Slashdot Mirror
Tattoo To Monitor Diabetes
infonography notes that the "BBC is reporting about using tattoos to monitor the state of a diabetics' health. While TV's the Invisible Man series had this, this is actually real. Designed by Gerard Cote, of Texas A&M University they are made of polyethylene glycol beads that are coated with fluorescent molecules. Likely this will start to change the attitudes of parents who have been resisting the urging of their kids to get Tattoos."
My father has diabetes and I don't want to get it myself, I hope with the new generation of genetic research we'll have more of these stories on slashdot.
Now the glow in the dark bleeding heart "Mom" tattoo will be a fad. Oh well. Better than "Winger"
"Oh no, 3 horny women and only 2 condoms...Thank god I read slashdot"
Or, remembering a particularly traumatic experience when a friend went hypo, perhaps the words "fuck you" to save them the bother of saying them themselves (yes, I know a hypo diabetic is not in their right mind).
Rich
"Consider yourself a member of a virtual corporation with Mr. Torvalds as your Chief Executive Officer." - Linux Advocac
This sounds like a great idea, and I know many people (my grandfather included) who would prefer this to the finger pricking fun on a regular basis. However, it does raise a couple of questions.
1) How long would it last? Since it ISN'T absorbed into the cells, how long could the fluorescent dye, if you will, stay in the "interstitial fluid"? Would you need a new tattoo every month? year?
2) How much will it cost? The method doesn't really sound that expensive, except for the watch-like device. But will HMOs pay for it? Medicare?
3) How reliable is it? There are some diabetics who are very sensitive to sugar differences. Howa accurate can this be? Does it compare favorably with strips?
Type 1 Diabetes has no link to activity, fitness or diet. In fact, Olympic Swimmer Gary Hall, Jr. developed it a few years back. Type 1 also hits most of its victims early in life, making it a longer term disease. It's also more serious, because unlike most type 2 diabetes, a type 1 does not produce any insulin and MUST take it in order to continue living. A type 2 can go for years without proper treatment, a type 1 can go a day or two (if they're lucky).
And, as an added side feature, the barcode pattern of the tatoo can assist if your child is ever lost or stolen. Hand and forehead options available!
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
If this is actually working, I'd happily volunteer to be the first to use it... I think the advantage is not that it's pain-free. I couldn't care less about pricking me in the finger. The real problems with conventional systems are
Also, while devices for continuous measurement are out there, I don't expect them to be really comfortable, and I'd still depend on a device that I have to look after. So if this tattoo proves to be working, I'd be more than happy to use it.
Oh, and a question -- this polymer stuff reminds me of those materials used in modern hard-to-forge banknotes (see here for instance), is that a similar material?
Now all I need is a tattoo to tell me when I've had too much coffee...
My sig sucks.
It sounds like there's a lot of details left to be worked out, but if something like this could serve as a continuous blood glucose diagnostic, I'm so there. Having been an insulin dependent diabetic for the last 13 years or so, a continuous blood glucose monitor has really been the most important missing piece to the whole puzzle.
Sampling my blood sugar once or twice a day is far too infrequent to get a sense of how my blood sugar rises and falls over time. Having a monitor that could record my blood sugar levels even every five minutes would be fantastic. Make it able to sample every five seconds and hook it up to an insulin pump, and you've got as close to a cybernetic cure as one could hope for.
Being an insulin-dependent diabetic is like driving a manual transmission car.. very workable, but you have to do a lot more work, and you have to know what the engine and gears are doing. If it's still too early for a cure, having a really good tachometer would be the next best thing.
And having an intelligent cyber-tattoo would be just too cyber-punky for words. Sign me up.
- jon
Ganymede, a GPL'ed metadirectory for UNIX
Yes! Now I can have a BIG ASS SEARCH & DESTROY tattoo on my back that pops up when I need to up my glooooocose. I'll be Punk Rock & Healthy!
when they ban enctryption only criminals wi$21*J *#JF$%!@#$':
great, now we'll have a culture of marked people and not-marked people. there will be social upheaval, there will be two powers in the world, that composed of only the marked and only of the not-marked. they will fight wars for generations across interstellar space.....
cool, when can I get mine?
