Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not make or cannot
properly use insulin. Approximately 21 million people in the United
States have diabetes. Having the disease can cause nerve damage, heart
disease, blindness, stroke, loss of limbs, and kidney failure.
Because
there are researchers trying to find new ways to help those that suffer
from diabetes, there are usually frequent medical news updates about
diabetes and its treatments. Recently, there were new “smart pumps”
introduced to the market. These pumps constantly monitor glucose levels
and if the glucose level begins to fall to low, you can be injected
with a dose of insulin. This great news because doctors believe that
keeping your glucose levels at a norm will help decrease the side
effects diabetes causes. The smart pump helps patients almost
perfectly tune their insulin needs. This type of system has been used
for adults for about a year, but was just recently approved for use in
children that suffer from diabetes.
Other diabetics have
trouble with weight gain. To help keep their weight down, many have
begun talking a prescription drug called Byetta. Byetta, which you may
have heard about in recent medical news, is injected once a month and
may increase the life span of beta cells. But, it also helps some
people lose weight. While experts at the Mayo Clinic are not exactly
sure why this injection drug cases some patients to lose weight, they
think it ay be because it delays movement of food from the stomach to
the small intestine. Researchers believe that this may make patients
feel faster quicker, so they end up eating less food.
Another
break through in medical news for those with diabetes is inhaled
insulin. For years, people who needed to take insulin had to inject
it, but now, there are clinical trials for inhaled insulin called
Exubera. This type of insulin seems to make patients feel better
quicker. It also requires no refrigeration like insulin that needs to
be injected.
If you or someone you know has diabetes, keep up with the medical news to find out what new treatments are out there.