Contents
It currently affects 425 million people worldwide. It is estimated that by 2045 this number will increase to 629 million. Diabetes – a disease of civilization that takes an ever greater toll. One person dies every 6 seconds due to diabetes and its consequences. In Poland, the statistics on diabetes are terrifying. Already 3 million patients suffer from it, and 1 million of them are unaware of their disease. Monitoring the blood sugar level often requires up to a dozen punctures with your fingertips. That is why a device has been created for diabetic patients to make their life easier and free them from pain – FreeStyle Libre.
The bitter truth – diabetes in Poland
Even 40 years ago the number of people suffering from diabetes in the world it was by 75 percent. lower than today. The World Health Organization is sounding the alarm – in 10 years’ time, diabetes will be among the seven leading causes of death in the world. What is most worrying is the fact that the greatest increase in morbidity is observed in the youngest children.
– It used to be mostly teenagers. At the moment, the largest group are children in preschool and early school age. These are the children who will never remember life without diabetes. Diabetes will always be with them – said Małgorzata Szmigiero-Kawko, MD, PhD during the conference “Polish woman in Europe”.
At the beginning of the 90s, among Polish children under the age of 15, diabetes affected 4,5 thousand. for every 100 people. Currently, this number is three times higher. Too late diagnosis and introduction of treatment may lead to complications. Damage to blood vessels, worsening of visual impairment, kidney damage, high blood pressure or fatty liver. Unfortunately, many thousands of patients are still undiagnosed and have no idea that a ticking bomb is developing in their bodies.
Types of threats
Diabetes mellitus is considered to be a metabolic disease caused by a malfunction of insulin. It requires regular measurement blood sugar level and administering appropriate doses of drugs. It is worth knowing that there are two types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2.
Type 1 diabetes. also called insulin-dependent diabetes is an autoimmune disease, which consists in destroying by the body the β cells of the pancreatic islets of Langerhans, which are responsible for the production of insulin. As a result of this process, a lack of insulin leads to increase in blood sugar levels. This, in turn, causes a life-threatening hyperaemia of the organism. That is why in type 1 diabetes it is so important to be disciplined and to regularly measure blood sugar levels and administer appropriate doses of insulin.
Type 2 diabetes. it’s a metabolic disease. In this case, the body produces insulin, but the body tissues become resistant to it and do not respond to it. The first phase of the disease is insulin resistance – if left untreated, it can lead to the development of pre-diabetes. In her case, pharmacological treatment is used, but above all, the patient’s self-control of what ends up on his plate.
Sick self-control
Treatment of type 1 diabetes. requires the implementation of regular blood sugar measurements and the administration of insulin doses. This is why diagnosed diabetics almost never part with their blood glucose meter. The Polish Diabetes Society recognizes that blood glucose measurement by the patient should take place “repeatedly (ie at least 4 times a day). Measurements during the day according to the established principles of treatment and the patient’s needs ”.
Aby control sugar levels and to prevent the effects of too high its level, blood glucose should be measured in the morning, before each meal, two hours after a meal, from time to time at night, and whenever we feel unwell, our well-being decreases, and also in situations of great effort, because this can lead to extreme variations in blood glucose levels. This means that diabetics are doomed to a few or even a dozen or so measurements during the day. While it is not a big problem in adults, it becomes problematic in the case of the youngest diabetics.
Especially considering that correct measurement, and therefore determining the correct result, requires a specific procedure. It is very important to wash your hands thoroughly with warm water and detergent and dry them thoroughly – wet hands or not fully washed will falsify the measurement result.
Then prick the fingertip with a specially designed lancet. We bring the test strip closer to the obtained blood drop and wait until its window is completely filled. After the measurement, wash your hands thoroughly and write the result down in the self-test notebook.
Pricking your fingers a dozen times a day will eventually start to be painful. In addition, we do not have access to the bathroom in every situation, where we can wash our hands in a hygienic way before measuring. We also often forget to carry a notebook with recorded measurements, which prevents proper glycemic control.
