Inhaled insulin + continuous glucose monitoring is good news for diabetics

When I blogged last month about the imminent approval of inhaled insulin a reader pointed out that I was underplaying the value of inhaled insulin. He wrote:

The greatest potential of inhaled insulin comes from pairing it with continuous non-invasive glucose monitoring. Using this combination a patient could titrate their glucose levels far more tolerably than doing so with previous approaches, which would require many skin punctures each day. The result could be far lower rates of glycosylation of proteins, the molecular damage that is expressed in the chronic problems of diabetes.

In reading Diabetes Mine (host of Grand Rounds in a few hours), I saw that a continuous monitor has been approved. So when these two new innovations are out in the market and broadly supported I hope we will get the benefits described above. If the clinical benefits materialize I've no doubt that there will also be a major reduction in diabetes related costs.