
Diabetes App Designed to Predict Blood Sugar Levels After Each Meal
For individuals with type 2 diabetes, managing glucose levels can be a daily challenge.
However, the introduction of a new algorithm-based app may soon take some of this stress away.
A lot of work still needs to be done on the process, but the idea behind the personalized technology is to predict the impact of each meal on a user’s blood sugar levels.
Type 2 diabetes now affects more than 29 million people in the United States. An additional 86 million adults are thought to have prediabetes, which can develop into type 2 diabetes if lifestyle changes are not implemented.
With type 2 diabetes comes a constant need to monitor food intake to ensure the correct blood glucose levels are maintained.
If levels are too high for prolonged periods of time, serious health complications can arise.
Medication is given to help manage sugar level fluctuations, but exercise and diet also play a substantial role.
Although the impact of specific food types on glucose levels can be estimated, it is not an exact science.
Effects can vary substantially between individuals and they can even vary within an individual dependent on a range of factors.
A report, published in PLOS Computational Biology this week, explains how a group of scientists have integrated an algorithm into an app called Glucoracle, which goes some way toward solving this problem.
David Albers, Ph.D., associate research scientist in biomedical informatics at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) in New York and lead author of the study, explains: “Even with expert guidance, it's difficult for people to understand the t
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