Unraveling glycaemic fluctuations
Navigating the ups and downs of blood sugar can feel like a never-ending rollercoaster for those living with diabetes. As glycaemic changes – or glucose level fluctuations – represent a determining daily factor for them, it is important to understand how these internal mechanisms work and what causes these level “swings”. In this article, we explore the factors influencing glycaemic changes and what happens in the case of a person with diabetes.
🤔 But first: what are glycaemic changes and what provokes them?
In order to better understand glycaemic changes, we have to understand the nature of these changes, and how the food we eat affects them. Each food item that we intake during the day holds a specific amount of nutrients that ultimately increase the amount of glucose (or sugar) in our blood, to a greater or less extent. Hence the necessity to classify food according to how drastically it will make blood sugar levels rise. To achieve this comparative classification, the glycaemic index and glycaemic load indexes have been developed and give a better picture of the proportion of glucose that makes its way in the blood. These indexes help individuals that are sensitive to sugar level changes in their blood make dietary choices more easily to maintain balanced glycaemic levels, though food represents only one out of many factors affecting sugar levels. Other important factors include physical activity, time of day, sleep, allergies, medications, puberty, smoking, temperature, altitude, and stress. Glycaemic changes describe the fluctuations of glucose in the blood and are provoked, among others, by the food we eat.
đź“Š The diabetes scenario
The next step for the processing of this sugar in our blood happens with the help of insulin, a substance produced by the pancreas. Insulin ensures a correct processing of this sugar by blood cells, that results in a natural energy supply. With diabetes, this process is disturbed and sugar is incorrectly to not processed by cells. This leads to a high level of “stagnating” sugar in the blood, presenting potential risks for the person. However, the precise cause varies according to the type of diabetes the person lives with. In this article, we focus on Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, though diabetes manifests under other forms.
With Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas doesn’t produce any insulin, therefore leading the cells to not process sugar and eventually causing sugar levels to raise. Type 2 diabetes individuals, on the other hand encounter a problem at the cellular level: the cell itself is not able to absorb sugar, despite the (low) amount of insulin present in the blood. These 2 types of diabetes therefore require different therapeutic approaches to balance glucose levels. The individual living with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes needs to rely on specific tools and ways of supplying appropriate levels of insulin to their body. However, as explained earlier, sugar levels can fluctuate quite drastically depending on a wide range of factors (42 have been reported according to Diatribe). In this sense, the challenge in diabetes management doesn’t only lie in the calculation of the right dosage of insulin, but also and mainly in the precise determination and forecasting of glucose in the blood.
About MuSiC4Diabetes
The MuSiC4Diabetes project focuses on developing a permanent solution that includes a number of improvements and innovations: a new type of sensor technology determines not only blood sugar but also ketones and lactates. This multi-parameter approach allows blood sugar levels to be regulated much more precisely and takes into account other parameters such as the patient's physical activity. The project aims to develop an implantable device that acts as an "artificial organ". By delivering insulin close to the liver, blood sugar levels can be regulated much more easily and without direct intervention from the patient. At the same time, a number of safety functions are integrated to ensure safe insulin delivery.