There's good news on the horizon for those who suffer from diabetes: a new technology that enables the creation of an artificial pancreas could replace your insulin shots and automatically regulate the body's levels with nothing for you to worry about on your side.
Diabetes is one of the more common diseases found worldwide. It's characterized by the body's inability to break down the sugars in the blood and transform them into glucose. The pancreas is the internal organ tasked with insulin production, but it becomes hampered or shut down by the onset of diabetes, requiring that sufferers inject themselves daily and frequently test blood sugar levels in order to manage the disease.
But newer medical technology could be changing this landscape forever. Those who suffer from Type 1 diabetes may be able to replace painful insulin injections with an artificial pancreas instead. The artificial organ includes a sensor that automatically tests blood sugar levels and adds insulin as needed to sustain the body.
Current devices can only do one thing: monitor glucose or administer insulin. But the artificial pancreas can do both, effectively offering a solitary solution to help curb a worldwide pandemic.
You can thank researchers at the Cambridge University for this invention. Following the clinical trials, patients agreed that it was a better way for them to manage the symptoms of this disease.
According to a recent report they published: "Research at Cambridge has focuses on the development of a closed-loop insulin delivery system for treatment of type 1 diabetes (3). A closed-loop system, also known as Artificial Pancreas, is a medical device that combines continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pump therapy via a computer-based algorithm dictating insulin delivery independent of patient supervision. This approach differs from current insulin therapy by providing a continuous glucose-regulated insulin replacement, with the aim to achieve normoglycaemia whilst reducing the risk of hypoglycaemia."
While there is no official shelf date for this product, it's comforting to know that it will be available in the near future. According to Diabetes.org, as of 2012, "29.1 million Americans, or 9.3% of the population, had diabetes. Approximately 1.25 million American children and adults have type 1 diabetes.
Needless to say, this device could change a million lives for the better.