Free Diabetic Supplies

Diabetes has become a great health concern during the past 20 years or more, and the number of people in the United States and throughout the world who have diabetes continues to rise at an alarming rate.  Doctors and researchers are constantly looking for ways to diagnose diabetes as early as possible so that changes and corrections in diet, addition of medication and other factors can be addressed before the disease progresses too far.

There is good news on this front.  There is a new device that may give doctors early warning of eye disease, especially vision problems linked to diabetes. 

The device is able to read the eye and capture images that indicate that there is stress in a person’s metabolism and/or tissue damage even before a person has any symptoms of diabetes.  The device measures flavoprotein autofluorescence (FA) which is considered a reliable indicator of eye trouble.

If the retina can be measured to determine whether or not there is a metabolic dysfunction in its tissues, it could help doctors determine if a person has an abnormal metabolism, leading to the diagnosis of diabetes.  By performing this test innumerable individuals with diabetes, pre-diabetes or other changes in metabolism that could be leading to diabetes, would be able to be diagnosed – often very early on.  In addition, this unique and cutting edge test could diagnose diabetes and/or its early warning signs, in individuals whose physicians have not yet been able to find the symptoms and make a diagnosis.  This would allow for lifestyle changes and treatment before the disease progressed enough to do significant damage.

In tests involving diabetics and non-diabetics, the device captured the metabolic dysfunction – including higher levels of FA and metabolic dysfunction – in the individuals with diabetes or pre-diabetes.  Also, individuals with retinopathy, a disease of the eye which can cause blindness and is associated with diabetes – had significantly more abnormal metabolic readings than those without retinopathy.

Since this testing is much quicker and less invasive or uncomfortable than traditional testing for diabetes, researchers, optometrists and other eye professionals, as well as physicians who are aware of this new test, are hoping that it will become more widely available soon so that it can provide a means of helping diagnose – and slow – the diabetes epidemic that has been rapidly growing during the pas decade or more.