Dexcom is already has one continuous glucose monitor on the market, so what is the big deal? Well, recently the FDA approved SEVEN which is Dexcom’s seven day continuous glucose monitor. The sensors last more than twice as long which means that it costs less than half as much.

Continuous glucose monitoring is really the holy grail of Type 1 Diabetes. It is actually more important than having an insulin pump, because knowing when your blood sugar is high or low requires a finger stick and a blood to be placed on a small test strip. That is hard to do when you are asleep. And if your blood sugar goes low when you are asleep it is very dangerous. I know from experience, and many times I start to get low blood sugar in my dreams and that is when I know that I need to get up and eat something. These continuous glucose monitors have a simple alarm that would wake you up when your sugar gets below a certain preset level.

Insurance companies still will not pay for a continuous glucose monitor. While I don’t like US health insurance companies in general, I sometimes have a hard time blaming them for something like this because Dexcom, Minimed and the other big pharma players that make a CGMS charge quite a lot for it. The Dexcom starter kit is $800 which isn’t too bad, but their sensors are a whopping $35/per! Considering that they only last 3 days, that is over $10 bucks a day in additional expenses that are not covered by any insurance company as they are waiting for studies to show how useful they are for diabetic complications. They should really just start paying for these things ASAP because they will prevent short term diabetic complications with low-blood sugar which probably costs them a boatload in hospitalization expenses.

And here is yet another drug that is getting some heat from the blogosphere and traditional media outlets for improper marketing and overlooking serious side effects that the drug is actually supposed to prevent. The final resolution is that GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia will receive a “black box” warning label on the bottle stating that it might increase the risk of congestive hear failure, something that diabetics are seriously at risk for in the first place.

If only there was more sensationalism for things like Pomegranates which have recently shown to have anti-atherosclerosis properties. A vast majority of the drugs I read about on the market today attempt to lower cholesterol, reduce atherosclerosis and generally slow the progression of something like that. But to actually reduce it is unheard of, and there was a great study done in Israel showing that is exactly what Pomegranate Supplementation can do.

While some of these drugs might have their place for people in serious conditions, a majority of diabetics should get on this supplement to prevent and reverse what damage has been done so far. It just really gets me that doctors usually don’t talk about a very powerful aspect of good diabetic care which should be preventing damage done to the body by having elevated blood glucose.

In an amazing study done by Dr. Michael Demetriou at the University of California Irvine, a glucosamine like dietary supplement has suppressed the damaging autoimmune response that causes Type 1 Diabetes in a mouse model. The study delves deeper into how sugars such as the N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) used in the study, interact with the surface of T-Cells. It is believed that changes to these sugars on the surface of T-Cells give rise to autoimmune disease, such as Type-1 Diabetes and Multiple Sclerosis. Here is the complete story- Glucosamine-Like Supplement Inhibits Multiple Sclerosis, Type 1 Diabetes.

Studies such as this one simply amaze me because they are so ground breaking and yet there is no press for such studies. I am going to keep a very close eye on any more developments in this area of research because it is so important to find a way to heal the misguided T-Cells that cause Type 1 Diabetes that attack the insulin producing cells of the pancreas. One of the most promising areas of research for a cure, in my opinion, is in first treating the core of the disease- misguided T-Cells and then allowing the islet cells to heal themselves. One of my favorite Diabetes researchers, and one who is closest to having a cure is Denise Faustman at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Her research into Islet Regeneration demonstrates that once you can retrain T-Cells to stop the autoimmune response that causes Type 1 Diabetes in the first place, then you can allow the islet cells to naturally regenerate. The mechanism for regeneration is still under study, but it is thought to be related to stem cells coming from the spleen. Now Denise Faustman is busy trying to get her clinical trials underway, which should start in the fall of 2008 if us Diabetics are lucky.

The Scientific American has an interesting article about exercise and glucose tolerance.

The study demonstrated a 25-30% improvement in glucose tolerance after just 3 months of strength training. Type 1 diabetics that regularly work out such as myself probably inherently know this because you can see such a noticeable difference in sugars after a good workout. Personally, I know that my sugars go down for about 2 days after a really good workout. The study also briefly mentions the importance of high quality protein which is all related to a good diabetic diet.

It is good to see studies such as this one that underline how diabetes really should be treated which is primarily through diet and exercise, and then secondarily with medication.

Debiotech has recently announced that they have found a manufacturing partner for their disposable, tiny insulin pump. The pump itself is great- about one quarter the size of the standard Minimed pump that is on the market now. This new one uses MEM’s technology and can deliver very precise amounts of insulin.

I am pretty excited about this as it could fit right onto the skin and would be concealable under the clothing. Carrying around the insulin pump makes me feel more like a cyborg than anything else and gets in the way when I try to do certain things. Insulin pumps are pretty necessary however as continuous glucose infusion just offers much better control than injections.

The Debiotech website has more information about the Nanopump as I believe it is called.

It looks like there was a study in Brazil where they took some newly diagnosed Type 1 Diabetics and then reintroduced stem cells from their bone marrow. It was successful in that these kids were allowed to live insulin free for up to 36 months which was the length of the trial.

Medical News Today has the complete story.