continuously monitor blood sugar would indeed be a wonderful innovation, especially if it could be done without having to break the skin.
    I also find myself wondering if tears instead of blood could be used with a modified glucose meter. Might be a lot nicer than a finger prick several times a day if such a device could be hacked together.

    1. Long term I would take type one over type two. I have been type one for over 30 years and have very few problems. I don’t know anyone who has had type two for that long who is still even functional.

      1. That’s probably due to people actually thinking (seen/heard this a lot) “It’s just type II – so no need to worry”. Not keeping type I under control quickly leads to serious complications while type II can generally can be mostly ignored until the body begins to suffer accumulated failures.

        Keep the glucose under control and start living more healthy (most type II cases are from metabolic syndrome caused by obesity, eating crap and not exercising).

      2. I have been diagnosed with Type II for almost 25 years now. The key to Type II survival is blood sugar monitoring combined with exersize and pain endurance. The amount pain for the same exersize ratchets up every year as well as the amount of exersize needed to keep one’s blood sugar under control. The key to keeping the pain down and delaying its increase is to keep the blood sugar down. Continuous monitoring greatly facilitates that. Not having to stick myself twice a day plus once an hour for one day every month (to find “spikes” and better adjust behavior) would be welcome…

      3. But probably because Type 2 occurs mostly at old age, so the typical lifespan after the diagnosis is much shorter. So most Type 1 have to “take it long term” while most Type 2 don’t. Also Type 2 does often not have to inject insulin. So I do not understand why Type 1 could be regarded “preferable”.

  2. https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/news/13831?type=articles

    *A breathalyser device that could detect the sweet smell of acetone in a child’s breath is under development by scientists and could be used to quickly diagnose type 1 diabetes. *

    I would rather breathe into a sensor than prick my finger

    or perhaps

    “With advanced diabetes, sugar and ketones, which are normally absent, can accumulate in the urine and create a strong odor”

    Trouble is the urine test is for ADVANCED diabetes

    1. Once you get acetone in the breath or sugar in the urine the damage is already being done. For diagnosis a breath test is OK but not for control unless your control is really bad.

      1. Right, and with something as serious as diabetes they can’t get away with claiming that a smartwatch “improves health” with vague measures like “sleep activity”. Marketing can’t spin their way into getting valid results. I’m just waiting for the day that non-invasive glucose monitoring has their very own uBeam.

  3. We already have the world’s first non invasive glucose monitoring device. It’s called the Helo Extense. It works along with our Helo Lx+ wearable. You can view it on my website, www. mjgraeser.worldgn.com, along with pricing and purchasing information.

    1. I googled. First result was this: https://www.businessforhome.org/2018/07/world-global-network-announces-helo-extense-monitoring-blood-sugar-trends-without-pricking/ Which not only made the product sound like a scam, but bundled it together with vague *”supplements” (which is almost always a red flag). Of course it might just be this particular trash website, promoting your product, but I couldn’t find any “official” information, or clinical studies.

      For shits’n’giggles I did enjoy this gem: “HELO is a state-of-the-art interface with the users bodies, and now with the addition of DNA Analytics plus cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence, the WGN ORACLE has combined seamlessly for the first time into this revolutionary personalized Solution.”

      Because you need to get AI in there, and “DNA analytics”. You might want to add “blockchain” for that extra BS boost. I could be wrong here, and you could solve the non-invasive glucose measurement problem, and I’ll look foolish. We shall see.

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