Diabetics’ Dilemma – To Inject or Not: Alternative Methods to Blood Sugar Testing

Newly diagnosed diabetics often cry upon learning of their chronic ailment. Apart from having to make lifestyle changes to manage their ailments, many diabetics also need to conquer their fear of needles since insulin injections and blood sugar testing are often part of the regimen to manage to diabetes.

One journalist, a diabetic since 1998 who was told by his endocrinologist that he would need insulin injections because of consistent hyperglycemia or high blood sugar levels, instead opted not to see his diabetes doctor for the next seven years since he had yet to conquer his fear of self-administering the insulin.

Although he learned over the years to test his blood sugar weekly, the journalist still has yet to conquer his fear of needles or trypanophobia.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual included that phobia in its 1994 4^th edition as a disorder, particularly fear of medical needles.

However, it is a disorder that diabetics have to overcome, particularly for Type 1 diabetics who need insulin shots daily to regulate their blood sugar level since their pancreas no longer produce insulin.

The usual dose is two insulin injections daily, although for some diabetics it could rise to four shots per day.

Besides insulin injections, another reality that diabetics have to face is regular monitoring of blood sugar levels done through pricking of the fingers to get droplets of blood which are tested for glucose content.

The good news for trypanophobics is that researchers from the University of Michigan have developed a sensor that detects in animal tears diluted levels of sugar. The study, published in the Journal of Analytical Chemistry, was based on tests on 12 rabbits.

The device works by touching the white of the eye. After five seconds of contact with the eye, it produces a reading of glucose levels.

Besides the University of Michigan research team, a biomedical engineer at Arizona State University, in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic, has also developed a tear monitoring glucose technology.

The readings from the devices matched blood sugar levels from rabbits drawn the traditional way.

Because of the frequency that diabetics have to measure their glucose level, with some needing to undergo 10 finger prick tests, researchers are trying to develop alternative methods to test blood sugar level minus the pain associated with the needle-pricking technique.

The tests include also alternative ways of pumping insulin into the body of diabetics without a needle through inhalation, although most of these technologies are on the experimental stage and may take a few more years before trypanophobics would benefit from bloodless ways of taking insulin or measuring their glucose levels.

With the new technologies, the tears that diabetics shed could as well be used to monitor their progress in managing their chronic ailment, which remains incurable.