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.

Another piece of good news is that blood glucose test meters are getting better all the time, and that insurance companies now recognize the value of home testing and are willing to subsidize the cost.

The first glucose test meter wasn’t invented until 1962. It was invented by Clark and Lyons at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Diabetics could not test their own blood glucose at home. They had to rely on nothing more than diet, exercise, and medication and hope for the best. And that first crude glucose meter didn’t change that situation.

In American hospitals in the 1970s, another glucose meter was introduced, called the Ames Reflectance Meter. It had been invented by Anton H. Clemen. The Ames Reflectance Meter was a device that was about 10 inches long, and it had to be connected to an electrical outlet. There was a needle that moved and indicated the blood glucose level. It took about one minute. Testing still wasn’t available for diabetics to use at home.

It wasn’t until about 1980 that the first home glucose-testing meters were marketed in America. Those first meters weren’t all that accurate, but they got better and better. The insurance companies resisted paying for home testing equipment, but as the meters improved and it was proved that home testing worked, the insurance companies relented.

Home glucose testing meters were approved for use by Type 1 diabetics in the 1980s but they were not approved for use by Type 2 diabetics until several years later. Even today, many Type 2 diabetics are not instructed on the use of a blood glucose meter.