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
So according to recent articles regarding anime power armor and military proposals, the script writer for "the invisible man" (or appropriate pre-Scifi channel individual to first think of it), are owed money because it was their idea?
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
The article states that it would be great for diabetics because it makes testing pain free.
:)
I'm thinking that most diabetics are probably used to it? I can't say, as I'm not diabetic, but maybe some diabetics out there can speak of their pain from the needles? Do the finger pricks still hurt or are you immune to the pain after so long now?
It also isn't totally pain free in that you still need a needle for the insulin itself. That and the fact that you have to get the initial tattoo, which is probably going to be a fiar bit of pain compared to a finger prick
Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try. -- Homer J. Simpson
I HIGHLY doubt this will change parents' attitudes towards their children getting a skull or a big frickin dragon wrapped around their arm. I think as a medical tool, a doctor is not going to give some ridiculous design, more like a small shape (dot, square) located somewhere that can be covered easily yet accessible to the patient to view.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
1) This would make it far easier for the patient's loved ones to measure their glucose levels. A mother would be able to check a child's glucose level in the middle of the night without waking him/her up. I can also imagine a coworker saying, "Dude, your glucose looks a little low - maybe you should go eat something." :)
2) Even without a bracelet or necklace identifying the patient as a diabetic, emergency personel could quickly see the patient's gluocose levels. If a diabetic is laying on the side of the road about to enter a coma, saving a few seconds could be critical.
Personally, I like (1) - it would be a huge quality of life improvement.
Perhaps the insulin injections could be changed to pill forms, etc, -if- the monitoring was more frequent (to the point of rediculous with the current tests).
Not saying it could or would, just thinking that a more active test could potentially lead to alternative treatments which are difficult, or useless in the current environment.
I was on a long flight. Blood sugar was bouncing (high/low), a little sick. Didn't want to burden the people around me with my info and did want to set the stews off. I went to the restroom and wrote with a black bic pen (in the mirror), "Diabetic". Also, the "Hi. Im a diabetic" greeting card you put in your wallet falls apart 6 months after you get it. The medi-necklace breaks easy.
The insulin would either get digested or not enter the blood stream in sufficient quantities.
De plane, de plane boss!
I thought Tattoo was only good for monitoring incoming planes, now he can track diabetes?
I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people. - Jack Handey
Or, even, tattoo it to your wrist and have a colour sensor in your watch that started bleeping if your sugar levels changed too much.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
I dunno, I saw the title and immeadiately thought of a little guy saying "De blood sugar, de blood sugar!"
.... need to eat.
Speaking of which
"Tattoo To Monitor Diabetes"
... uhh.. Shit. Can anybody think of a diabetes related word that rhymes with 'plane'?
Look boss! The
"Derp de derp."
When science catches up, it just ceases to be science fiction.
This sounds like subdermal phosphorescence as discussed in Otherland and other novels as a next generation rebellious self-mutilation.
In other words, like tatoos for the '70's and earrings for the '80's, phosphorescence will be for the future.
As a professional tattoo artist, and a liscensed one to boot, I am regularly asked if I can/will do the new flourescent tattoos, and I always give the exact same answer. "NO!"
In 20 years, I may, but right now, while there have never been any long term tests to see if these tattoos will cause bodily harm, I refuse to put flourescent ink in anyone. There have been no tests to aprove the flourescent inks for permanent cosmetic use, so no one is certain that these inks are safe. Every bottle of ink in my shop comes with about 20 pages of paperwork documenting that the inks have passed years of medical testing, and have been found safe. The flourescent inks do not come with this paperwork, so I refuse stock those inks.
Think about it, things that glow usualy come with warnings saying not to ingest, that means it's not safe. When you put ink in your skin, it does the same thing as if you swallow it.
--Forest C. Adcock--
The obvious next step is to vary the type of material being used linearly across the tattoo itself, turning it into a "glucose meter".
As an interesting aside, could this method be used to produce tattoos that were more easily removable as well?
I think I would want this to be removable, particularly when stem cell research finally cures diabetes once and for all, and you are left with a legacy tattoo.
-- Terry
"Whoa, the room's spinning and I'm about to faint, but my tattoo is still red so I must be okay."
the same group will also be marketing tongue piercings that double as thermometers and eye piercings that monitor for glaucoma.
