Has anyone heard of the Hyp(al)?

Personally I find this device a little worrying, I'm quite lucky because I can detect a hypo at around the 3.9mmol mark and I have had the "cold sweat" but not until well into the 2's which personaly is cant stand up territory for me!!!

Ive been on top of a mountain in Bulgaria on my own Snowboarding, and ive had a hypo, recognised it, sat down, munched a few glucose tablets and sorted it, I dread to think what would have happened if id have waited until a device like this kicked in !!!

Like Sarah said, you should try to recognise your hypos yourself and not rely on something like this which to me seems to be a basic moisture sensor, something that could be knocked up by a school kid in a science class !!!

I can see where you're comming from, but wouldnt he be able to tell that is is having a hypo by the fact that he is sweating really bad ?

Its hard to explain it to a non diabetic person, but by the time the sweats come you are really bad, feel very week and certainly know that you're having a hypo and it would be quite anoying to have this high pitched alarm going off aswell....lol

I suppose it all depends on how low you have to be before the alarm goes off !

Hello debbie

The Hypal is good and not good in one. If your son tends to have the odd hypo during the night then this device will work to alarm but sadly your son wont probably wake up as his bg will have fallen to below 3, hence the sweating being picked up. What it will do is wake you up so that you can go in to his bedroom and give him some glucogel or lucozade etc. It buzzes fairly loud.

For day use, I dont think it will help much - sorry




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Re: has anybody tried the hypo alarm watches

Postby Tinkerbelly on Wed May 21, 2008 8:11 pm
Hi

Just thought I would you let you know that I bought a HYP(AL) wristband from Ian Rees, Norwich to help detect a hypo if ever I went a bit low about 3am in the morning lol. It works by detecting sweat which then triggers a bleep sound alarm on the wristband. The only problem with this type of device is that it will bleep at you regardless of whether you are having a hypo or not as it just picks up sweat.

I would say that it is ideal for nightime use in bed but not really suitable for use in the day. The elastic velcro strap could do with being much better as it is a bit flimsey.

The Glucowatch from Cygnus came about in the UK in 2001 but sadly never took off mainly due to the expense of the sensors and the uncomfortable stinging sensation where the sensor touched the skin. I think it was unreliable anyway as folks who bought one said that it only worked ok when they were laying down in bed :roll:

Sadly since 2001 nothing has come along 'watch like' to carry on from the Glucowatch, although the Glucoband from Calistro Medical looks very promising if it ever materialises.

Its about time a continuous monitoring system was available. This would be of great use to all of use who use insulin. Hypo unawareness is a strange thing indeed. AS the first part of the body to be affected by low bg is the brain. And once cognitive reflexes are compromised actually recognising anything coherently, never mind a hypo, is very difficult. Come to think of it I don't actually remember having much hypo awareness. And the docs told me it had appeared due to running good low numbers for so long. I personally think my body adapted or the insulin itself has a role to play.
Without continuous monitoring we will never get any closer to the truth. and I hope it comes soon.
I did try running higher bg numbers for a 90 day period but this didnt help at all. The only thing which did give me back some hypo warning(well I say give me back not actually sure wether the signs existed in the first place.) was a course of acupuncture :shock: