Diabetic Alert Dog Scientific Research Studies Underway

Diabetic Alert Dogs by Warren Retrievers

www.DiabetesAlertDogs.com 

Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers is a 501c3 Charitable Organization that provides Diabetic Alert Dogs and other service dogs for invisible disabilities nationwide and internationally. We do not have program limitations based on age, severity, geographical location or financial status. We serve all. Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about our program and how we can help you or your family.

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Guardian Angel Service Dogs and Warren Retrievers are embarking on a research study with University of Virginia to prove the effectiveness of Diabetic Alert Dogs.  There are more possibilities out there to prove the effectiveness, below is another example.

What does a dog’s nose know about low blood-sugar attacks in humans?

Eli Lilly and Co. has launched a study to try to find out.

The Indianapolis drug maker is working to find out how hypoglycemia-alert dogs sense severe low-blood-sugar swings in diabetics.

Although dogs have been used for years to warn diabetics of low-blood-sugar attacks, it’s unknown how the dogs do it, other than using their ultra-acute noses. Their noses are up to 1,000 times more sensitive than a human’s.

Lilly, a leading producer of insulin and other diabetes treatments, says its scientists will investigate whether dogs might be detecting subtle changes in body chemistry that are linked to a drop in blood sugar.

“Clearly there’s a need to ‘scientize’ this whole thing,” said Dr. Dana Hardin, a medical director and pediatric endocrinologist at Lilly who is heading the study. “We know it’s the sense of smell, but what on earth is it? We are determined to find the ‘what.’ ”

The study will be conducted through Lilly’s Innovation Day program, which allows researchers to pursue their own studies if they relate to a subject Lilly has an interest in. 

Lilly is using a group of newly trained dogs to test how reliably they can sense hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, in multiple samples in a laboratory setting. Later research will look at what the dogs sense in the samples and how diabetic patients’ lives are affected by having an alert dog.

By this time next year, Hardin said, the study might be divulging clues to allow Lilly to identify the organic compound that is twitching the noses of diabetes-alert dogs.