One of the worst health issues inflicting millions of people in Australia is diabetes, otherwise known as the silent killer.
It is not just about being sugar-challenged or being kept from enjoying a lot of life’s goodies like rich food, sweet stuff, and even the occasional drink or two.
The most difficult things to deal with are the inevitable end of the line problems such as kidney failure and the need for dialysis, impaired vision, and a host of other consequential problems arising from diabetes gone amuck.
The idea is to go visit a doctor often, take appropriate medicines which is ultimately detrimental to vital organs such as the kidneys, and monitor blood sugar levels each day.
Sometimes, it becomes so tedious that many diabetics go into a state of denial and forsake the daily testing, which, of course, leads to the ultimate and unfortunate consequences mentioned above.
That is why all sick people look for the latest gadgets or instruments on the market that can do the job without the requisite needles or usual invasive procedures.
We have yet to see the jet-powered instrument for delivering insulin to the body in the local market. This one gadget promises deliverance from the daily and sometimes painful tedium of injecting insulin into the appropriate skin surfaces — which is welcome for people who hate needles!
Now comes a gadget that promises to free diabetics from having to test their blood sugar levels daily through the requisite needles that jab our finger tips or other suggested skin surfaces to test for fasting blood sugar.
It is not nice to be pricked many times during the day just to draw blood. Thus, this very nice and promising gadget called the photonic glucose sensor is what diabetics are looking forward to using soon.
The Photonic Glucose Sensor was developed by one Alain Poirier. It is an instrument that is strapped unto one’s upper arm and uses a near infrared technology to read one’s glucose levels for a period of 30 hours on a single charge.
There was a series of articles detailing the science behind the device but these typically sailed over this non-geek’s head. Suffice to say that this device is working quite well even while undergoing clinical testing.
When this device hits the market, it is hoped that the developer will decide to follow the model of letting different groups use the technology and develop their own versions. Lots of developers and instruments in the market mean lower prices for end users, which is the whole idea.
Of course, this will sound a death knell for those instruments that require readings of blood drawn through needles and grafted unto those expensive test strips!
But they have had enough time to milk the market and make money out of peoples’ suffering. It is about time for technology to bite back and give some relief to the end-users like diabetics. (diabetesnet.com)