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> Once ingested, water dissolves a disk of sugar, using a spring to release a tiny needle made up almost entirely of freeze-dried insulin. The needle is injecte

> Once ingested, water dissolves a disk of sugar, using a spring to release a tiny needle made up almost entirely of freeze-dried insulin. The needle is injected into the stomach — which the patient can’t feel, owing to a lack of pain receptors in the stomach. Once the injection has occurred, the needle can break down in the digestive tract. That's some pretty impressive ingenuity. Also sounds kinda terrifying if the 1.0 has any kind of edge case that involves tearing holes in your stomach lining. I'm not diabetic, but I still have vivid memories of sitting with my grandmother while she constantly pricked her finger to test blood sugar and jabbing insulin pens into her abdomen. It's always stuck with me as a particularly unpleasant lifestyle to have to endure. Even still, if I were a diabetic I think I'd still be waiting a year or two after the release of something like this to make sure all the kinks have been ironed out ;)

bitexploder 8y ago
I test my insulin willingly with no diabetes. One hard squat hurts way more Than either of those activities. I have actually teared up from hard lifts. Needles are just a nuisance. The real downside to beetus is having to think about it constantly, IMO. (And managing it for kids, who don’t have perspective on blood/needles)
- naiyt 8y ago
  > The real downside to beetus is having to think about it constantly, IMO Pretty much this. Obviously needles and finger pricks are a bigger deal for some people, but most diabetics get used to it fairly quickly. The hard part is the constant mental drain of having to be your own pancreas. It's like you're constantly flying a plane where you have to manually maintain a certain altitude, because you'll crash and die if you fly too low or too high. It's exhausting.
- agumonkey 8y ago
  ~meditation or similar mental massaging seems to be key at one point. Avoiding the damages of constant stress is important.
- GordonS 8y ago
  Do you mean you test your blood glucose levels, or are you really testing your insulin levels somehow? (I don't know if that's a thing?)
  - bitexploder 8y ago
    Yeah, sorry, blood glucose.
RPLong 8y ago
What doctors and researchers get wrong about diabetes is that pin-pricks and injections are not even remotely bad. I don't know a single diabetic who cares about injections and blood sugar tests. You get used to that within the first week of diagnosis. No, the unpleasant part of being diabetic is having to live every second of your life as an act of weighing how what you're currently doing is going to affect your blood sugar levels an hour for now: - Have I been sitting in this chair too long? - Have I not been sitting down enough this morning? - Have I been drinking enough water? - Did I just drink too much water? - I haven't been to the bathroom in two hours; does this mean I'm screwed? - If I eat a piece of toast after dinner, will I be able to have sex with my wife without going hypoglycemic? - I'd like to go hiking, but it's hot outside and my insulin might spoil, so maybe I'll walk around the block instead. - I just plan on going to the grocery store for 20 minutes; do I need to bring insulin in case there's a traffic jam on the way home? Etc., etc. Pharmaceutical companies can't solve the real lifestyle problems associated with diabetes short of inventing an actual cure.
- fitnessrunner 8y ago
  Type 1 for 30ish years... I wish there was some way to move this comment to the top of this thread. You pretty much hit the nail on the head. Yeah, injections suck, but the real sinister issue is the constant attention it requires, and if you don't pay attention, you can get in trouble (hospital, death) real fast. Longer term, lose limbs, eyesight, etc.
