Is There A Faster Cheaper and Painless Way To Test Diabetes?

Diabetes, if not managed or treated with care, could easily lead to serious medical conditions including blindness, heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease, nervous system disease, stroke and amputation.

In order to diagnose whether a person is having diabetes or pre-diabetes, doctors usually use a fasting plasma glucose (FPG) test to measure blood glucose in that person who has not eaten anything for at least 8 hours. Sometimes, an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), which measures blood glucose after the person fasts at least 8 hours and 2 hours after the person drinks a glucose-containing beverage, might also be employed.

For diagnosis of diabetes (not for pre-diabetes), a random plasma glucose test is used. The test, also known as casual plasma glucose test, measures blood glucose of a person at any time without regarding when this person last ate.

Here comes the so-called Wrinkle Test, which is considered as a faster and cheaper method to diagnose if a person has diabetes. The Wrinkle Test can identify a disorder in the sensors on a person’s skin and was developed by researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the National University Hospital (NUH).

Carrying out the test is fairly simple. Apply a local anesthetic as cream on the fingers of the person being tested. If the skin does not wrinkle after some time, then this person must has a nerve fiber disorder that could be caused by disease like diabetes.

The results of the test are compared against a scale of between zero and 4. Zero indicates there is no wrinkling and is a sign that the constriction of blood vessels is being impaired. Studies have shown that wrinkling is caused by a constriction of blood vessels. A patient with a small nerve fiber disorder, which disrupts the constriction, would have fewer wrinkles.

Though many diseases could actually cause a disorder on the small nerve fibers on the patients’ skin, diabetes is the most important cause because almost half of the diabetic patients in Singapore suffer from some kind of the disorder.

Nevertheless, Wrinkle test is surely not the only way to identify nerve fiber disorders. In fact, nerve disorder could be diagnosed by removing a skin sample, which was then sent to laboratory for testing. And it usually takes between 1 to 2 weeks before results can be known.

Don’t Overlook Pre-Diabetes Stage!

When one is diagnosed with Type-2 diabetes, it is often too late to reverse the condition. According to health experts, early detection and intervention in the pre-diabetes stage may help prevent or delay Type-2 diabetes.

So, what exactly is pre-diabetes stage? Pre-diabetes refers to a state when a person’s blood sugar is slightly higher but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Clinically, it is known as Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT) or Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG).

People with pre-diabetes not only have a higher chance of becoming Type-2 diabetes, but also have a higher risk of developing other medical complications such as heart disease and stroke.

A person having pre-diabetes stage is very likely to progress to diabetes, if nothing is done. However, this may be delayed or even prevented with correct lifestyle modification. In fact, studies have shown that up to a third of people with pre-diabetes may be able to bring their blood glucose levels back to normal over time. Weight loss, regular exercise and medication can correct a key defect in pre-diabetes (namely the hormone insulin, which is ineffective in controlling blood sugar). These three measures help body becomes more sensitive to the action of insulin so that insulin works better in controlling blood sugar, and sometimes, diabetes can be prevented in the pre-diabetes stage.

Unfortunately, pre-diabetes stage does not have significant signs and may just be undetected. The fastest and surest way to find out if one has pre-diabetes is to go for a blood test. IFG can be detected by an early morning blood sample after an overnight fast, while IGT can be detected using an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT). This involves taking a glucose drink and a second blood sample 2 hours after the first blood test. For people who are diagnosed with either IFG or IGT, the most important thing for them to do is to relook their lifestyles and modify accordingly. Some medications may also help.

How Does Alcohol Lower Blood Sugar?

Diabetes is not only a risk factor of heart disease but also a serious medical disorder. Diabetics who do not have their blood sugar levels managed properly will lead them to many other complications and in some serious situations, blindness, amputation and even death can just happen to them.

In the past, drinking alcohol beverages has been known to lower blood sugar levels in diabetics. And now, results of a new study on animal, conducted by a group of researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, revealed the mechanisms involved. The findings that were published in the journal Endocrinology show that alcohol produces a massive redistribution of blood flow within the pancreas.

According to what was observed in the study, alcohol seems to send more blood to a region of the pancreas called the islets. The islets contain cells whose main function is to produce insulin, the key hormone that lowers blood sugar levels in the body.

Using various techniques, the researchers showed that pancreatic islet blood flow is increased by about 4 folds in rats after an injection of ethanol. Overall blood flow to pancreas, by contrast, was not affected. The alcohol injection also led to increased insulin secretion, resulting in low glucose levels.

Further study also showed that alcohol induced pancreatic blood flow changes by affecting a chemical called nitric oxide and the vagus nerve, a nerve that is responsible for sending many important signals in the body.

Based on the results obtained from the study, the researchers recommend doctors to advise their diabetic patients, especially those with liver problems, to be very careful with alcohol, if they are taking drugs to lower blood glucose, since these drugs may increase the effects of alcohol.