The world of medicine has advanced by leaps and bounds in the present era. These advancements should have meant that the health standards all over the world should improve; however, the opposite has happened.
Look at any family today. You would find at least one member who has a chronic ailment. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and anxiety are the most common of them. Even a disease as fatal as cancer is common nowadays. I am sure you would know someone who is battling this disease or is in remission.
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The Upsetting Reality of Diseases
It is truly a sad state of affairs. Medical professionals are also helpless. They can only try to cure diseases; the prevention is not something that is in their hands. There are so many illnesses that are prevalent today but do not have a reason for their existence.
When a person catches a cold, there is a logical reason. He might have eaten ice cream in the cold, or he might have been caught in the rain. So, the person can avoid all of those things, but what if the person did everything right, what does he do then?
A non-smoker 17-year-old vegan athlete developed a malign tumor in his lung. At an age where he should be thinking about instant loans for students who are unemployed and making his career, he is going for chemotherapy once a week. How is this fair?
Another disease like this is diabetes. It is an ailment that increases the blood sugar level in the sufferer’s body. Insulin, a hormone present in the pancreas, stops doing its work, for what reason is unknown. Because of diabetes, people cannot live a healthy life. 5-year-old children and 60-year-old adults all have it with no way of prevention or cure, how is this fair?
Diabetes- A Lifelong Companion
Did you know that there are over 400 million people on the planet suffering? Yes, this disease is widespread. And the even more upsetting part is that this number could grow up to 600 million in the next two decades.
If you try to dissect diabetes, you will find that there are main categories.
- Type 1 Diabetes is the first. This disease makes your body incompetent to produce insulin. So, the excess glucose in your body never gets to reach the organs that need it.
It is the more severe kind and affects a person immunity system beyond measures, if not monitored. The only way to do so is to take artificial insulin every day or say goodbye to your life on Earth.
- Type 2 Diabetes is the commoner version of the disease found amongst the sufferers. This one may reduce the competency of the pancreas to produce insulin, or the insulin may not be used appropriately.
Type 2 patients find it easier to monitor the disease and can live even without insulin.
Combating Diabetes with Technology
A person can live a full and healthy life even with a disease like diabetes, but only if they are cautious about their lifestyle.
Type 2 Diabetes patients can keep the disease in check with
- regular exercise like swimming and running,
- eating the right kind of foods and avoiding artificial sugar,
- and quitting smoke.
All these habits would be beneficial even if a person does not have diabetes.
These would also help a Type 1 Diabetic; however, he would need some extra help as well. Type 2 can be fatal, so, the patient has to extra careful in monitoring the disease.
Technology can become an assistant in achieving this feat. Like I have mentioned before, medical advancements have helped in creating such measures and devices that can help a person live comfortably with a disease that can be lethal.
The same is right for diabetes. Here is a list of some more recent developments of devices that can make the life a person with diabetes as convenient as a non-diabetic.
Insulin Pens
A Type 2 Diabetic needs insulin every day to make up for the loss of the hormone caused by the disease in the body.
Now, how does he take it? There aren’t any tablets available as of yet that can make this task possible.
Traditionally, this was done through a syringe. People would fill up the injection with the hormone and stick the needle inside their body. It was both daunting and its accuracy of often faulty.
So, the medical geniuses developed insulin pens. This is a more advanced version of the syringe.
First developed in 1985 by the pioneers Novo Nordisk in Denmark, the insulin pen is straightforward to use.
- The pen will either have insulin already filled in it, or you can do it yourself by buying it from a different source.
- Once the Pen is ready with the insulin inside it, all you need to do is remove the cap, click the button and ensure there is no air in the needle.
- Then insert the syringe in your skin, and click the button at the end of the pen to make the insulin move to your skin. Unlike a needle, no pushing is required.
This device’s convenience has inclined over 90% of diabetic all over the world use it over a syringe. Its portability while traveling also makes it safer than a syringe.
Continuous Glucose Monitoring
Type 2 Diabetes needs to be continuously monitored. Not knowing the levels can be fatal for the patient. If the diabetes level reaches over 400, a person will surely die. A level of over 300 can cause a stroke.
So, a person needs to be aware of the level of glucose in his body at all times, especially if he has type 2 diabetes.
The finger prick method is convenient too, but doing it multiple times in a day can cause additional problems.
So, the CGM or Continuous Glucose Monitoring was invented.
- This is actually a sensor that inserted under your skin, usually in the abdomen and sometimes in the arm.
- This sensor is designed to perpetually monitor the blood glucose level and keep the patient informed. A level too high would give him the indication to get the insulin shot and avoid a tragedy.
- It is not the sensor that would display the actual levels. This technology can connect itself to a device; it could either be a Smartphone or a smartwatch. This gadget is what keeps the person with diabetes updated about his level.
Insulin That Delivers Automatically
This one is the combination of the above two. The monitoring of the glucose level and the injection of insulin are to stabilize it. Both are performed through this automated piece of technology.
Poking yourself with a needle can be terrifying for people. My father, who is also a diabetic, abhorred doing it himself, and I had to do it for him because there was no other option.
This was only until the invention of insulin pumps. Having developed almost four decades ago, these became more popular only last ten years.
This pump is much more convenient and less threatening than the syringe.
- The device performs a function that is identical to what our pancreas does for us, which produces insulin that will reach all our organs throughout the day.
- The device is three main parts;
- A box-like structure, which is basically it’s CPU and contains the necessary insulin and the settings of its injection.
- Then there is the tube that connects the device to the point of contact in the body. The insulin passes through it.
- The last the called the cannula, which is connected to the body usually in the abdomen. The cannula is a needle that is inserted inside the body and lets the insulin reach the body. This one needs to be changed after a couple of days of use.
- It usually has two settings.
- One is the basal rate, which means it would inject the patient with small doses of insulin throughout the day at equal proportions, to keep the glucose level stable.
- The other is called a bolus. This occurs only after the patient has eaten a meal and the glucose levels usually heighten at this point. So, the insulin inject is at a different amount than the basal.
Winding Up
Being a person with diabetes becomes a person’s identity; he cannot get away from it. And he has to use all the technological means provided by the medicine to make his life more comfortable to live.
However, all of these means are very costly. A pack of five insulin pens can cost around £500. Automated insulin or CGM can make you over a thousand pounds. This disease may be monitored to get a comfortable life, but its expenses are bound to make your budget super tight.
Direct lenders like Target Loans can help you in such a situation where buying a CGM is out of your budget. You should take up their offer if need be because your life is more crucial than money.
Author Bio-
Diabetes is a prevalent disease. Many people can live a healthy life with it. Still, many need help to stay healthy. Technology will make your dream a reality.