- helsinki 8y ago
  T1 here. This is a perfect summary. I received my Dexcom G6 yesterday. If you dont have a CGM and insulin pump, I highly recommend both.
  - RPLong 8y ago
    One thing I'm worried about WRT switching to a pump is the impact of heat on insulin. I can't have a Humalog pen exposed to 80+ degree heat for more than a few minutes without it losing efficacy. I live in Texas. What will stop the summer heat from cooking all the insulin in my pump's reservoir while I'm walking down the street? Do you have any thoughts on this? I'd love to have more flexibility.
Pharmakon 8y ago
Once ingested, water dissolves a disk of sugar, using a spring to release a tiny needle made up almost entirely of freeze-dried insulin. The needle is injected into the stomach — which the patient can’t feel, owing to a lack of pain receptors in the stomach. Once the injection has occurred, the needle can break down in the digestive tract. With the right compound in the needle, thst sounds like an incredible way to assassinate someone without leaving any traces which are unlikely to be found. The combination of a tiny needle mark on the inside of the stomach, a lack of dissolved pills in the gut, and a likely delay between administration and onset of effects, it’s sort of perfect.
- emiliobumachar 8y ago
  Sorry, I don't think so. Getting someone to swallow a pill sounds strictly harder then getting them to swallow a liquid.
  - Pharmakon 8y ago
    It’s a sugar pill, if the target eats candy or takes any other pill it would be doable. It would also be easy to slip into food. Liquid is easier, but will leave unavoidable forensic evidence. If making something look like natural causes even under extreme scrutiny is the goal, this is a hell of a way to do it.
    - hannasanarion 8y ago
      How often do you swallow candy without chewing?
      - Pharmakon 8y ago
        Yeah... that’s a good point. Candy is probably out, but with the number of supplements and pills people take, that’s probably easier. Then of course you have the challenge of accessing them at some point, but no one said that attempting an assassination like this would be easy. More of a problem would be that if it didn’t work, and was discovered, it would be very clear that a government or similarly powerful organization was involved. So good for secrecy, bad for deniability. All told, strangling someone and making it look like a suicide, or “helping” someone make a jump is probably still simpler and safer.
agumonkey 8y ago
I'd have hoped for needle-less operations (lack of pain is not the best of arguments). That said when MEMS meets medicine there could be a vast change.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
jcims 8y ago
Less painful but it's hard to see how this would be as reliable as a standard dermal injection. Pumps definitely have reliability issues but they tend to alert in most cases.
samcday 8y ago
Yikes! Just a quick follow up to my original comment... After reading a lot of the replies I realized I have never actually given serious thought to what it would be like to have diabetes. Sure I shared my little anecdote, but I’m currently a reasonably healthy (read: lucky) person who doesn’t have to grapple with any illnesses. Given that, it was quite improper for me to share my thoughts about how I would respond to an interesting development in medicine like this. So, thanks to all the thoughtful replies to the parent, they were very eye opening.
nolok 8y ago
I can't help but smile at the idea of using sugar to deliver insulin
notfed 8y ago
"...and you don't have to prick your fingers anymore!" (Sorry, if you don't get this reference please ignore.)

