Attempts by some social scientists to find a lasting solution to diabetes, capable of reducing the surge to the minimum, using smart technologies, cannot but be encouraged, especially now the inventors are looking for investors, writes REMMY NWEKE.
Preamble:
HOPES may be in the air for the patients of diabetes numbering in excess of 592 million by the year 2035, as two noble social scientists, Messrs Brian Otis and Babak Parviz who are co-founders of Smart Contact Lens, fine-tune their project to save lives using technology innovations.
The co-founders of this smart contact lens project, revealed to ITRealms that diabetes has become a huge and growing problem in the world today, which affects one in every 19 people on the planet. They pointed out that though most people may not be familiar with the daily struggle that many people with diabetes face as they try to keep their blood sugar levels under control.
Uncontrolled blood sugar:
According to them, uncontrolled blood sugar puts people at risk for a range of dangerous complications, some short-term and others longer term, including damage to the eyes, kidneys and heart. Stressing that a friend of theirs had revealed she worries about her mom, who once passed out from low blood sugar and drove her car off the road.”
Also, many people, they said, have managed their diabetes which is like having a part-time job, stressing that Glucose levels change frequently with normal activity like exercising or eating or even sweating. Just as “Sudden spikes or precipitous drops are dangerous and not uncommon, requiring round-the-clock monitoring.”
What you should know about diabetes:
According to experts at United States-based National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), which is a National Institutes of Health (NIH); diabetes is a disorder of metabolism, which is the way the body uses digested food for growth and energy.
ITRealms reports that most of the food people eat is broken down into glucose, the form of sugar in the blood. Glucose is the main source of fuel for the body. After digestion, glucose passes into the bloodstream, where it is used by cells for growth and energy. And for glucose to get into cells, insulin must be present. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas, a large gland behind the stomach.
So, when people eat, the pancreas automatically produces the right amount of insulin to move glucose from blood into the cells. Thus, in people with diabetes, the pancreas either produces little or no insulin, or the cells do not respond appropriately to the insulin that is produced.
Glucose, therefore, builds up in the blood, overflows into the urine, and passes out of the body in the urine. As a result, the body loses its main source of fuel even though the blood contains large amounts of glucose.
Types of diabetes:
ITRealms also reports that there are three main types of diabetes, namely the type 1 diabetes; type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes.
Type 1 Diabetes
Experts say that Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, which results when the body’s system for fighting infection, that is, via the immune system turns against a part of the body.
In diabetes, the immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. The pancreas then produces little or no insulin. A person who has type 1 diabetes must take insulin daily to live.
At present, scientists do not know exactly what causes the body’s immune system to attack the beta cells, but they believe that autoimmune, genetic, and environmental factors, possibly viruses, are involved. Type 1 diabetes accounts for about 5 to 10 per cent of diagnosed diabetes in the United States. It develops most often in children and young adults but can appear at any age.
Symptoms of type 1 diabetes:
The symptoms of type 1 diabetes vary, but usually develop over a short period, although beta cell destruction could begin years earlier. Symptoms may include increased thirst and urination, constant hunger, weight loss, blurred vision, and extreme fatigue.
If not diagnosed and treated with insulin, a person with type 1 diabetes could lapse into a life-threatening diabetic coma, also known as diabetic ketoacidosis.
Type 2 Diabetes:
This has been described as the most common form of diabetes, with about 90 to 95 per cent of people with diabetes having type 2. This form of diabetes is most often associated with older age, obesity, family history of diabetes, previous history of gestational diabetes, physical inactivity, and certain ethnicities. About 80 per cent of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese.
ITRealms equally reports that type 2 diabetes is increasingly being diagnosed in children and adolescents, especially among African American, Mexican American, and Pacific Islander youth.
Experts said that when type 2 diabetes is diagnosed, the pancreas usually producs enough insulin, but for unknown reasons the body cannot use the insulin effectively, a condition called insulin resistance. After several years, insulin production decreases. The result is the same as for type 1 diabetes, which means glucose builds up in the blood and the body cannot make efficient use of its main source of fuel.
Symptoms of type 1 diabetes:
The symptoms of type 2 diabetes develop gradually and their onset is not as sudden as in type 1 diabetes. Symptoms may include fatigue, frequent urination, increased thirst and hunger, weight loss, blurred vision, and slow healing of wounds or sores. Some people have no symptoms.
