Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
From its isolation and first use in 1922, insulin has been called one of the few miracle drugs, saving diabetics from the early death of an untreatable disease. Any diabetic nowadays, however, will tell you? insulin treatment for glucose control is a tricky business. As Dr. Bruce Buckingham said at the recent TEDxDelMar conference, insulin has ?a very narrow therapeutic margin.? In other words, it?s easy to give too little? resulting in hyperglycemia? or too much? resulting in hypoglycemia. Titrating insulin dosage throughout the day is a difficult and time consuming process for diabetics, and the current system results in many dangerous excursions outside the ranges of normal blood glucose levels.
What can we do about this? Two prominent answers are: replace the body?s beta cells, as they are better glucose regulators than any human will ever be; or, develop an artificial pancreas that can measure glucose levels and algorithmically dose accordingly.
http://asweetlife.org/a-sweet-life-...ive-insulin-the-crowdsourcing-approach/21139/
What can we do about this? Two prominent answers are: replace the body?s beta cells, as they are better glucose regulators than any human will ever be; or, develop an artificial pancreas that can measure glucose levels and algorithmically dose accordingly.
http://asweetlife.org/a-sweet-life-...ive-insulin-the-crowdsourcing-approach/21139/