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There have been many strides in diagnosing and treating diabetes, especially in the past decade.  Better methods of testing, better medications and better information are all available.  In the majority of cases, both doctors and patients are more informed and more involved in the diagnosis, control and treatment of diabetes.

One area of importance is in diagnosing diabetes.  Often, individuals have no idea that they have the disease and their doctors are not looking for it because they are not being told that there is a problem or they are not making a connection between the symptoms they are being told about and the fact that these are symptoms of diabetes.

There is good news about diagnosing diabetes.  Researchers including engineers, microbiologists and endocrinologists have worked together to create a new way of finding the symptoms of diabetes.  This test projects light into the skin to measure specific compounds that signal the presence of diabetes.  These compounds exist when there is damage from high blood sugar.  These compounds are called AGE’s.

The test takes about one minute and simply shines light at different wave lengths into the arm.  If the compounds are present, the person either has diabetes, is pre-diabetic or is at high risk for developing it.

This testing could easily replace some of the blood tests used, and it would possibly help diagnose many more people sooner so that their diabetes or pre-diabetes could be controlled.  Instead of fasting, drinking a syrupy liquid and having several vials of blood drawn, an individual could simply have a light shined under the arm to look for specific symptoms.

Researchers hope that this can become part of regular check ups, especially for individuals at risk for diabetes.  If physicians have the light available, they could use it in the course of assessing their patients and most likely find those with diabetes who don’t know it, or those with pre-diabetes who could control it, thus keeping their patients healthier and the disease under control.

The light, called “The Scout” is currently being tested in several hospitals.