Gestational Diabetes
Some women develop gestational diabetes late in pregnancy, which makes it easy for this form of diabetes to usually disappear after child birth, and women who have had gestational diabetes have a 40 to 60 per cent chance of developing type 2 diabetes, within 5 to 10 years.
However, maintaining a reasonable body weight and being physically active may help prevent development of type 2 diabetes. Just as about 3 to 8 per cent of pregnant women in the United States develop gestational diabetes.
As with type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes occurs more often in some ethnic groups and among women with a family history of diabetes. Gestational diabetes is caused by the hormones of pregnancy or a shortage of insulin. Women with gestational diabetes may not experience any symptoms.
Pricking of fingers, incurable diabetic symptom:
On the other hand, the founders of Smart Contact Lens, posited in a joint official Google African blog post made available to ITRealms that although some people wear glucose monitors with a glucose sensor embedded under their skin, pointing out that all people with diabetes must still prick their finger and test drops of blood throughout the day.
“It’s disruptive, and it’s painful. And, as a result, many people with diabetes check their blood glucose less often than they should,” the founders said, pointing out that over the years, many scientists have investigated various body fluids such as tears in the hopes of finding an easier way for people to track their glucose levels.
But like everyone could imagine, tears are hard to come-by, let alone collect and study at Google, hence, wondered if miniaturized electronics such as chips and sensors so small they look like bits of glitter and an antenna thinner than a human hair, “might be a way to crack the mystery of tear glucose and measure it with greater accuracy.”
What is a chip?
Lexicon experts, described a chip as a small piece of something removed in the course of chopping, cutting or breaking a hard material such as wood or stone, which in this case within the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector, is a small piece of semiconducting material usually silicon on which an integrated circuit is embedded.
A typical chip is less than a square inches and could contain millions of electronic components otherwise known as transistors.
Also, computers, for instance, consist of many chips placed on electronic boards called printed circuit boards, according to an online encyclopedia, Webopedia.com.
Types of chips:
There are different types of chips, for instance, a Computer Processing Unit (CPU) chips also called microprocessors, contain an entire processing unit, whereas memory chips contain blank memory.
Also, experts said, chips come in a variety of packages and the three most common ones are what is described as Dual In-line Packages (DIPs), Pin-Grid Arrays (PGAs) and Single In-line packages (SIPs).
The Dual In-line Packages, they said, are the traditional buglike chips that have anywhere from 8 to 40 legs, evenly divided in two rows. And PGAs are square chips with pins arranged in concentric squares, whereas the Single In-line packages are chips that have just one row of legs in a straight line like a comb.
Additionally to the aforementioned types of chips, there is also Single In-line Memory Modules (SIMMs), which consist of about nine chips packaged as a single unit.
Types of sensors:
A sensor is a device which detects or measures a physical property and records, indicates or otherwise responds to it, according to ITRealms findings.
The free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia.org informed ITRealms that a sensor is a converter use in measuring a physical quantity and converts it into a signal which could be read by an observer or by mostly electronic instrument today. Citing for example, a mercury-in-glass thermometer converts the measured temperature into expansion and contraction of a liquid which could be read on a calibrated glass tube.
A thermocouple converts temperature to an output voltage which could be read by a voltmeter and for accuracy purposes, most sensors are calibrated against known standards.
Smart Contact Lens for Testing!
Based on this backdrop, the team made up of Messrs Brian Otis and Babak Parviz, further revealed to ITRealms, they were now testing a smart contact lens that was built to measure glucose levels in tears using a tiny wireless chip and miniaturized glucose sensor that are embedded between two layers of soft contact lens material. Declaring “We’re testing prototypes that can generate a reading once per second.”
The founders equally told ITRealms that they were investigating the potential for this product to serve as an early warning for the wearers or patients; hence they are exploring how to integrate tiny Light-Emitting Diode (LED) lights that could light up to indicate that glucose levels have crossed above or below certain thresholds.
Conversely, a Light-Emitting Diode (LED) is a semiconductor light source, used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for general lighting.
The duo said that despite that it is still very early for this technology to get to conclusion, they expressed optimism that with the completion of the multiple clinical research studies which are helping to refine the prototype; “We hope this could someday lead to a new way for people with diabetes to manage their disease,” they asserted.
