Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

fda.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 255 posts

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#41

Post by cynicalsecurity »

As someone who has to deal with type 1 diabetes every day, this is marketing nonsense. No one needs ketones in the sensor - we need high-quality sensors, and Abbott's are only mediocre at best. They are not as bad as Dexcom, which is appalling, but they are still far from the superior quality of Medtronic/MiniMed which measure glucose exceptionally well.

Ketones are rare. They can kill you, but before that happens, your blood sugar usually rises enough for you to realise you may have ketones and start using test strips to measure them. Instead of this marketing gimmick, Abbott should have focused on improving the quality of their glucose sensors which is far more important.

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#42

Post by flinner »

loeg wrote: post #16
ck2 wrote: post #2

bet marathoners and ultra runners will start using this to improve performance (don't have a problem with that, but it's predictable) too bad it's not "wearable" like a watch but that might be coming eventually too since Garmin has a patent on it * https://the5krunner.com/2026/02/06/garmin-non-invasive-blood... (btw Fenix 9 launched today but it's same hardware as Fenix 8 and no glucose feature)

> to improve performance How? Like, what is the mechanism where this is useful?

Monitoring glucose and ketones can help you develop metabolic flexibility and let you grok how easily your body cuts over to ketones. Knowing your personal realtime glucose and ketone levels helps you understand just how much carbs will kick you out of ketosis or keep you in it. Glucose monitoring will help you avoid large crashes that can lead to low energy. Among other things!

More on metabolic flexibility: https://www.levels.com/blog/what-is-metabolic-flexibility-an...

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#43

Post by zamadatix »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #39
ijustlovemath wrote: post #3

Automated glucose control will be the next frontier in so many areas of healthcare. I'm still skeptical that anyone will be able to noninvasively and accurately sense blood sugar, but I'm glad people (especially kids with T1) will have one more tool to help them. I hope they can figure out the reimbursement side to get it into the most hands possible!

I wonder if there are any legs in an internal sensor that pushes out its reading every x? That seems pretty plausible.

Invasive CGMs (Continuous Glucose Monitor) and minimally invasive CGMs exist. It's the non-invasive CGMs which are being worked on because managing an implant or having something always poking through you is a big annoyance+risk compared to wearing a watch, ring, or patch.

The problems for these non-invasive options so far is they either too easily fail to work, are bulky/expensive, give very ballpark accuracies, or some combination thereof.

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#44

Post by kotaKat »

cogman10 wrote: post #38
mapkkk wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are the same CGM technologies (Dexcom = Stelo and Lingo = Libre), just aimed at the over the counter "health and fitness" market. This is not verified info, but I would assume these are either A) the exact same device, just with different marketing B) "binned" production runs that did not meet the accuracy threshold for clinical/prescribed use, but are otherwise "good enough" for someone looking to healthmaxx.

I can all but guarantee you they are the same device. IDK if they are even binned differently. The software is the main difference. The "real" device gives you what it measures as your real highs and lows while the OTC devices won't report high highs or low lows. I have a Stelo (I was curious and diabetes runs in my family) while my wife has the Dexcom.

You can read the Stelo out into XDrip with some settings adjustments, last I checked, so it is just some “light” software tweaks between sensors.

https://navid200.github.io/xDrip/docs/Dexcom/G7.html

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#46

Post by dawnerd »

cogman10 wrote: post #38
mapkkk wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are the same CGM technologies (Dexcom = Stelo and Lingo = Libre), just aimed at the over the counter "health and fitness" market. This is not verified info, but I would assume these are either A) the exact same device, just with different marketing B) "binned" production runs that did not meet the accuracy threshold for clinical/prescribed use, but are otherwise "good enough" for someone looking to healthmaxx.

I can all but guarantee you they are the same device. IDK if they are even binned differently. The software is the main difference. The "real" device gives you what it measures as your real highs and lows while the OTC devices won't report high highs or low lows. I have a Stelo (I was curious and diabetes runs in my family) while my wife has the Dexcom.

I t Looked into the OTC ones and it does seem they’re binned versions. The failure rate appears to be higher too, which is more acceptable in a non life threatening device.

It also probably gives the companies really valuable data.

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#47

Post by flinner »

zamadatix wrote: post #43
SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if there are any legs in an internal sensor that pushes out its reading every x? That seems pretty plausible.

Invasive CGMs (Continuous Glucose Monitor) and minimally invasive CGMs exist. It's the non-invasive CGMs which are being worked on because managing an implant or having something always poking through you is a big annoyance+risk compared to wearing a watch, ring, or patch. The problems for these non-invasive options so far is they either too easily fail to work, are bulky/expensive, give very ballpark accuracies, or…

A good read on this topic is The Pursuit of Noninvasive Glucose: 'Hunting the Deceitful Turkey'.

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#48

Post by loeg »

ijustlovemath wrote: post #3

Automated glucose control will be the next frontier in so many areas of healthcare. I'm still skeptical that anyone will be able to noninvasively and accurately sense blood sugar, but I'm glad people (especially kids with T1) will have one more tool to help them. I hope they can figure out the reimbursement side to get it into the most hands possible!

> Automated glucose control will be the next frontier in so many areas of healthcare.

What areas do you have in mind outside of diabetes management?

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#49

Post by loeg »

flinner wrote: post #42
loeg wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to improve performance How? Like, what is the mechanism where this is useful?

Monitoring glucose and ketones can help you develop metabolic flexibility and let you grok how easily your body cuts over to ketones. Knowing your personal realtime glucose and ketone levels helps you understand just how much carbs will kick you out of ketosis or keep you in it. Glucose monitoring will help you avoid large crashes that can lead to low energy. Among other things! More on metabolic flexibility: https:/…

My understanding is that essentially all high-level endurance athletes are just maximizing their simple sugar intake at all times (during exercise) and knowing blood glucose/ketone levels wouldn't change anything about that intake, nor would it have any impact on crashes.

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#50

Post by eoamk »

ijustlovemath wrote: post #17
mikestew wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There has been talk, but as one who hangs around those circles I've not heard of anyone actually doing it. But I'm sure someone is. At the same time, what I'm reading is that CGM won't give a non-diabetic any actionable information.

a regulated blood sugar level aids massively in cellular repair, inflammation reduction, and immune response. These are well studied and established. I could absolutely see a top athlete using AID in the future as part of a recovery routine, but I can also understand reluctance to adopt anything new or weird.

A few years back, there were a number of startups that essentially resold prescriptions of the ABT/DXCM CGM and provided personalized meal/exercise-response analytics on top. Seems like traction has been tough going, though. Dialing back from "anyone with potential metabolic issues" -- what's a realistic market? Something like high-level athletes and/or bio-hacker enthusiasts are the only folks who seem to care. On the low end, the OTC options are eating away as well.. they are less accurate, but probably solve the use case better for a pre-diabetic "once-a-year/occasional" wear use case.

Talking to ultramarathoners and cyclists, I think lactate is a biomarker that is tracked (POC blood samples) and would be more immediately useful for training/performance. AID might be construed as a form of doping, IMO.

Post reply on HN