I know this is slightly off topic but while we are discussing Diabetes, The symptoms should probably be mentioned.
Ten warning signs which should send you to your doctor:
1. Abnormal, intense thirst
2. Frequent urination.
3. Extreme hunger.
4. Sudden, unexplained weight loss.
5. Slow-healing cuts, bruises or skin infections.
6. Recurrent infections.
7. Blurred vision.
8. Unexplained weakness and extreme exhaustion.
9. Genital itching or impotence.
10. Sweet-smelling breath.
you never know the kidneys you save may be your own.
Darn...I mean great now I have a reason to get a tattoo
Wow, so many type-1 diabetics. Is there a forum somewhere for type-1 diabetics who are interested in /.-y things? I'd be interested in joining one if such a thing existed.
-Thom Covert
thomc@nospam.mit.edu
I dont have a
Better living through chemistry, man.
This really has great medical potential, but I can imagine similar developments of the future used for other purposes. Being able to monitor bodily chemicals could be extremely valuable, but also subject to unexpected uses.
As condition of your employment, you agree to a permanent tattoo that indicates drug use.
Or,
The court orders you to get a drug-monitoring tattoo and scan it by your home internet-connected device every 6 hours.
that the little fella finally got a decent job. He was so crushed when Mr. Raurk gave him the boot.
Well, good! I'm happy to see that the little fart is doing something useful with himself, after that failure with his StayFree Mini-Pads.
I too am diabetic, or atleast I was from age 16 to 18. Some time in June of this year my pancreas started to produce insulin of it's own. While I know (as much as I may want it to be) this isn't permanent, I know that i wouldn't want a tattoo for life.
--fetch daddy's blue fright wig, i must be handsome when i release my rage
I remember reading a while back about a "needle" that was created using a process similar to etching computer chips. Basically, it consisted of numerous tiny needles in a grid (10,000 to a square inch or something), which reach deep enough into the skin to enter the capillary system, but not deep enough to trigger the nerves and register pain.
I thought this device would have great application in both glucose testing and medication delivery, but haven't heard anything abou it lately. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Someone you trust is one of us.
Has long as it's not on the forehead, I'm all for it.
Notice the diabetic in the picture has a large, red tattoo across her forehead. If it takes one of THOSE bloody things to let people know when I'm having a sugar fit then forget it.
</sarcasm>
Am I the only one who heard Roxette to sing "I'm gonna get blitzed for some sex"?
I am a type one diabetic, who doesn't test levels any where near as much as I should. While I can clearly see that continuous blood glucose monitoring would be a god send, it's not quite what we need.
Now if we could combine continuous monitoring with an insulin delivery device, in such a way that the monitor controls the delivery, that would be pure heaven.
Imagine, insert an insulin and mabe a glucose cartridge every week or so, the monitor tells the device to deliver insulin when it detects a rise in glucose, and tells the device to deliver glucose when the glucose levels drop to hypoglycemic levels.
You could do anything you want, safe in the knowledge that your diabetes management device would keep your levels within not only safe, but healthy levels.
No more worrying if your late with dinner, or early with dinner - the glucose and insulin doses will even it out, want to go for a run, just go - the glucose will make up the shortfall if needed, want to veg out on the couch, by all means - the device wil just supply a little more insulin to cover your lazyness. It'd be like having a superislet (islet's are the cells that produce insulin for you non-diabetics).
I think the delivery is the easy bit, you could just strap a small device with a needle to your arm or something. The monitoring is the difficult bit, from what I know of the current continuous monitors they are neither accurate or infact particularly continuous.
NZ Electronics Enthusiasts: Check out my Trade Me Listings
My doctor just switched me from Humulin Lente to a new type of insulin called Lantus. It's a Basal insulin that works over a period of ~24 hours. It has no pronounced spike in it's effectiveness, and it seems to be working pretty well... The only problem is you can't mix it wirh regular, but since you take the shot at night before bed, how often do you take regular at that point in time? After 12 years of being insulin dependent, since i was diagnosed at age 9, this is one of the better things i've been able to try out. If this tattoo works as it's claimed, and it can be accurate, then it would work wonders at controlling my bloodsugar, which it desperately needs. I just cant wait to get a tattoo of Beastie on my arm...
the pills people take today aren't really insulin... they just help your body use the insulin that you do produce, or coax more out of you. they only work for people who have relatively functional pancreases.
real oral insulin instead of insulin injections/pump would be a major breakthrough, and there is much work in the field. There seems to be some very promising work on this at Purdue, which may be related to the current Nobex clinical trials. Israeli researchers have a line on it, too. Shots may well soon be a thing of the past!
