4 New High-Tech Tools to Help Control Diabetes

For the 21 million diabetics in the United States, they find that controlling their diabetes takes up many hours of their time on a daily basis. The importance of maintaining blood sugar levels as close to normal as possible requires proper maintenance, testing and eating foods which assist in the ultimate goal of controlling diabetes.

For most diabetes patients, keeping blood sugar and diabetes under control meant a daily routine of glucose tests, insulin injections and painful finger sticking.

New Diabetic Research Advances

In discussing new research advances and technological advances to allow diabetics to monitor and treat their glucose problems, Aaron Kowalski, PhD. Director of strategic research projects at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, himself a type 1 diabetes patient says: "We think there are some new technologies that hold tremendous promise," he says. "It's an exciting time."

The Typical Diabetic

Most Diabetics spend less than thirty percent of their day with blood sugar levels at or near normal levels. Finger sticking (an extremely painful process) is normally done at least twice a day, but in those with severe diabetes may be as often as nine times daily. A new Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) may help. Developed by Medtronics, this unit allows a diabetic to get continuous readings throughout the day, allowing them to make a decision immediately about responding to that reading. Currently (until confirmations on the accuracy of the CGM's) those who feel they need to respond with additional insulin will still have to use the finger stick method to confirm the reading of the CGM, though in early testing, those using the device are slightly more than 25% more likely to have normal readings inter-day.

FDA Approval Of Diabetic Devices

In April 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Medtronic's MiniMed Paradigm REAL-Time, the first combination CGM and insulin pump. the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation has hailed it as a "significant step" toward one of its major research priorities: That is development of an external, artificial pancreas that could someday automatically measure glucose and deliver insulin -- much like the real thing (taken from WebMd). This unit not only monitors the blood glucose levels, but with interaction from the user can dose the patient with a specified amount of insulin to react to adverse readings.

Diabetes Information Management

With technology constantly changing, it is no wonder that we have specialized software for the management of Diabetes. Diabetes Information Management Software allows the user to upload information that they obtain from their blood glucose monitors and the software automatically analyzes the readings. This allows the user to figure out what times of the day that the blood glucose levels were at or near normal and allows them to determine what trends (if any) caused the blood glucose levels to be increased. It's been proven that patients with access to this type of information have better control over their diabetes simply because they have more information available to them.

Omnipod Insulin Management System

Omnipod Insulin Management System is a small, disposable pump that is worn directly under the clothing and directly on the skin. When it first hit the market in 2005, it was hailed as the newest generation in diabetes pumps. Omnipods may be placed on the lower back, the arm, the stomach (or other sites) and eliminates tubing. Insulin is delivered through a small cannula which is inserted under the skin. The diabetes patient controls the insulin dose through a small handheld device (wireless) when it's needed. Omnipods are generally worn for three days before being replaced.

As technology continues with new advances, caring for Diabetes and keeping blood glucose levels under control (minimizing the potential for complications) continues to become easier.