Can glucose-responsive insulin remove the threat of growing diabetes cases?
Jedediah Befekadu
Diabetes mellitus (DM), or diabetes as it is more widely known, is a metabolic disease which causes prolonged high blood sugar levels in an individual. From 1996 to 2019, the number of people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK has increased from 1.4 million to 3.5 million. Taking into account those who will likely go undiagnosed for various reasons, the number of people with diabetes circa 2019 was predicted to be around 4 million and is expected to rise to 5 million by 2025. 1 It is further estimated that 463 million adults (20-79 years of age) worldwide are living with diabetes, and this figure is projected to grow to 700 million by 2045. 2 The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) reports that 79% of adults with diabetes were living in low and middle- income countries. 3 (The majority of all diabetes cases are caused by type 2. However, if a child is diagnosed with diabetes, the vast majority of these cases will be type 1.) Clearly, diabetes is a growing problem.
Figure 1. Estimated number of adults with diabetes (in millions). (International Diabetes Federation, 2019)
There are 2 main types of diabetes, type 1, and type 2. Type 1 is the condition in which the body’s own immune system attacks and destroys insulin-producing pancreatic cells, leading to a deficiency in insulin levels, causing the failure of maintaining blood sugar levels. 4 Type 2 is characterized by a decrease in insulin secretion which can also be paired with insulin resista nce, in which the body’s somatic cells fail to recognize and respond to the insulin hormone. The main difference is that type 1 is genetic, and type 2 is partly due to genetics but also lifestyle. Type 2 is quite manageable so long as you take your medicin e (usually metformin which increases the body’s somatic cells’ sensitivity to insulin) , and adjust your lifestyle and diet to be more active and healthier. Type 2 can even be prevented by these methods. Type 1, however, is slightly more complicated in the sense that there is no way to prevent it. It often manifests in children, and there needs to be an almost constant monitoring of blood sugar levels (which can be expensive), emergency injections of insulin in the case of hyperglycaemia, and emergency snacks in case of hypoglycaemia. The cost of a Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM)
1 Diabetes Prevalence 2019. 2 Diabetes Atlas 2019. 3 Ibid. 4 See Diabetes 2019 for more detail on the differences between type 1 and type 2.
187
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator