Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Scientists have developed a “needle pill” that could allow diabetics to take insulin without the need for daily injections.
The pea-sized capsule contains a small needle made of solid, compressed insulin, which is injected into the stomach wall after the capsule has been swallowed.
When tested in pigs, the device worked consistently and was able to deliver equivalent doses of insulin to those required by someone with diabetes.
Giovanni Traverso, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School-affiliated Brigham and Women’s hospital and a co-author of the study, said: “Our motivation is to make it easier for patients to take medication, particularly medications that require an injection. The classic one is insulin, but there are many others.”
https://www.theguardian.com/science...rd-tortoise-could-replace-diabetic-injections
"In tests in pigs, the researchers said they were able to deliver five milligrams of insulin – comparable to the amount that a patient with type 2 diabetes would need to inject." - Erm, which Type 2s? I've known Type 2s here whose insulin requirements have been between 20 and 200 units! 😱 Would they have to swallow loads of pills, and if you do, would you need to take into account the amount of sugar incorporated into the pills? 😉
I still think that it is one of the biggest misconceptions about injections - that the chief barrier to them is pain and fear. I know this fear can be true of many people, but I bet that there are far fewer who remain fearful after their first few, and even fewer who find them significantly painful. Of course, I can only truly have personal experience of that, but it's honestly something I very rarely read as being a big problem. Seems clever, but a complicated solution to a problem that may not really exist in sufficient numbers of people to make it viable.
The pea-sized capsule contains a small needle made of solid, compressed insulin, which is injected into the stomach wall after the capsule has been swallowed.
When tested in pigs, the device worked consistently and was able to deliver equivalent doses of insulin to those required by someone with diabetes.
Giovanni Traverso, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School-affiliated Brigham and Women’s hospital and a co-author of the study, said: “Our motivation is to make it easier for patients to take medication, particularly medications that require an injection. The classic one is insulin, but there are many others.”
https://www.theguardian.com/science...rd-tortoise-could-replace-diabetic-injections
"In tests in pigs, the researchers said they were able to deliver five milligrams of insulin – comparable to the amount that a patient with type 2 diabetes would need to inject." - Erm, which Type 2s? I've known Type 2s here whose insulin requirements have been between 20 and 200 units! 😱 Would they have to swallow loads of pills, and if you do, would you need to take into account the amount of sugar incorporated into the pills? 😉
I still think that it is one of the biggest misconceptions about injections - that the chief barrier to them is pain and fear. I know this fear can be true of many people, but I bet that there are far fewer who remain fearful after their first few, and even fewer who find them significantly painful. Of course, I can only truly have personal experience of that, but it's honestly something I very rarely read as being a big problem. Seems clever, but a complicated solution to a problem that may not really exist in sufficient numbers of people to make it viable.
