Where are technology and science taking us?

For the past few months I have been working as an independent medical reviewer. One interesting trend I have noted is the request for the most recent technology or medications, sometimes not covered by insurance companies. The past 20 years or so have been very exciting in the field of endocrinology, because we have seen many new drugs developed to treat diabetes: new insulins, needles, insulin pumps and monitors, as well as many different pills.The past five years have given us types of medications that work in ways we never tried in the past, and this has brought many new options to treat diabetes.{{more}}

I get the questions about an artificial pancreas many times, and I still answer at this time: we are not there quite yet. We are definitely getting closer to a man-made machine system that can act by itself to give insulin, check blood sugars and adjust insulin. Technology will get us there fairly soon, I think, but in the meantime the machines that ARE available still need us humans to interact and input some information for them to do their jobs effectively.

What about the new medications, all those new pills and insulins? Can’t any of them do the job all by themselves, after all this time? Nope, not yet. No pill or one insulin can, by itself, completely mimic what the body does to control blood sugars.

I am not bringing this up to depress you! The advances we have made are fantastic and really truly have made diabetes easier to treat. But, right now humans still need to do a lot of work on their own to keep this disease under control. There is no magic pill or machine just yet. What does this mean? It means that in addition to actually TAKING your medications, you need to keep trying to make your diet better, keep active and try to keep your weight under control, keep checking your blood sugars and going to your medical teams for check-ups. Get those blood tests done!

As I have said in the past, diabetes (especially Type 2) is unlike many diseases because many people DO have a great deal of control over how this disease continues to affect them. So, don’t wait for that magic bullet, that one medication that will fix everything. Take some control over this, use all tools at your disposal, and get going! You have more power over this than you realize; you can steer this ship more than you think.

Until next time, stay healthy and safe Vincies!

Anita Ramsetty, MD endodocs@endocrinehelp.com

Medical Director Endocrine Care Group

www.endocrinehelp.com

Tel: 843-798-4227