The duo also said they were in discussions with the United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but there’s still a lot more work to be done to turn this technology into a system that people could use. They emphasised the importance of partnership, saying “We’re not going to do this alone. We plan to look for partners who are experts in bringing products like this to market. These partners will use our technology for a smart contact lens and develop applications that would make the measurements available to the wearers - patients and their doctors.”
The team, also said, they had always made it clear that they want to seek out projects that seem a bit speculative or strange, and at a time when the International Diabetes Federation is declaring that the world is “losing the battle” against diabetes, “we thought this project was worth a shot.”
Diabetes surge hits every nation:
By November 14 last year, when the World Diabetes Day was held, ITRealms was reliably informed that one in 10 of the world’s population will have diabetes by 2035 according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) as contained in IDF Diabetes Atlas.
IDF also estimates that people living with diabetes will surge from 382 million to 592 million people by 2035, many in low and middle income countries and the majority under 60.
This surge concern formed the backdrop of the World Diabetes Congress 2013 in Melbourne, Australia last December.
As reported by IDF, in some Pacific Island nations there has been an alarming surge in diabetes prevalence, as one adult in three has the disease on the Pacific Island of Tokelau, providing a microcosm of how diabetes could play out in more populous nations within the coming decades.
Sub-Saharan Africa will see a doubling in the number of people with diabetes by 2035, the largest surge of any region in the world. [use as quote]
5.1m death in 2013:
Estimates from the IDF Diabetes Atlas in 2012, for instance, put the number of people with diabetes at 371 million and number of deaths for 2012 at 4.8 million. The new figures showed that the upward trend will continue. As such, by end of 2013, 5.1 million people will have died from diabetes related complications. With 175 million undiagnosed cases many people are progressing towards complications unawares.
China with 98 million, India with 65 million and the USA with 24 million has the highest numbers of people with diabetes. Regionally the Western Pacific, which includes countries such as Australia, China and Japan, has 138 million people with diabetes, the highest number of people with the disease in the world.
“Diabetes is a disease of development. The misconception that diabetes is ‘a disease of the wealthy’ is still held, to the detriment of desperately needed funding to combat the pandemic” said Sir Michael Hirst, President of IDF while speaking at the International Diabetes Leadership Forum in Istanbul, Turkey recently. “… We must continue to increase awareness of the importance of a healthy diet and physical activity. Crucially, environments must be created that lay the foundations for healthy living.”
Diabetes ¾ deaths among 60 years:
Other findings from the 6th edition of Diabetes Atlas include that the total sum of 548 billion USD were spent on diabetes in 2013; North America spends the most healthcare dollars on diabetes, while in South East Asia, almost half of all people with diabetes are undiagnosed, even as the Western Pacific has the largest number of people with diabetes in the world.
In Africa, Diabetes Atlas reports made available to ITRealms, indicates that three quarters of diabetes deaths are in people under 60 years old; In the Middle East and North Africa, one in 10 people have diabetes, while in South and Central America, there will be a 60 per cent increase in the number of people with diabetes within a generation.
Conclusion:
The aforementioned figures underscored the urgency that should apply on focused implementation of projects around diabetes, which may not be far from IDF’s commitment to see diabetes and other Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) included in an overarching health target in the post-2015 development framework.
This, experts say will ensure a whole-of-society approach to prevention, treatment, care and support for diabetes and NCDs in general.
Like Sir Michael Hirst of IDF posited, it is hoped that campaigns such as World Diabetes Day will continue to raise the voice of people with diabetes and encourage all stakeholders to move from advocacy to action on a global scale.
Although there is an ongoing debate of the myth or reality of claims on most affected members of the society by diabetes as Gates Foundation recent claims showed that 80 per cent of people with diabetes live in developing countries and yet, the Gates Foundation says diabetes is disease for the affluence. The IDF and affiliates feel differently, hence the controversy. Thus, IDF insists that bulk of people in least developed nation, mainly poor got diabetes which are largely undiagnosed, thereby kill silently.
The very first and most treatment for diabetes as prescribed by doctors, is minding what one eats; is it adding value to elongate your life or diminish it? Above all, knowing one’s status as far as diabetes is concern should be seen as matter of urgency, for families, especially in Nigeria which claims a most populous nation on the continent of Africa.
By the way, when was the last time you had an exercise, it could be indoor or outdoor, most importantly is having an exercise, which experts say could help in preventing diabetes, in addition to having a good nutritional habit.
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