Israeli tech helps diabetics manage sugar levels, eat what they want
An Israeli company developed a system that uses artificial intelligence to predict people with diabetes' blood sugar response to foods, enabling them to manage their sugar levels more efficiently.
An app by tech company DayTwo enables diabetes patient to manage their sugar levels more efficiently.(photo credit: Courtesy)
“Generic diets for diabetes patients don’t usually work,” says Amir
Golan, vice president of business development and strategic partnerships
for DayTwo. “If you tell someone they need to avoid carbohydrates, most
people won’t be able to stick with that for the long-term. But even for
something as unhealthy as ice cream, we can find ways to mitigate the
damage so people can eat it once in a while. Using data to teach a
person to combine foods based on their microbiome profile is more
effective than generic diets, and has higher levels of success.”
The medical world’s understanding of diabetes treatment has changed
significantly in the past six years, Golan said in an interview for World Diabetes Day, an annual event created in 1991 to help build awareness about the disease’s growing health threat.
DayTwo’s
system analyzes a person’s gut microbiome and uses artificial
intelligence to predict their blood sugar response to foods for a
sustainable approach to managing type-2 diabetes and prediabetes.
Welcome to DayTwo (ADA)
“In 2015, Dr. Eran Segal and Prof. Eran Elinav from the Weizman
Institute published research from the largest such study ever done at
the time showing that people reacted much better to personalized diets,”
Golan said. “It demonstrated that if you have enough data, you could
create an algorithm that could show how individuals will react to
certain foods better than any system that is out there, with significant
clinical impact. That created a tremendous buzz, and we started getting
calls from just about every health organization. There had been some
discussion about personalization beforehand, but no one knew how to go
about it and measure it.”
DayTwo’s
solution starts with the client submitting a stool sample by mail to
the company’s lab near the Weizman Institute in Rehovot. “There is no
other way for us to analyze the microbes that you have,” Golan said. “So
we send you kit, and you provide the sample, which we use to run a
sequencing analysis of your DNA of the bacteria. We also ask for the
results of some blood tests and have you fill out a questionnaire about
your lifestyle. We put the data into our proprietary algorithm, and it
helps us to predict before you eat, how your particular body is going to
react to specific food combinations.”
Sugar (credit: INGIMAGE)
Combining
carbohydrates with other foods can mitigate some of the damage, but you
have to know the right foods to use, Golan said. “If you and I are
having Shabbat dinner together, my blood sugar might spike from eating
challah bread with tehina, while yours stays the same because our bodies
react differently. Some of it is about using the right fats, like
avocado, nuts, olive oil, and things like that. It means learning about
the right kinds of combinations that work for your body.”
Ahead
of World Diabetes Day November 14, DayTwo published a new study showing
that a personalized diet controlled blood sugar levels significantly
better than the Mediterranean diet, a favorite plan of diabetes patients
for its focus on vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats. The
average daily time that participants were above the normal range of
blood sugar levels (above 140 mg) decreased by about 29% in the
Mediterranean diet, and by about 65% in the DayTwo diet, the report
said. More significantly, people using the personalized plan maintained
lower sugar levels over a 12-month span, because the plan was less
invasive to their lives.
“Unlike most diets that prevent people from eating many foods, our
unique algorithm learns the profile of the user and allows people to
make slight menu changes according to what they like, while still seeing
a big impact on their sugar levels, and maintaining their personal
health principles over time,” said Michal Tzalach David, a senior
dietitian at DayTwo.
DayTwo
also offers a weight loss program that helps people keep the weight off
by learning to identify which foods are most problematic for their
bodies. Many of the people following the diabetes program also report
weight loss as a positive side effect.
“When
you control your sugar level, you are less hungry,” Golan said.
“Obesity is obviously not just about sugar – there are many factors like
stress, lifestyle, exercise, etc. But when we help people get control
of their blood sugar levels and provide personal advice from
professionals, it delivers great results.”
In
the United States, DayTwo works with many of the largest health
insurance providers and is available in many corporate health plans. In
Israel, the company has arrangements with the Clalit and Maccabi health
funds or can be purchased privately via the company’s website, daytwo.com.
Diabetes
is rapidly growing around the world. In 2019, it was the direct cause
of 1.5 million deaths, with prevalence rising fastest in low- and
middle-income countries.
PLEASE RECOMMEND THIS PAGE AND FOLLOW US AT:
No comments:
Post a Comment