For a while now people with diabetes have been hearing that a cure may be just 5 years away. After almost 90 years of having injected insulin as the only way of staying healthy with D there may finally be light at the end of the tunnel.
There is a number of interesting paths being pursued by researchers. One that seems to be taking a lot of traction is the artificial pancreas. While a lot of improvement has been done in insulin pump therapy in the last few years, the pump manufacturers seems to be still far from an automated closed look system.
Yeah, I think were at the brink of significant improvements. I do think stuff is happening at an exponentially fast rate if you look at how far the science of treatment and management has already come.
I remember, my mum telling me that a very wise, kind and well educated endo said to her (in 1983) that there would be a cure in my lifetime as I am all but 29 I reckon that there is a definate possibility, hey without hope life would be pretty miserable.
Hello Henry,
The closed loop is definitely going to happen in the near future. I have already participated in one closed loop study and will be doing another one next week. The 1st closed loop study that I did, the protocol was based on the published insulin absorption rate and we found out that my absorption rate was slower than the published rate. The study next week the algorithm will be tailored to my absorption rate. I had 3 insulin pumps and CGM’s working together. 1 pump with Lispro, 2nd pump with diluted Lispro and the 3rd with Glucagon. All these pumps were controlled through a PC. My guess we will see something in the market in 5-7 years. I am going on my 47th year with type one and as an engineer I thought this closed loop system worked very well.
