I have been reading alot about technological advances, and I am wondering what everyone is thinking about this artificial pancreas that checks your sugar minute by minute and administers insulin on its own. This is supposed to be available within a few years, 5-10?
Honestly sounds great but it kind of scares me because no one knows your body (not even a machine) better than you...
With the Minimed pumps you can get an implanted sensor which reads your glucose levels and sends it to your pump, then giving insulin to correct any high levels. While all the new technologies being developed are great news, we're still a while off having a completely self sufficient artificial pancreas. The sensor with Minimed pumps can be more trouble then it's worth, as you still have to test your blood often and having extra cannulas inserted is something I think we all want to avoid. Having said that, It's definantly worth trying out these new treatment methods, thats the only sure fire way of knowing whats best for you.
Hey Trace,
You can find out about the Artificial Pancreas project here: http://www.jdrf.org/index.cfm?page_id=104576
[quote user="Gina"]
You can find out about the Artificial Pancreas project here: http://www.jdrf.org/index.cfm?page_id=104576
[/quote]I was reading that before.. it's amazing how far technology has come, and even more amazing how far there is still left to go!
Seems like I have a whole bucket of reactions to this.
My first reaction was sort of stomach-clenching. An artifical pancreas? Scary!! But then again, isn't the future always a little nerve wracking? I'm sure a cure will be a little intimidating to me one day, too. I remember when I was worried about a pump, but look at me now, I'm a pro pumper.
My second reaction, and probably my strongest, is a bit of the same wow factor and admiration that all you seem to have also. I'm still amazed at everything we can do with medicine etc today.
Hopefully, it won't come to an artifical pancreas. Maybe we'll get a cure before 5-10 years.... ;) I can hope ;)
I really hope so too, thanks for your input
An artificial pancreas might actually be better (or developed sooner) than curing diabetes or perfecting transplant techniques. As far as I know your body cannot reject plastic or metal. Also, the great thing about machines is that they are built for a specific purpose, enabling them to do tasks better than their organic counterparts. Injecting stem cells directly into an area for treatment runs the risk of cancer, no risk of an artificial pancreas growing any larger. Just a different set of pros and cons.
That makes a lot of sense. Your body won't reject what isn't "real." The only question I have is how would it make insulin? Would you have to refill it every so often like you would a pump?
I have heard that you would go in every who knows how long and get it injected into a membrane in the "pump" part through your skin. Once they make it implantable that is, I think they might be doing it outside at first so something would still be hooked onto your belt? Not sure...