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Written By: Agencies | Published : June 12, 2014 6:02 PM IST
The bloody method of finger pricking to monitor blood sugar levels could soon be a thing of the past as as scientists have developed an implantable device to track your blood-sugar levels round the clock.' It is a glucose/galactose binding protein (GBP) that changes shape when it attaches to glucose,' a research by Sylvia Daunert from University of Miami in the US and colleagues showed. The researchers engineered it in such a way that it would be stable in and out of the body for longer periods to detect levels of glucose within the range in a diabetic person.
Currently, most patients with diabetes monitor blood-sugar levels by using a glucose meter. They prick a finger with a tiny needle to draw blood which they apply to a test strip inserted into the glucometer. It provides a reading of the level at that moment. But glucose levels change throughout the day, so many readings are needed. That is not always convenient and some people find that pricking their finger is painful. As a result, many patients do not test their blood as often as they should, risking complications such as seizures.
'For more continuous monitoring, some patients use implantable devices that measure blood-sugar as often as once a minute, but they are expensive, can only be used for up to a week and are not as reliable as conventional meters,' researchers said.
They, therefore, set out to improve upon these limited options and they turned to a protein that has already been explored as a good candidate for use in a continuous glucose monitoring system.
The findings appeared in the journal ACS Chemical Biology.
What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a life long disease that is characterised by increased levels of sugar in the blood. It is either caused due to lack of insulin (a protein that regulates blood glucose levels) or due to lack of response to insulinproduced by the body. Diabetes caused by lack of insulin is called type 1 diabetes. It develops due to fault in the genes that make insulin and is seen in young adults and teenagers. Diabetes caused by failure of response to insulin is called type 2 diabetes. It is more common type of diabetes and is found in adults. It is caused mainly due to lifestyle factors. Some of the common symptoms of diabetes are hunger, frequent urination and increased thirst. Factors like unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle and obesity are main contributing factors of type 2 diabetes. In fact, type 2 diabetes is one of the most common 'lifestyle diseases' which is plaguing people in the developed countries. Diabetes is also known to cause complications like heart diseasesand hypertension. In this section you will find answers to all your queries regarding diabetes. For example, why is it difficult to manage diabetes, how often you should use a glucometer to monitor blood glucose level, can you take honey if you are diabetic and much more. You can find a lot of helpful suggestions to prevent diabetes, reduce your risk of diabetes, natural remedies to control diabetes, healthy food choices for diabetics, etc.
Sources: IANS
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