Wearable, Pain-Free Glucose Test Uses Sweat, Not Blood

[kerouac2]

Source: The Diabetic News

Researchers have designed a wearable, flexible biosensor that can reliably detect and quantify glucose from very small amounts of human sweat for people with diabetes.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas are sweating the small stuff in their efforts to develop a wearable device that can monitor an individual’s glucose level via perspiration on the skin.

...

The technology also provides a real-time response in the form of a digital readout.



Read more: http://thediabeticnews.com/glucose-test-uses-sweat-not-blood/

---

Last week we heard about contact lenses that could check sugar levels from the tears and now this. Would be great to have something that didn't require making yourself to bleed...

[Stonepounder]

1. Now, if we could get something like this for dogs as well!

We have two diabetic dogs. They take their insulin shots like champs, but would love to be able to more closely monitor their sugar levels from home.

[Purveyor]

5. You took those words right off my keyboard. One year into caring for

my diabetic Siberian Husky.

He too takes his shots like a champ. I know he sensed how stressed I was the first couple of weeks.

Now it is routine including our little 'special ritual' he so much enjoys...

[Stonepounder]

6. We have two. One 5 years in and one 1 year in (a rescue)

It is hysterical to see them at 'shot time'. They finish their dinner and race for the living room couch. Cooper, the bigger dog, sits on the couch with is butt toward my wife who has the hypo and waits for his treat. Bosley, the smaller one gets up on the back of the couch. Cooper gets his treat ... waits ... gets his shot and jumps down to eat his treat. As soon as Cooper jumps down, Bosley jumps down from the back of the couch and 'assumes the position'. Treat...wait...shot...jump down and eat treat. It is like it was choreographed.

We too had a couple of hard weeks when Bosley was just diagnosed learning how to give shots, but now it is just part of life (although we do sometimes have to explain why we can't make appointments around 11:00 am.

[msanthrope]

8. I just read a link to one of your posts....I am saddened that you would use

such misogynistic language to describe sexual assault victims.

[wncHillsupport]

2. Reply

Yes, but note they say it is in development and mention just a few of the factors that must be overcome before it becomes usable. They should have been working on it for 20 years but most diabetes innovation has only begun in the last 10 years with more and more people getting it.
Companies finally got the message that we really do need a closed system pump, while awaiting a cure, but it takes a multi-discipline approach and lots of money and lots of incentives to get it moving faster.

[Warpy]

3. Sandia Labs has had a program for non invasive blood glucose monitoring

for at least a couple of decades. People have been working on this one for a long time because stabbing themselves 4 times a day is a significant barrier to some people for complete self care of their diabetes.

Monitoring sweat seems to be one good answer. Put a piece of plastic anywhere on your body, you will sweat underneath it, so obtaining the sample is not a problem. I just wonder if intermittent monitoring might be a better idea at this point.

Real time monitoring attached to an insulin pump is one dream. Implanting the whole business is the real dream.

[wncHillsupport]

4. Warpy, the problem is that

these labs that have been working for 20 years should be much further ahead now. It should not take that long to learn how to deal with the chemicals in sweat. I question a lot of the 'diabetes research' that takes 30 to 50 years. That says to me that there is not good leadership in that particular lab. Or has not been in the past.
I won't go into all the details on why I think that. Just will say that I worked as a program director at NIH for several years.

[Ms. Toad]

7. Since the main movers and shakers are still pushing high carb diets

for people whose bodies freak out over carbohydrates, I'm not surprised.

(I went from from diabetic to normal - at least as far as BG readings - in 3 days flat, just by ignoring the standard ADA/medical advice that I eat 150 grams of carbs a day, evenly spaced, and have maintained normal blood glucose for more than a year. No more than 20 net grams of carbs in a 2 hour sitting and my body is a happy camper.)