Development of a non-invasive blood sugar sensor

Abstract

A person with diabetes mellitus, which is commonly referred to as diabetes and exists in two forms (type 1 and type 2) must inject themselves with insulin to manage their blood sugar level. This is because the disease causes a person’s blood sugar level to become too high and insulin, a hormone produced in the pancreas, helps the body to use sugar for energy. In type 1 diabetes the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce insulin and in type 2 the pancreas is unable to make enough insulin or the insulin it does make doesn’t work properly. As such, in both types of the disease, insulin must be injected into the body and injecting becomes an essential part of the daily regimes of people with diabetes. As you can imagine, this, coupled with the need to regularly check blood sugar with finger prick tests, can be inconvenient as well as painful. In addition, there is the risk of infection. However, there is currently no alternative. A Japan-based research team is working on developing a non-invasive technique for measuring blood glucose.