New Saliva Tests for Prediabetes and Diabetes
Test strips
Talk about a great scientific discovery! Here’s the science, in a nutshell:
compared proteins in saliva samples from 10 people with type 2 diabetes, 20 people with prediabetes, and 10 healthy people.
A total of 65 salivary proteins differed between the diabetes patients and people without prediabetes or diabetes.
Several of those proteins were more abundant in the diabetes patients than people with prediabetes. So if levels of those proteins start rising, that might mark the shift from prediabetes to diabetes, note Rao and colleagues.
The saliva test for diabetes and prediabetes isn’t ready for mainstream use. First, it needs to be tested on larger groups of people.
Even if this is a preliminary test, it shows great promise. Soon, parents, doctors and phlebotomists will no longer hear the screaming cries of children because they have to draw blood. So much can be gleaned from saliva these days. Science can draw DNA from saliva, testing for so many things.
But for now, they can only test for Diabetes type 2. So much the better for us ‘brave’ adults who squeamishly look the other way when the needle comes towards our arms and veins for that almighty blood glucose test. When this becomes mainstream, all we’ll need to do is have a test strip swiped across our cheek or tongue. And that’ll be it.
This makes me wonder what else science can do for Diabetics? If they can reduce the testing to a saliva sample, what other scientific discoveries are the on the verge of making? Non-invasive shots?
January 22nd, 2009 at 10:40 am
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