If you can see this, feed me donut
OTOH I should not be giving Cowboyneal any ideas.
badness 10000
Not quite true. The procedure you're refering to, known as a islet transplant, is still in the extremely experiemental phase. While it shows great promise, the main problem associated with islet transplantation is the auto-immune reaction. The drugs used to suppress this reaction have horrible side effects and for most, make the cure worst than the disease. Genetic research such as stem cell development may someday allow diabetics to use their own cells for transplanation. Assuming Bush doesn't completely ban it, or lead us into World War III- I guess it wouldn't be very useful if no one was around to use it....
:)
I'm *really* looking forward to this- I've wanted to get a tat for awhile, but decided against it until I found with meaning--boy would this be the meaning I've been searching for!
For those who don't know (I'm sure all the diabetics here are familiar, or should be), the "Islets of Langerhans" as they're known, are the part of the pancreas that produces insulin. A type 1 diabetic is someone whose islets (or beta cells) have been destroyed or are not functioning. A type 2 diabetic has decreased sensitivity to insulin- their body still produces it, but their ability to process it is greatly diminished.
I'm almost 22. I was diagnosed with type 1 right after my 20th birthday- there is no history of diabetes in my family and I was in excellent health. Just something to think about for all the jaded and ambivalent folks out there...not to scare you or anything
What would be even cooler would be to start seeing this technology, and "adaptive tattoos" in general made available to the general populace. The ability to have tattoos that change their appearance depending on physiological conditions would open up new worlds of expression. Anyone who's read Nylund's "Signal to Noise" will remember the character Panda's always-changing eyelid tattoos. Very cool.
My deviantArt site
the private shouldn't become public. While it would be good to see my hubby's BGLs, I don't think he'd want his boss to see. It's only his employer's concern if stress is raising his BGL (which it invariably does).
All ambulances carry testing kits. Most take less than five seconds these days. I don't see the point of a tattoo. What, are we going to go around branding everyone who has a medical condition?
Just as bad are those chips you can get that catalogue every ailment you've ever had. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I wouldn't want that information falling into the wrong hands, and I doubt that a microchip is going to be of much use if I fall ill in a jungle somewhere.
My plea to the scientific community - find a similar use for piercings, man! I've had it with the paranoia and all the planning that goes into hiding my (nipple) piercing from my family & the more bigoted friends...
My situation was similar - surprised by a Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis at age 25, a few months after the major lifestyle change of moving to Ireland, getting a mobile phone, cooking my own food. No history in my family. Good health, even skinny.
As a brother-in-law said, there's never been a better time to be diabetic. Thanks to insulin treatment, it's mostly an inconvenience; 100 years ago, it would be an agonizing life of sickness and early death.
On that cheery note, I'll start pricing tatoos.
....can you get it in the shape of a tight-ass snake?
I belong to the ______ generation.
Polyethelene Glycol is the major component of antifreeze, if I remember right...
Weren't we always told not to touchor drink the stuff as kids?
The Dopester
"Yes, I'm a Karma Whore, but I'm doing it to pay my way through school."
One of the most interesting advances in the last few years is the use of the INGAP peptide to stimulate the production of beta cell production. It turns out that a Type I diabetic continues to produce the necessary beta cells that would replace those that have already been killed off by the body. So the question is how do you get the body to produce more of these cells than it destroys via the auto-immune response? That is where the INGAP peptide comes in, boosting the production of beta cells from stem cells.
The tests have passed the preliminary human trials and have ramped up to a trial of 300 or so diabetics earlier this year. So far no side-effects have been seen and positive reduction of insulin dependance has been recorded.
Of note another group is looking to block the auto-immune response to allow natural stem cell production to replace the damaged cells.
