End of daily painful injections for diabetics nigh
A doctor checking a patient's sugar level.
What you need to know:
- Diabetes has different sub-types and every individual has to be treated with a different set of medicines and mixed therapies.
- Type 1 diabetes has five new subgroups while the type 2 has four. Medicines are different for every sub-group now.
For type 1 or type 2 diabetes patients who dislike or have a phobia for needles, here is some good news. Doctors say injecting that daily dose of insulin before your meals will soon be a thing of the past.
While speaking about advancements in diabetes at the Indian Science Congress, Dr Sunil Gupta, a diabetes expert and a fellow at the American College of Endocrinology and FRCP (London, Glasgow & Edinburgh), said the future of insulin will be glucose sensitive and ‘smart’ as it will understand the patient’s needs; thereby releasing the exact amount of insulin the patient needs.
Dr Gupta said taking the insulin once a week will be enough while the next level of insulin will be in the form of pills, thereby doing away with painful jabs that patients are currently being subjected to twice or thrice a day.
“Diabetes has different sub-types and every individual has to be treated with a different set of medicines and mixed therapies. Type 1 diabetes has five new subgroups while the type 2 has four. Medicines are different for every sub-group now,” Dr Gupta said while pointing out the latest development.
“Earlier, lifestyle modification was the only remedy for the people having pre-diabetic conditions but now we have approved drug Metformin for obese/overweight pre-diabetic persons.”
“Machine learning, artificial intelligence and smart watches are helping doctors in identifying diseases at earlier stages. We have a huge number of people suffering from pre-diabetic and pre-hypertensive conditions. Tests should start from age of 30 years for men and 40 years for women,” Dr Shantanu Sengupta, the director at Sengupta Hospital and Research Institute in Nagpur, India said in a plenary session at the 108th Indian Science Congress.
He added that it has become easier due to advanced monitoring tools like watches and mobile applications to keep vital records of heart pumping and sugar levels though one must apply his/ her mind while using this artificial intelligence.
“These machines are to help us out and not to add into our stress. So, use them but always apply your mind.”
In 2019, Kenya was ranked by the International Diabetes Federation as the 31st African country in terms of diabetes with a prevalence of about 460 diabetic cases per 10,000 population.
