Researchers have developed a skin-permeable polymer that can deliver insulin into the body, which they say could one day offer an alternative to injections for diabetes management. The skin's structure presents a formidable barrier to the delivery of large drugs but in this work a team show that their polymer can penetrate though the different layers without causing damage. Insulin attached to this polymer was able to reduce blood glucose levels in animal models for diabetes at a comparable speed to injected insulin.
Recent studies conclude that high glucose levels from sugar impacts your memory and impair cognition. In fact, individuals with diabetes, a condition that causes elevated high blood-sugar levels, are known to increase stress and have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, a form of dementia. It seems that the brain in type II diabetes, just like the body, has difficulty utilizing sugar for energy and this can lead to slower processing when it comes to memory retrieval.