Dr. Hanid Audish on Latest Treatment Options for Diabetes
Almost 10% of Americans have been diagnosed with Type II diabetes, and over 1 million adults and children have been diagnosed with Type I. With a rising obesity epidemic in the United States, these rates are expected to increase significantly in the upcoming years. Dr. Hanid Audish a researcher at Encompass Clinical Research in Spring Valley, California claims that clinical research is essential now more than ever when it comes to preventative medicine. He provides a brief overview of the latest treatment methods for Diabetes.
What is Diabetes?
Diabetes mellitus is a medical disorder that causes an imbalance in your bodies ability to process and use glucose, that is either acquired from the food you eat, or from breakdown of the bodies fat stores.
There are two types of diabetes mellitus, type I and type II. Type I is generally caused by the inability of the pancreas to produce and secrete insulin, while type II is due to chronically high levels of blood glucose levels leading to insulin insensitivity of cells.
Dr. Hanid Audish states that insulin is used by the body to help regulate blood glucose levels, which are carefully regulated to ensure the body functions properly. Without insulin, or with insensitivity, glucose levels in the blood build up, and may cause extensive damage to various parts of the body including the eyes, blood vessels, kidneys, nerves, and legs/feet.
Trends and the Future
Many medications for diabetes mellitus exist today, allowing healthcare providers to be able to best help their patients meet target blood sugars. Trends for medications in the past included optimizing medications that allowed for increased insulin release from the pancreas, while also helping to suppress the amount of sugar being made by the body in response to “decreased blood sugar”, as receptors are incapable of sugar uptake.
The discovery of metformin in 1955 paved the path for the gold standard of treatment, which remains today. Other medications such as SGLT2 inhibitors and DPP4 inhibitors have been found more recently have allowed patients to further decrease blood sugar levels.
With current advancements in technology, researches and physicians alike are hopeful for creating an “artificial pancreas” that will mimic the work of the human pancreas. Often referred to as a closed-loop system, an artificial pancreas would work with existing technologies such as continuous glucose monitors and external insulin pumps, to sense changes in blood glucose and to effectively supply therapeutic levels of insulin in response, similar to what a fully functioning pancreas would do.
Algorithms would allow the system to sense changes and patterns, helping to decrease sugar spikes and lows, providing insulin when needed at the right doses, while factoring in time for metabolization. Many of these systems are currently being researched and reviewed, and in 2018 it was found that it was a safe and efficacious treatment for patients with type I diabetes.
Dr. Hanid Audish explains that other treatments are also being targeted at the immune response responsible for the destruction of the cells of the pancreas responsible for making insulin, the biggest issue in type I diabetes.
To learn more about how a clinical trial can help this condition visit Encompass Clinical Research at www.encompassresearch.com
