Blood glucose monitoring
For the hundred-fifty-million of us who are diagnosed diabetic, one of the devices which has always been just beyond reach has been the noninvasive blood glucose monitor - something that can tell you how much sugar is churning around inside you without having to stab yourself with needles a bunch of times a day.
For many years, it's been one of those things which has been just around the corner. Some companies have been working on it since the early nineties and before. There's been a definite trend hotting up in the last five, including this announcement from OrSense about receiving European approval for its own such device back in June.
They'd better hurry, though. There's already been one human temporarily cured of Type I Diabetes altogether using injectable xenotransplants, and mice (temporarily?) cured using injections of capsaicin and the 'substance P' neuropeptide into the pancreas.
(The notes about how the nervous system affected the production of insulin in that last article also ties in nicely with the observation that stress is a significant factor in adult-onset diabetes.)
For many years, it's been one of those things which has been just around the corner. Some companies have been working on it since the early nineties and before. There's been a definite trend hotting up in the last five, including this announcement from OrSense about receiving European approval for its own such device back in June.
They'd better hurry, though. There's already been one human temporarily cured of Type I Diabetes altogether using injectable xenotransplants, and mice (temporarily?) cured using injections of capsaicin and the 'substance P' neuropeptide into the pancreas.
(The notes about how the nervous system affected the production of insulin in that last article also ties in nicely with the observation that stress is a significant factor in adult-onset diabetes.)