The “Guinea Pig” of the Glucometer
Imagine that you are one of the millions of people living with diabetes today. You rely heavily on your blood sugar monitor, or glucometer, the handheld device used to measure the amount of sugar in your blood, in order to manage your diabetes symptoms. You know that if you lose control over your blood glucose, you will experience fatal affects including heart disease, high blood pressure and kidney failure, which could ultimately lead to an early death. Yet, you don’t have to worry much about that as long as you eat well, exercise, and take insulin, according to how your blood sugar measures up on the glucometer. But up until fifty years ago, doctors did not see the point in monitoring blood glucose, and as a result diabetics experienced a slow and painful death. But why was that, and who changed it?
The Most Famous Diabetic
Sadly for diabetics, little was known about treating diabetes until Richard K. Bernstein came along and brought significance to monitoring blood sugar with a glucometer. Like many others in the 1970's, Bernstein was a diabetic suffering a great deal from his uncontrolled diabetes. His health was in a rapid state of decline as he dealt with nerve pain throughout his body, vision impairment, heart disease and kidney dysfunction. Bernstein was just one of over seven million people with diabetes in America at the time, as noted in a report published by the Center for Disease Control. And although diabetics would make every attempt to mitigate their disease by visiting their primary care physicians, dieting, and taking insulin, no amount of treatment seemed to help their condition. There was a very important element missing that Bernstein would later bring great attention to: blood sugar monitoring.
So why did it take so long for blood glucose monitoring to become a popular method of treating diabetes? Surprisingly it wasn’t because the technology had not yet been invented. It was largely because doctors thought that high blood sugar levels weren’t the culprit of this disease, but rather the opposite. Physicians believed that a diet low in fat and high in sugar, or carbohydrates, was the healthiest option for diabetics. Doctors would prescribe their clients a diet with lots of bread, grains, fruits, and vegetables, and would have them steer clear of fatty foods such as cheese, oil, nuts, fish, and desserts. Bernstein disagreed with this however — after much research he felt that diabetics should limit their consumption of carbohydrates, and that if blood sugar levels were checked frequently, the patient could adjust their diet based on the body’s needs in order to avoid complications. So when the glucometer made its way into hospitals in 1970, Bernstein knew he needed to get his hands on one.
Glucometers Get Their Start
Many years following Bernstein’s diagnosis, hospitals throughout the country began utilizing glucometers. At the time these devices were not used to monitor and control diabetes, however, but rather to assess whether unconscious patients coming into the emergency room were there because of a low blood sugar reading, or because they were intoxicated. After hearing about these devices, Bernstein knew he needed one of his own, envisioning the glucometer as a tool he could use to frequently monitor his blood sugar. Unfortunately, because doctors found it pointless for diabetics to measure their own blood glucose, manufacturers didn’t bother selling glucometers to the public — only medical professionals were initially allowed to purchase monitors. In an interview conducted by diabetes journalist David Mendosa, Bernstein shares how his doctor would shut down his low-carbohydrate idea, saying that “it’s impossible to normalize human blood sugars.”
But wait, how did Bernstein eventually get a hold of a glucometer if he wasn’t even a doctor? Fortunately his wife was a practicing psychologist, so naturally he took advantage of that loop hole! Not long after getting his glucometer, Bernstein designed an experiment that would test if his blood sugar theory was right.
Bernstein’s Breakthrough
After playing around with his glucometer and discovering how it worked, Richard Bernstein conducted an experiment that changed the game — he ate his physician-prescribed diet, while recording his blood sugar levels with the glucometer before and after meals. This would show that the more high-carbohydrates foods he ate, the higher his blood glucose reading would be. Bernstein performed this experiment for a long while, and eventually weened himself off of the diet his doctor prescribed. He found that as he included more fats and less carbohydrates in his diet and continued track his blood glucose using the glucometer, his blood glucose levels started falling in the normal range. He also adjusted the dose of insulin he was taking, a hormone injected into diabetics on a daily bases which aims to control blood sugar levels.
Though he would be criticized by many for putting himself on this crazy, high risk diet — the experiment proved his theory to be true, and in due time his diabetes symptoms began to diminish.
Introducing…Dr. Bernstein!
Needless to say, Bernstein’s experiment and discoveries on diabetes opened new doors for him beyond treating his symptoms. After wrapping up his experiment, Bernstein wrote an article about his findings on blood glucose. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to get his work published, since he was not yet recognized in the health science community. Rather than being discouraged by this, he decided to attend medical school and become an endocrinologist, a physician who specializes in treating hormone diseases and diabetes. Bernstein knew that this was the only way he could share his findings with the world, and knew that his important discoveries would help diabetics across the globe. Interestingly, Bernstein never intended to go to medical school, and in an interview with the New York Times written in 1988, he states “I never wanted to be a doctor. But I had to become one to gain credibility.”
Even though he didn’t desire to help diabetic patients in a clinical setting, as an endocrinologist Dr. Bernstein offered his patients valuable nutritional advice, as he was a doctor and diabetic himself. His passion for research continued to thrive while practicing medicine, and in 1997 Bernstein published his work as a successful novel, Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution. Luckily for him, the book earned him even more recognition in the years to follow, and has helped spark further research by others regarding blood sugar monitoring, and the continual reinvention of modern glucometers.
The Glucometer Takes Off
Once the glucometer received the praise it deserved, more and more diabetics began purchasing their own device to monitor their blood sugar. Multiple companies began to manufacture their own versions of the meter, each having certain features and required to meet certain standards. Though the glucometer once could have only be found in hospitals, diabetics can now purchase glucometers in any drug store or online. Thankfully, cost reduction and mass production have allowed most if not all diabetics to obtain one. And although there has been a growing number of people diagnosed with diabetes each year, the glucometer has enabled patients to keep fatal symptoms at bay. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that Dr. Richard Bernstein’s research has impacted every diabetes patient in some way. Although Bernstein continues to manage his diabetes today, his research has earned him much success and eventually Bernstein would come to realize that his diabetes was a blessing rather than a curse.
