Does your diabetes medication smell like dead fish or smelly socks? You’re not alone.
Many patients who took the common diabetes drug metformin report being so disgusted by its smell that they stopped taking it altogether, doctors say. Patients who do take the drug often feel nauseated and report burping up an unpleasant after-taste.
The problem of the malodorous medicine came to light after scientists decided to check whether nausea, commonly reported among patients on metformin, was a physical side effect caused by the drug’s ingredients or simply a result of the stink the pill was raising. Their results, published in the February issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, revealed that the tablet’s smell just made people want to throw up.
Researcher J. Russell May told HealthDay News:
“Metformin is an excellent drug, but the immediate-release formulation may have an odor to it. The smell is fishy or like the inside of an inner tube, and in a patient’s mind, because it smells like something that has gone bad, they may think the drug isn’t good.”
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Scientists typically design their devices for function rather than fashion. For designers, it’s the other way around. But now, jewelry designer Leah Heiss is looking to combine the two. In fact, she’s been working with scientists to make several scientific gadgets pretty enough to be worn as accessories.
While completing a residency at Nanotechnology Victoria in Australia, Heiss created jewelry that diabetic patients can use to inject insulin—sort of like the insulin tattoo, only a bit more design-oriented. The medical jewelry is currently being developed in several countries, including the U.S., and could free diabetic patients from syringes forever—but first it’ll have pass clinical trials.
Heiss designed the insulin delivery jewelry—a necklace and a ring—as a two-piece set meant to be worn together. The necklace holds NanoMAPs insulin patches made of small needles. The wearer can apply the patch to the skin on the person’s finger, thereby delivering insulin in low doses. The ring must be worn to hold the patch in place. And for men, the jewelry isn’t gender specific though—men can use the necklace as a keychain.
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No, there’s no cause for alarm over the FDA-approved Cialis or Viagra. But some illegal anti-impotence drugs in Singapore contaminated with the diabetes drug glyburide have caused dangerously low blood sugar levels in a reported 150 people—and led to the deaths of four men.
“Power 1 Walnut” and “Santi Bovine Penis Erecting Capsule” are the names of two of the offending drugs—or, rather, herbal supplements promoted for sexual enhancement. A counterfeit version of Cialis was also found by authorities.
Canada had already issued a Foreign Product Alert against the “Santi Bovine” last year, but that obviously did no good for people in Singapore.
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It’s not quite the kind of science tattoo that The Loom displays in its gallery, but scientists in Cambridge, MA are developing a nanosensor that can be injected into the skin, like a tattoo, to monitor blood sugar levels.
The sensor, still in early development, is intended to save diabetics from having to finger-prick and use enzyme test strips on their own blood, which is currently the most reliable method to measure blood glucose.
The “tattoo” will be comprised of 120-nanometer polymer beads, and will actually be shallower than the ink of a real tattoo. Injected into the surface layers of the skin, the sensor will need to be re-injected periodically. Each polymer bead, wrapped in a biocompatible coating, contains sensor molecules that are designed to detect specific chemicals—which, in addition to glucose, will also potentially include sodium, chloride, and calcium.
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