Insulin, a hormone created by your pancreas, plays a huge role in diabetes. While insulin has several functions in the body, arguably its most important is to "unlock" cells so glucose can enter. Read on to learn more.
October 9, 2015
Insulin, a hormone created by your pancreas, plays a huge role in diabetes. While insulin has several functions in the body, arguably its most important is to "unlock" cells so glucose can enter. Read on to learn more.
The reason your cells can't absorb glucose usually has to do with one of two problems.
New types of insulin provide more options for keeping blood sugar stable throughout the day and after meals. These include the insulins glargine and detemir, which stay evenly active for 24 hours. And there's also rapid-acting lispro, glulisine and insulin aspart, which start to work within five minutes of taking them.
Considering the setbacks with islet cell transplants, some researchers believe a different approach is closer to becoming a reality — a mechanical system that mimics the insulin-controlling functions of the pancreas.
Such a system requires two basic parts: an internal monitor to keep track of blood-sugar levels and a dispensing device to automatically respond to glucose changes by releasing just the right amount of insulin to keep blood sugar stable. The basic elements of such a system are already in use with continuous glucose-monitoring devices.
Now researchers are close to figuring out how to get the insulin pump and the continuous glucose-monitoring device to communicate so the pump will automatically send out more insulin when blood glucose levels are high. Some researchers believe a combined implantable meter and pump system could be available within a few years.
Healthy eating and an active lifestyle is always important no matter the new advances. Doctors are working hard to prove this, too. One study, as an example, has as its primary objective to examine, in overweight volunteers with type 2 diabetes, the long-term effects of an intensive lifestyle-intervention program designed to achieve and maintain weight loss by decreased caloric intake and increased physical activity.
This program will be compared to a control condition involving a program of diabetes support and education.The researchers suspect that this intervention will prove that you can reduce the risk of fatal and non-fatal heart attacks, angina that sends you to the hospital and non-fatal stroke if you follow the plan. The study is planned for a follow-up period of up to 13.5 years.They will also test for reductions of other cardiovascular disease risk factors, diabetes control and complications, general health, quality of life and psychological outcomes.
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