Has anyone read about this or followed up with it? I would love to hear comments/feedback.
http://www.harvardscience.harvard.edu/medicine-health/articles/initial-human-trial-type-1-diabetes-treatment-begun
Also, is anyone aware of a watch that I can wear that will monitor my blood sugar levels constantly or very frequently? Something waterproof with an alarm for lows and highs?
Welcome to the board Al!
I read the article. Interesting. It's been discussed here some.
Funny you should mention the watch because I was thinking about that just today. About 5 years ago I read about such a watch in development. However it seems that idea has been scrapped and replaced with Continuous Glucose Moniotoring (CGM). They take the form of a sensor that you apply to/under your skin and it transmits results to a pump or PDA type device. Minimed makes ones as does One Touch and FreeStyle.
At our last checkup (last month), our endo had just returned from a T1 conference. He mentioned progress in this arena, and the success on animal studies, but said there were still some "significant toxic effects" associated with the treatment. He said we were probably looking at a 5-10 year timeline for working out the bugs and starting clinical trials.
Mo
i dont know about a watch, and i dont know if its water proof...but there is something that you can wear that will monitor your blood glucose levels and will alarm you for lows and highs. Its a censor.. i forget the company names and everything but it comes with a special insulin pump. you wear it with the pump and it takes your blood glucose every 5 minutes and sends it to your pump and if you are low or high it will alarm you. i do think the sensor is water-tight, actually. [:
About the watch - they used to have those, but they didn't work very well. Now they have sensors that you insert just under your skin. Mine is from medtronic, and it can be used with either the medtronic pump or a special meter-type thing for people who don't wear the pump. There are also two other brands that make sensors. They're called CGMs, continuous glucose monitors. There's a whole community on here about them that you could check out.
[quote user="Monique H"]
At our last checkup (last month), our endo had just returned from a T1 conference. He mentioned progress in this arena, and the success on animal studies, but said there were still some "significant toxic effects" associated with the treatment. He said we were probably looking at a 5-10 year timeline for working out the bugs and starting clinical trials.
Mo
[/quote]
See Doug D, you were right, 5 - 10 years!
The Glucowatch type devices had mixed results from what I know. I think they used skin conductance. My endo had an educator use one for a while, and she developed burns at the site where she attached the watch (I think you had to use a contact gel and the whole nine yards). The under the skin CGMs actually give readings you can use...but for some reason the Glucowatch simply recorded glucose readings and stored them. 3 days later you would give it back to your doctor so they could download the data and analyze it. A good percentage of the time a single sensor was "good" it had to calibrate to your skin, so you also spent a good deal of time without taking readings. The final straw for me was that insurance wasn't too quick to cover the cost of using the watch (at least a few years ago).
All - thanks for the welcome and all of the information.
RE the Watch: I have thought about the CGM units but I am very active, running, lifting, ice hockey and wrestling with my two sons. I would not want this device to get in the way of that which is why I thought that the watch would be better...as it turns out, it does not exist so I guess it is continue as I have been doing or find the least invasive CGM possible.
RE the Cure: I called the number at the bottom of the article to request information about the clinical trials. I will let you know if I hear back from them.