A chemical found in your breath could act as a warning of dangerously low blood-sugar levels in patients with Type 1 diabetes, according to researchers from the University of Cambridge.
The presence of a chemical could explain why certain dogs are able to spot the warning signs and alert their owners, doctors say.
Low blood sugar -- known as hypoglycemia -- can cause people with Type 1 diabetes to become shaky, disoriented and experience fatigue. If it's not caught in time and treated with a boost of sugar, it can lead to seizures and unconsciousness.
The study, published in the journal Diabetes Care, was prompted after reports of dogs alerting owners to hypoglycemic attacks.
In one incident, Dorrie Nuttall -- a California mother -- was woken by her son's service dog who bowed his head indicating that her son's blood sugar was low.
When she went to check her son, Nuttall noticed her son's blood sugar had experienced a sudden drop that was unhealthy and uncomfortable but not dangerous.
Nuttall eventually posted the encounter on Facebook, praising the dog for saving her son's life.
"He's a living, breathing creature -- he doesn't get everything. He does miss stuff. But he alerts a lot. We get multiple alerts a day that something is happening," Dorrie Nuttall told CTVNews.ca of her son Luke's service dog Jedi in March.
Researchers from the Wellcome Trust-MRC Institute of Metabolic Sciences at the University of Cambridge tested eight women who had diabetes, measuring blood glucose levels.
They then lowered the blood levels until it reached levels typically seen during hypoglycemia.
The women gave breath samples, and when low-blood sugar levels were reached, more of a chemical called isoprene was found in the samples.
Isoprene levels almost doubled during hypoglecemia, researchers discovered.
"It's completely possible that one of the many cues medical detection dogs are picking up on is this chemical in breath," said Dr. Mark Evans, Honorary Consultant Physician at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, University of Cambridge, in a release.
Evans says researchers have very little knowledge about where isoprene comes from and it's unclear why it would rise when patients experience low blood sugar.
But he says the long term impact of this research has potential to change how diabetes is detected.
"One of the things we're hoping with this research with lead on to the development of some sort of sensing technology," he said. "We could even imagine something like a breathalyzer that people with diabetes could use to detect hypo or even replace at least in large part, the necessity to prick fingers to measure blood glucose."
