Not Everyone Needs the Same Energy

Type 1 diabetes mellitus, most understood as juvenile diabetes, is a type of autoimmune disease that affects the pancreas and its ability to produce insulin. People that have this disease must take artificial insulin their whole life to continue to live. Many people who suffer from this disease have automated insulin delivery system (AID) which helps the regulation of insulin being given to the body depending on the individual’s glucose needs ​(Degen et al., 2024)​. Researchers at the University of Bristol have begun to take a deeper dive into these AIDs to better understand Type 1 diabetes. By getting more insight into how insulin demands change in everyone, we can understand more about what other unknown mechanisms help change the regulation of sugars and insulin ​(Degen et al., 2024)​. Even though we have a well understanding of how insulin and glucose are regulated, by having an automatic sensor, we’re able to get a wider picture of what other factors that are not completely understood affect the regulation of insulin and glucose uptake. By looking more closely at these AIDs we can build more specific clinical treatment to those who suffer from type 1 diabetes. 

Most medical treatments cover the average person, but I believe once you get into the chemical and enzymatic differences of an individual you can limit the outcome of a treatment by not specifying their treatment as possible. We as individuals have different stressors, metabolic needs, and different activity levels in our day, so for those who suffer from type 1 diabetes their fluctuation can very incredibly from others. This new study to understand AIDs and what life styles fluctuate insulin needs can help provide more specific treatment options and plans. This is important for those who have AIDs to provide better treatment options, but also unfortunate for those who are not able to afford AIDs. There needs to be a way to reduce the cost of these devices, as well as a larger push to look into more research in stabilizing blood glucose for these types of patients.

Reference:

​​Degen, I., Robson Brown, K., Reeve, H. W. J., & Abdallah, Z. S. (2024). Beyond Expected                Patterns in Insulin Needs of People With Type 1 Diabetes: Temporal Analysis of Automated         Insulin Delivery Data. JMIRx Med, 5, e44384–e44384. https://doi.org/10.2196/44384