bitexploder 8y ago

I test my insulin willingly with no diabetes. One hard squat hurts way more Than either of those activities. I have actually teared up from hard lifts. Needles are just a nuisance. The real downside to beetus is having to think about it constantly, IMO. (And managing it for kids, who don’t have perspective on blood/needles)

naiyt 8y ago
> The real downside to beetus is having to think about it constantly, IMO Pretty much this. Obviously needles and finger pricks are a bigger deal for some people, but most diabetics get used to it fairly quickly. The hard part is the constant mental drain of having to be your own pancreas. It's like you're constantly flying a plane where you have to manually maintain a certain altitude, because you'll crash and die if you fly too low or too high. It's exhausting.
agumonkey 8y ago
~meditation or similar mental massaging seems to be key at one point. Avoiding the damages of constant stress is important.
GordonS 8y ago
Do you mean you test your blood glucose levels, or are you really testing your insulin levels somehow? (I don't know if that's a thing?)
- bitexploder 8y ago
  Yeah, sorry, blood glucose.

RPLong 8y ago

What doctors and researchers get wrong about diabetes is that pin-pricks and injections are not even remotely bad. I don't know a single diabetic who cares about injections and blood sugar tests. You get used to that within the first week of diagnosis. No, the unpleasant part of being diabetic is having to live every second of your life as an act of weighing how what you're currently doing is going to affect your blood sugar levels an hour for now: - Have I been sitting in this chair too long? - Have I not been sitting down enough this morning? - Have I been drinking enough water? - Did I just drink too much water? - I haven't been to the bathroom in two hours; does this mean I'm screwed? - If I eat a piece of toast after dinner, will I be able to have sex with my wife without going hypoglycemic? - I'd like to go hiking, but it's hot outside and my insulin might spoil, so maybe I'll walk around the block instead. - I just plan on going to the grocery store for 20 minutes; do I need to bring insulin in case there's a traffic jam on the way home? Etc., etc. Pharmaceutical companies can't solve the real lifestyle problems associated with diabetes short of inventing an actual cure.

fitnessrunner 8y ago
Type 1 for 30ish years... I wish there was some way to move this comment to the top of this thread. You pretty much hit the nail on the head. Yeah, injections suck, but the real sinister issue is the constant attention it requires, and if you don't pay attention, you can get in trouble (hospital, death) real fast. Longer term, lose limbs, eyesight, etc.
helsinki 8y ago
T1 here. This is a perfect summary. I received my Dexcom G6 yesterday. If you dont have a CGM and insulin pump, I highly recommend both.
- RPLong 8y ago
  One thing I'm worried about WRT switching to a pump is the impact of heat on insulin. I can't have a Humalog pen exposed to 80+ degree heat for more than a few minutes without it losing efficacy. I live in Texas. What will stop the summer heat from cooking all the insulin in my pump's reservoir while I'm walking down the street? Do you have any thoughts on this? I'd love to have more flexibility.

Pharmakon 8y ago

Once ingested, water dissolves a disk of sugar, using a spring to release a tiny needle made up almost entirely of freeze-dried insulin. The needle is injected into the stomach — which the patient can’t feel, owing to a lack of pain receptors in the stomach. Once the injection has occurred, the needle can break down in the digestive tract. With the right compound in the needle, thst sounds like an incredible way to assassinate someone without leaving any traces which are unlikely to be found. The combination of a tiny needle mark on the inside of the stomach, a lack of dissolved pills in the gut, and a likely delay between administration and onset of effects, it’s sort of perfect.

emiliobumachar 8y ago
Sorry, I don't think so. Getting someone to swallow a pill sounds strictly harder then getting them to swallow a liquid.
- Pharmakon 8y ago
  It’s a sugar pill, if the target eats candy or takes any other pill it would be doable. It would also be easy to slip into food. Liquid is easier, but will leave unavoidable forensic evidence. If making something look like natural causes even under extreme scrutiny is the goal, this is a hell of a way to do it.
  - hannasanarion 8y ago
    How often do you swallow candy without chewing?
    - Pharmakon 8y ago
      Yeah... that’s a good point. Candy is probably out, but with the number of supplements and pills people take, that’s probably easier. Then of course you have the challenge of accessing them at some point, but no one said that attempting an assassination like this would be easy. More of a problem would be that if it didn’t work, and was discovered, it would be very clear that a government or similarly powerful organization was involved. So good for secrecy, bad for deniability. All told, strangling someone and making it look like a suicide, or “helping” someone make a jump is probably still simpler and safer.

agumonkey 8y ago

I'd have hoped for needle-less operations (lack of pain is not the best of arguments). That said when MEMS meets medicine there could be a vast change.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

jcims 8y ago

Less painful but it's hard to see how this would be as reliable as a standard dermal injection. Pumps definitely have reliability issues but they tend to alert in most cases.

samcday 8y ago

Yikes! Just a quick follow up to my original comment... After reading a lot of the replies I realized I have never actually given serious thought to what it would be like to have diabetes. Sure I shared my little anecdote, but I’m currently a reasonably healthy (read: lucky) person who doesn’t have to grapple with any illnesses. Given that, it was quite improper for me to share my thoughts about how I would respond to an interesting development in medicine like this. So, thanks to all the thoughtful replies to the parent, they were very eye opening.

nolok 8y ago

I can't help but smile at the idea of using sugar to deliver insulin

notfed 8y ago

"...and you don't have to prick your fingers anymore!" (Sorry, if you don't get this reference please ignore.)