Gestational Blood Glucose Could Someday Be Monitored with a Piece of Jewelry?

For many people, monitoring blood sugar is a difficult task. Pricking the finger with the help of a lancet in order to measure the blood glucose levels is never fun. Also, continuous sugar monitoring devices need a sensor under the skin. But wouldn’t be great if we could monitor our blood sugar levels both discreetly and painlessly? Wouldn't be great if we could do that with a small piece of jewelry? No, this is not a scene from a sci-fi movie but a reality. Today this is possible thanks to 2 women from Brisbane.

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Nyree McKenzie and Tamara Mills have made an earring which works as a CGM device. There is no pain and needles; there is only light which makes it similar to infrared technology. This device has beat over 6.000 other applicants in more than 30 different countries. The inspiration for this device came from Tamara Mills (28 years old) who had gestational diabetes during her pregnancy. Therefore, instead of pricking a finger around 6 times on a daily basis in order to test the blood glucose levels, this team made something else. The team made a pair of earrings to do this job painlessly. Although this is inspired explicitly by women that have gestational diabetes, the creators hope that it might also be useful for those affected by all types of diabetes.

How This Works

The earring works together with a smartphone app. This app offers continuous info on the blood sugar levels. As a matter of fact,this app can analyze photos of what a person is about to consume and then evaluate what influence the food will have on the insulin levels of that individual. Therefore if we are about to eat a donut, all we need to do is input iced donut into the phone. Then based on our current blood glucose level and historical data the app will tell what will happen if we eat that donut. Or it is also possible that the app will tell us to replace it with yogurt or eat only half of the donut. Great, right? This technology might expand to other pieces of jewelry like watches and rings.