Finally, we must also remember to regularly replenish lancets and glucose meter strips, which in many cases are not reimbursed. If you have a dozen or so measurements of blood glucose in different places, it is also worth having at least two glucose meters – one at home and one that you will always have with you. Thanks to this, there will be no situation in which, despite the need to perform the measurement, we will not be able to do it.
The same rules also apply to the youngest diabetic patients. Currently, the necessity of multiple blood glucose measurements during the day in preschoolers or primary school students means that parents often stay in the educational institution almost all day long, due to the need to measure blood sugar in their child. It is associated with difficulties in professional life, but also with rebellion, especially of older children, due to the constant feeling of pain and the need to perform unpleasant duty.
Due to all these difficulties related to the necessity of glycemic control, diabetics are looking for new solutions that would make the measurements less problematic and would not lead to chaos in their and their children’s lives. FreeStyle Libre meets these needs.
A Breakthrough In Diabetes Monitoring?
FreeStyle Libre is a blood glucose monitoring system with a painless scan, and most importantly – without the need to prick your finger. The 14-day sensor, which is placed on the patient’s back, and the reader attached to it, make reading blood sugar possible anywhere – at work, in a store or in a restaurant.
– It’s a system that consists of a tiny electrode that measures your sugar level all the time. Thanks to the reader, the result is immediately shown on the display, says Małgorzata Szmigiero-Kawko, MD, PhD.
Sensor application it is very simple. It is enough to choose a place on the back of the arm and disinfect it with the alcohol swab attached to the sensor. Place the sensor installed in the applicator in the selected place. Then you need to make sure that the sensor is correctly mounted. Then just start the sensor using the attached display. We scan the sensor and this sound will notify us about a successful startup. The first blood glucose measurement can be performed an hour after activation.
Glucose scanning with FreeStyle Libre allows you to control not only the present sugar concentration. Next to the result, an arrow appears on the display, which indicates the glycemic trend – it indicates whether the blood glucose is stable, slowly lowering, lowering quickly, slowly increasing or increasing rapidly. Obtaining such information is impossible by taking a measurement with an ordinary blood glucose meter.
The Reader also allows you to visualize your previous blood glucose measurements, making it even easier to control your diabetes development. The display may show a list of the periods in which the hypoglycaemia occurred in our body. This information will be especially helpful for a diabetologist who may decide to change our home routine.
We can use the sensor for 14 days. After this time, it will automatically turn off and the reader will inform us that it’s time to replace the sensor.
FreeStyle Libre device suitable for diabetics of all ages. Due to the ease of use, it can be used independently by school children and seniors. The sensor will also work for people with amblyopia – there is a possibility of voice notification about glucose concentration. The sensor is waterproof, so you can shower, exercise or swim with it – it does not restrict our movement in any way.
It is now also possible Installing the FreeStyle LibreLink application on your phone. Thanks to it, we do not have to carry the display with us, and the scanning and saving of the results will take place in the application on our phone. The FreeStyle Libre system can be used by children from the age of 4. This blood glucose monitoring system is not only painless, but also safe and accurate – it is used by 1,5 million users around the world for a reason.
The FreeStyle Libre starter kit costs about PLN 700. For this price, we get a reader and two 14-day sensors. After using them, we buy new ones for about PLN 250. Unfortunately, it is not yet reimbursed by the National Health Fund for all diabetic patients. From October 8, 2019, only young people aged 4 to 18 who have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes are eligible for reimbursement. It is hoped that Poland will join the list of 32 countries where FreeStyle Libre is fully reimbursed for all diabetics .
The content of the medTvoiLokony website is intended to improve, not replace, the contact between the Website User and their doctor. The website is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Before following the specialist knowledge, in particular medical advice, contained on our Website, you must consult a doctor. The Administrator does not bear any consequences resulting from the use of information contained on the Website.