These New Developments Could Make Living With Type 2 Diabetes More Manageable
Experts often talk about the “burden” of a disease or illness. The word acts as a tidy container for all the unpleasantness people with that condition may experience—from their symptoms, to the cost of their care, to the restrictions imposed on their lifestyle, to the health complications that may arise. For people with Type 2 diabetes, this burden can be high.
Routine management of Type 2 diabetes often involves major changes to one’s diet and physical activity. And for many, especially those taking insulin to manage their blood sugar, the disease can necessitate daily blood-glucose monitoring, a process that entails pricking a finger to draw blood and then dabbing that blood onto a glucose monitor’s test strip. Doing this several times a week—month after month—can present overlapping challenges. According to a 2013 survey in the journal Diabetes Spectrum, people find finger-prick glucose monitoring to be painful, and the results can be confusing or unhelpful.
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“Patients don’t want to prick their fingers, and they come in all the time and say, ‘I’m tired of this,’” says Dr. Francisco Pasquel, a diabetes specialist and associate professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.
But relief is on the way. Continuous glucose monitors, or CGMs, are small devices-—often about the size of a quarter-—that use a small under-the-s...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Markham Heid Tags: Uncategorized Disease freelance healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
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