I am heading into my 20th year of Type I diabetes and the INGAP group is one of the few to have gotten past initial FDA Phase 1 trials. Perhaps in 5 years a daily or weekly pill may be all that is needed to control this condition. Until then it is Lantus and multiple daily BG tests using the Freestyle reader and some fast acting humilin to bring high BG levels down...
JM
Your global village idiot!
...is that the benefits of a low-carb way of life would become more widely demonstrated, as would the idiocies of the low-fat fad.
In addition to the realization of just how much nutritional disinformation we are being fed by the popular media, we would see widespread consciousness-raising in regard to the deleterious effects of unnatural substances in our diets (sugar, grains, trans-fats, etc). The relative benefits of various types of exercise would be more readily apparent, and immediate feedback would encourage more healthy lifestyles.
There is already ample evidence that one of the major keys to a long and healthy life is the reduction of the amount of insulin your body needs (others include wearing seat belts, avoiding violent crime, getting ample sleep, avoiding environmental poisons, not taking gratuitous risks, not smoking, etc.).
One can only hope that some better way of doing this can be found. Since current bg monitoring is done by IR absorption/transmission, I would think that a small IR reflector could be implanted, perhaps just under an artery or vein in the arm near the skin's surface. Then a monitor could use this to directly read bg (perhaps with occasional calibration with other methods) using a short IR burst.
Other things I'd like to be able to measure (inexpensively) in real time: Insulin level, HD/LD/TG, ghrelin (and its recently-discovered agonist, which doesn't have a popular name yet), white cell count, seritonin, and DHEAS. Might find some other items worth monitoring, to add to that list. Gathering a large amount of data on these things might result in a quantum leap in real knowledge on a subject that is now characterized by 'research' that consists largely of:
1) Writing a conclusion based on current biases,
2) Collecting data artfully chosen to support that conclusion,
3) Submitting the 'research' based primarily on the pre-conceived conclusion for review by people with the same or similar biases, and
4) Getting published in a journal of some mutual admiration society.
Concealed Handgun License Courses in Plano, Texas
I've wanted to get a tat for awhile, but decided against it until I found with meaning--boy would this be the meaning I've been searching for!
My advice - design one with meaning, but not too much. It's only a mark and won't reveal as much about you as you might think. People will read their own stories into your tattoo(s), which usually is a good thing.
Really, relax about it. You will have it the rest of your life which is all the more reason to *not* put too much meaning into it. Meanings, beliefs, and perceptions will change as you grow older.
Instead, might I suggest getting something that marks this part of your life. Then in a few years, get something else. Read up on 'travel marks' to get better understanding of tattoos in Western culture. (I'm assuming you're Western from how you talk about Bush and your first tattoo.)
Put it somewhere where it can't be seen or you'll get endless wisecracks about "Gee Bob, you're a little cranky. Looks like your blood sugar is a bit low, eh?"
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
They should install a little flag that pops out of the top of your head like a turkey thermometer. *POP* "Low blood sugar, time to get a snack!"
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
There are two reasons that insulin can't be taken as a pill. The primary reason that insulin can't be taken as a pill is that insulin is an enzyme, that is made from protein, and our digestive system breaks down all proteins to their consitutant amino acids. If the protein isn't broken down to amino acids, then it can't pass through the intestines into the body, the molecules are too big. You have to bypass the digestive system, meaning injections. The second reason is that insulin has to be very carefully regulated, either too much or too little causes problems. Pills can't be adjusted to that level, because the digestive system causes a delay between taking the drug and it entering the system. So, it's basically impossible for insulin pills to be manufactured.
See Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution for details.
Concealed Handgun License Courses in Plano, Texas
I agree with most of your post, but...
If "unnatural substances in our diets" cause "deleterious effects", then why has life expectancy increased by 30 years in the last century? Note that antibiotics and other medical advances only account for a fraction of that time.
Maybe the unnatural substances in our diets are not so bad for us.
"Life expectancy" over the last century is a misleading average, which includes, among other things, two global wars in the first half of the last century. *Maximum* lifespan has remained fairly constant, while infant mortality and death of women during childbirth has declined. Various medical advances do in fact account for most of that improvement. The remainder is mostly from changes which make driving and working safer (divided highways, workplace safely rules, etc).
Concealed Handgun License Courses in Plano, Texas