New artificial pancreas,diabetic breakthrough, underway at Mayo Clinic

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Staff - The Mayo Clinic has announced it is working on a breakthrough development, an artificial pancreas to support insulin delivery.

This breakthrough is called the “closed loop system” and includes a blood sugar monitor, automatic insulin pump, and monitors to establish the level of activity, as well as a unit for processing information.

Additional research has established exercise to reduce blood sugar levels, which decrease faster in the morning than later in the day.



Type 2 diabetics do not produce sufficient insulin to support good health.  The goal of treating diaetes is to lower blood sugar that builds up in the blood because the diabetic does not produce enough insulin to reduce sugars to a normal level.

This new breakthrough for diabetics can help millions of people not affected by diabetes, the fastest growing disease in the United States, with 1 in 3 now afflicted with it.  This is particularly important as diabetes is responsible for the rise in kidney disease.

Type I diabetes: new research on prevention

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Carol Forsloff - New research reported by Diabetes magazine reports that an oral or nasal administration of insulin can protect against the development of Type I diabetes.

52 adults were tested over a period of 12 months, some given a placebo and others nasal insulin.  The results showed that the nasal spray provided protection against the development of Type I by inducing an immune tolerance to insulin.

Gizmag quotes Professor Len Harrison of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia as saying,  "The results showed that the vaccine allowed the immune system to restore immune tolerance to insulin.  When subsequently given insulin by injection, the participants who had received the nasal insulin vaccine were found to be desensitized to insulin."

According to the American Diabetes Association Type I diabetes is an early onset disease diagnosed in children and young adults and that is characterized by the body’s inability to produce insulin.  Insulin is a hormone required for sugar conversion and turning it into the kind of energy the body needs to live healthy life.

Those people who have early onset diabetes require lifelong insulin treatments, so this new research is considered a major breakthrough in prevention of the disease.