Blood Glucose Control

Donor islet transplantation has long offered an intriguing possibility for people with severe type 1 diabetes: restore the body’s ability to make insulin instead of only replacing insulin from the outside. However, there has always been a major tradeoff. Patients need powerful immunosuppressive drugs to keep transplanted cells alive, and …

For millions of people who use injectable diabetes medications, treatment can mean living with needles every day. What if a small skin patch could eventually deliver insulin or other therapies with far less discomfort? Researchers studying microneedle patches for diabetes hope to make that possibility practical. These experimental patches use …

For people with diabetes, an unexpected glucose spike may have a less obvious cause than food or missed medication. Dehydration and high blood sugar can create a self-reinforcing cycle. When the body loses too much fluid, glucose becomes more concentrated in the bloodstream. At the same time, rising glucose can …

You went to bed with your blood sugar in range, skipped the midnight snack, and still woke up high. What happened? For many people with diabetes, natural early-morning hormone changes may be responsible. Understanding the dawn phenomenon can help you recognize this pattern and discuss safe ways to improve morning …

Finding time for a full workout can be difficult, but what if two minutes of movement still mattered? Emerging research on exercise snacking for diabetes suggests that brief bursts of activity spread throughout the day may reduce post-meal glucose excursions and limit some metabolic effects of prolonged sitting. Instead of …

Could changing the order of foods on your plate improve blood sugar without changing what you eat? Research on food sequencing for diabetes suggests it may. Eating vegetables, fiber-rich foods, and protein before carbohydrate-rich foods can reduce post-meal glucose rises in some people. Rather than removing rice, bread, pasta, or …

Euglycemic diabetic ketoacidosis can challenge one of the most familiar clinical shortcuts in diabetes care: DKA should come with markedly elevated glucose. In patients taking sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, however, dangerous ketoacidosis may develop while glucose remains normal or only modestly elevated. As a result, euglycemic DKA in patients …

Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) and insulin pumps can transform diabetes management, but the technology only works when patients can comfortably keep wearing it. CGM skin irritation can turn a valuable device into a daily source of itching, redness, pain, or damaged skin. In some cases, the reaction becomes severe enough …

Blood glucose may improve dramatically after metabolic or bariatric surgery. Yet, for some patients, a very different glucose problem develops months or years later. Post-bariatric hypoglycemia can cause sudden drops in blood glucose after meals, with symptoms ranging from sweating and tremor to confusion, seizures, or loss of consciousness. Because …

For people with diabetes, a retinal photograph has traditionally answered one major question: Is diabetic retinopathy developing? However, artificial intelligence is beginning to uncover much more. Emerging retinal AI models for systemic risk assessment can detect patterns associated with cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, blood pressure, and metabolic health. As a …