DIABETES RESEARCH RIGHT NOW! #16: The ARTIFICIAL PANCREAS – Today for Type 1; Tomorrow for Type 2!

From the first moment I discovered I had been diagnosed with DIABETES, I joined a HUGE “club” that has been rapidly expanding since it stopped being a death sentence in the early 20th Century. Currently, there are about HALF A BILLION PEOPLE who have Type 2 Diabetes. For the past 3500 years – dating back to Ancient Egypt – people have suffered from diabetes. Well, I’m one of them now… Not one to shut up for any known reason, I added a section to this blog…

Every month, I’ll be highlighting Diabetes research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them with you. Today: STARTING with a 2014 article, “Diabetes – Will it Ever be cured?”; I check up on the various therapies mentioned…Today: MORE advances on the artificial pancreas!  https://www.healthline.com/health-news/type-2-diabetes-an-artificial-pancreas-may-help-improve-blood-sugar-levels

While the system was originally developed to manage blood glucose levels in people with type 1 diabetes, new research suggests that fully closed-loop insulin therapy may help people with type 2 diabetes improve blood glucose levels without raising their risk of severe hypoglycemia, or dangerously low blood sugar.”

"Roughly 415 million people around the world have type 2 diabetes — and keeping their blood glucose levels within a specific range is critically important to reducing their risk of long-term diabetes complications.”

“Dr. Thomas Grace [Medical Director of the Blanchard Valley Diabetes Center in Findlay, Ohio] expects more fully closed-loop systems to become available in the future, including in the United States.”

Well, they’re here now. One such system was developed where I live: Minnesota.

“The Medtronic MiniMed 780G System is an automated insulin delivery system that helps people ages 7 and older manage their diabetes by detecting trends and tracking patterns in glucose levels through continuous monitoring, then using an insulin pump to automatically deliver insulin, and adjust the amount of insulin delivered, as needed.”

WOW! But…uh…what does “a hybrid closed loop system” MEAN????

“An insulin pump is a small, computerized device worn outside of the body that delivers insulin under the skin. A hybrid closed loop insulin pump attempts to mimic the body's natural communication loop by linking with a secondary device called a continuous glucose monitor, or CGM, sensor and automatically adjusting some of the insulin delivered based on continually monitored blood sugar levels.”

My wife already uses a “continually monitored” glucose device. The system you probably seen most often, because it’s regularly advertised on TV, is the “FreeStyle Libre” (manufactured by Abbott (a pharmaceutical company)).

A needle attached to a small, plastic platform has a needle on one side. When applied, the needle is in the bloodstream. Using a synchronized cellphone app, you hold your phone over the platform, and it sends the sensor-derived blood glucose level to the app. You can do it whenever you want, and you eventually get a graph like this: 

https://www.usmeddirect.com/cdn/shop/products/FreeStyleLibre2_002_002_grande.png?v=1597075020

Linked to a blood monitor sensor, that is linked in with an insulin delivery system – hence it’s a closed loop. The person with the “artificial pancreas” doesn’t have to take their blood sugars, then inject insulin themselves. It’s done automatically.

Amazing. Even more amazing that “the first experimental artificial pancreas was developed in 1964.” From that first step to a viable artificial pancreas that was invented for people with Type 1 diabetes…and now applicable to people with Type 2 – all in sixty years!

YOU may be the next recipient of an ARTIFICIAL PANCREAS!

Links: https://www.healthline.com/health-news/type-2-diabetes-an-artificial-pancreas-may-help-improve-blood-sugar-levels , https://myacare.com/blog/artificial-pancreas-technology-for-diabetes-management-types-and-benefits, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/artificial-pancreas-device-systems-market-230200881.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADBAy9cdsnafVvSQuS0pjYfdIf-U4seLpKhN_HaLqwEmE_0I19d11FV250q3MVWSWqKoB-9VWDfxSQtxXYhRmVHjKDjbB_k8BKxOnSV24tVKvwmXQWy2Tkke_bDQTjrbTWj4mlX65TvZrYTt4LH4BhqfFREeFtEX0fNpMNDV2Bfo , https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/recently-approved-devices/minimed-780g-system-p160017s091 , https://www.niddk.nih.gov/news/archive/2017/story-discovery-artificial-pancreas-managing-type1-diabetes
Image: https://asploro.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Diabetes-Research_Open-Access.jpg