Heart disease and diabetes can be diagnosed by shining light on your skin

A new study published by the European Association for the Study of Diabetes shows that future risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mortality can be predicted by measuring skin autofluoresence.

The groundbreaking research was published in the medical journal Diabetologia on November 21, explaining that it would only take casting a light on a patient’s skin to reach a diagnosis.

The procedure is a non-invasive technique that wouldn’t even need a particular medical setting to be performed on people, and a first risk estimation of any of the aforementioned condition can be done anywhere.

As study lead author Professor Bruce Wollfenbuttel said, the test could be used in supermarkets and pharmacies, for instance. Read more on our Twitter account @amomama_usa

Given that the worldwide prevalence of type 2 diabetes is increasing rapidly and that cardiovascular complications associated with diabetes are often the cause of death for people affected by it, an early diagnosis is very important.

Previous research has shown that patients with type 2 diabetes show higher levels of skin autoflorescence (SAF) due to the accumulation of chemicals known as advanced glycation end-products (AGEs).

72880 participants not suffering from diabetes or cardiovascular disease underwent baseline investigations between 2007 and 2013 at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, to establish the standard SAF value.

Thanks to this study, the scientists could develop the AGE Reader, and Medical Xpress has explained how the device works:

“Light excites fluorescent moieties in the tissue, and these will reflect the light with a different wavelength as a result. In the wavelength band used for this study, the major contribution in fluorescence comes from fluorescent AGEs. The emitted light was detected with the use of a spectrometer or photodiodes.”

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, November 21, 2018.

This is a major breakthrough in the battle against diabetes and cardiovascular disease as the authors say it is “the first prospective study to examine SAF as a predictor for type 2 diabetes, CVD and mortality in the general population.”

Unhealthy consumption of sugar in Western society is one of the biggest health issues challenging medical professionals nowadays.

Tobacco addiction is another one, and you might be interested in checking out what another study says about how long it takes for the heart to recover from the damage caused by smoking.