x, Glucophage, and Avandia, which increase insulin reception for NIDDM, and Glipizide, Glyburide, Tolinase, and Tolbutmide, which increase insulin production for IDDM patients. For people who have IDDM, they have to inject themselves with insulin four times a day to reduce vascular and renal complications. NIDDM patients will also eventually have to inject themselves. A person can keep track of their glucose levels by using a glucose monitoring machine, which diabetics are not to fond of doing. Poking themselves with a lancet four times a day on their fingers is not fun. Eventually the patients’ fingers become raw after using lancets to draw blood to put on the strip for measurement of glucose levels. They do have new machines that can measure glucose levels from blood by using the lancet on the forearm or wherever else the patient feels comfortable withdrawing a drop of blood from. An example of that would be the One Touch Ultra Glucose Monitoring System by Lifescan. These glucose-monitoring machines are very popular because the patient doesn't have to poke only the fingers. I read in a journal that in the future we may be able to transplant islets for patients who have IDDM. Islet cell transplantation can potentially normalize blood glucose levels and stop the progression of clinical complications, and if the transplant is done early in the course of the disease complications may be prevented. Progress has been made in recent years with Type 1 diabetes in the absence of hormones such as insulin that decrease blood glucose levels. Only a few patients, however, have achieved insulin independence. Issues relating to islet cell engraftment within the liver, prevention of rejection and recurrent autoimmunity, and identification of alternative immunosuppressive drugs that do not adversely affect islet cell function remain to be solved. Identification of immunointervention protocols that allow for engraftment in the...
