2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin. This life-saving discovery has helped to
dramatically reduce the toll that diabetes takes on people’s daily lives. And thanks to modern day science, But there are plenty more diabetes breakthroughs to come.
What’s Next In Diabetes Research?
Diabetes sufferers are typically reliant on regular insulin injections to manage their condition, as
damaged pancreas cells are unable to produce the hormone. However, new research has flagged a
potential new treatment that could eliminate the need for insulin injections altogether. In a world-
first study, scientists were able to successfully ‘reprogram’ damaged pancreas cells, allowing them to
produce insulin once again. While the findings are still in the early stages, this breakthrough offers
hope for a more effective and long-term treatment for diabetes sufferers in the future.
Diabetes Clinical Trials
Clinical trials are important for finding the ultimate cure for diabetes. More money than ever is being
funded into research. Upwards of $100 million this year. Doctors, researchers and pharmaceutical
companies are confident that it’s not a matter of if, but when there will be a breakthrough.
Until then, participants are needed to fill various diabetes clinical trials. And in order to be successful
there needs to be great diversity in applicants into these trials.
Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes clinical trials are enrolling now across the US.
Manage vs Solving Diabetes
Whilst solving diabetes is the ultimate goal, in the short term it’s most important to ensure that your diabetes is properly managed. There are typically two ways that people manage their diabetes; proactively and reactively.
The reactive way to manage diabetes is to use insulin once you’ve seen that your blood glucose is too high. And vice versa if your blood glucose is too low.
The proactive way is preferable and involves actively monitoring your glucose levels and doing as much as you can to optimise your diet, exercise, hydration and sleep to keep everything at a more stable level.
In the modern age there are also a lot of diabetes related apps that can keep you notified and tracking your health condition. These prompts have been found to be particularly effective. There are also various different forums and support groups that allow you to share information and experiences with other diabetes suffers. This sort of connectedness has been found to be very beneficial.