Someday, somebody is going to find a cure for diabetes. Someday, blood glucose meters will no longer be a necessary piece of equipment for diabetics. Someday! But someday hasn’t arrived yet, and so we still are chained to blood glucose meters. The good news right now is that blood glucose meters are getting better. The future for noninvasive, continuous blood glucose monitoring meters is bright. Some are already on the market.

The continuous, noninvasive blood glucose meters that are on the market today are not cheap, and most of them must be prescribed by a physician as well. But the technology IS out there and you can bet that it will only get better.

There is one continuous blood glucose meter that is designed to be worn on the wrist, much like a wristwatch. This device uses electric fields to draw out body fluid for testing. It’s known as the GlucoWatch G2 Biographer. The GlucoWatch G2 Biographer has a major limitation in that it cannot cope with perspiration at the test site, and it does not replace blood glucose testing.

Most of the noninvasive, continuous blood glucose meters today measure tissue sugar in body tissues, and not the blood sugar in blood fluid. That gives them limited value to diabetics.

A couple of models of continuous blood glucose meters on the market today can’t really be described as noninvasive, but are a great deal more accurate. The systems make use of a hypodermic probe attached to a small transmitter. The hypodermic probe is implanted, and the handheld receiver is about the size of a cell phone. Readings can be taken from as much as five feet away.

There are better things in the future. The scientists and the researchers are working on it, and someday we will have continuous blood glucose meters that really do work and really are noninvasive.