Diabetic patients have great difficulties in safely enjoying physical indoor or outdoor activities, since they have lost the physiological mechanisms which allow the body to maintain an appropriate blood glucose level despite the increased carbohydrate consumption during exercise. On the contrary, the positive effects of an adequate physical activity for diabetic insulin-dependent subjects are well recognized, but the risk of an excessive lowering of glycemia tends to discourage most of them; in fact, in the worst case a condition of hypoglycemia can bring the subject to coma.

The DiabEx project was born with the aim to find a solution to this problem; the first result has been the development of a method (see the two articles on Metabolism and Diabetes Care) for calculating the amount of carbohydrates needed by a patient in order to practice aerobic physical activity without any risk. This value is calculated on the basis of the subject characteristics, therapy and some details about the kind of sport that the subject is going to do.

The algorithm is being implemented on a software, ECRES, running on a server, accessible via Internet connection or by SMS. In this way the access to the system is granted to the subscribed user via a mobile phone without the need for a PC.

The second stage of the project, named CREID, aims at creating the prototype of a portable device for estimating the needed carbohydrates and then updating it according to the actual exercise intensity, based on the measured heart rate. Whenever a critical condition is reached, the device alerts the user, so he/she can terminate the session or take more carbohydrates to continue safely.

More documentation can be found in the about page link.