Alerting Dogs helpful to Diabetics

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by: JuliaHanf
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This would be great news for you if you are worried with the blood sugar level of patients having diabetes. It has been proved that dog has the ability to sense the change of diabetics' blood sugar level. Dogs have already shown themselves capable of leading the blind, alerting the deaf, and helping the physically disabled with daily tasks. Anecdotal reports suggest that some dogs can perform early warning of hypoglycemia by using their sense of smell to 'sniff out' if their owner's blood sugar levels are dropping.

It's because of the strong sense of smelling that they can have an eye on blood sugar level of diabetic people. It's the 5th sense which gives them this power. Labrador retrievers are used for detection although they don't even do their graduation of the training. The reason for their every step is resistance to walk sometimes in rain or getting into the elevator but all are because of some reasons. They undertake almost 4 months of training to detect the explosives & narcotics. Now how it works out is the 2 year old dog is taught how to smell the scent of low blood sugar. After that they take the soft tube hanged around their neck to alert when they smell the same scent in a diabetic person.

When the hypoglycemic detection dogs were initially announced a few years ago, many were skeptical because glucose sensors were about to hit the market. Since then, the verdict has changed in favor of the dogs. Hypoglycemic people, may, emit an odor that is characteristic, which the dogs detect. Dogs are very sensitive to subtle physiological changes in their human companions that may begin five to 45 minutes prior to an actual attack. The dogs then warn their owners so they can find a safe environment or take necessary precautionary measures.

Even till today the scientists are unsure about this characteristic of dogs that how exactly they can sense changes in the human yokefellows. No one exactly is aware that how the scent is created or which chemicals creates that scent which dogs are able to detect and this great ability of dogs gives great support to the diabetic families whether that's parents of young kids or old people living alone.

Over 20 million children and adults in the United States have diabetes. Those with the disease have a pancreas that doesn't produce enough insulin, the hormone the body needs to convert sugars, starches and other food into energy. Diabetics must test their blood glucose level regularly, even sometimes in the middle of the night to avoid the peaks and valleys that can cause organ failure.

Dogs that successfully complete training are accurate about 90 percent of the time. Many people, devastated with the disease have expressed interest in acquiring these dogs for themselves as a personal 4-legged blood sugar detector. The special glucose sensors diabetics wear don't always work, either due to mechanical dysfunction or because of evening medications that hamper their ability to respond to the sensor. But exactly what the dogs notice when a person experiences a blood sugar low is still a mystery. Research is still going on to verify whether dogs can reliably detect dangerous blood sugar level drops in diabetics. We hope to find out what cues dogs pick up on so they can officially be recognized and trained as early-warning systems for diabetics.

About the Author

Julia Hanf author of the book How To Play the Diabetes Diet Game and Win Through a real life crisis Julia figured out how to live diabetes free. Visit YourDiabetesCure.com and learn more about your solution for diabetes.