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

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

#51
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)

I am curious how this will help. During training? During the actual race, the strategy is to eat a much as you can without puking.

I am aware of the "eating wins races" strategy for endurance sports.

Glucose and ketone monitoring seems a natural, more precise extension of that strategy. Isn't the point of carb-cramming to get more glucose into your blood stream, where your muscles can convert that into forward motion?

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

#52
post #7

Looked after my son who has T1D for now 5 years, checked keytones maybe 20 times. Compared to blood glucose which we check look at every 5 minutes. Maybe this is more for Type 2 or other diabetes, or for people prone to DKA. Or it is for people with a working pancreas who think looking at their blood sugars (and now keytones) tells them something like soothsayers reading tea leaves

Mate they won't understand. People generally are exceptionally ignorant about type 1 diabetes and also eager to fall for marketing gimmicks like this one. They have no idea what type 1 diabetes is.

For anyone who doesn't get it: glucose is checked every five minutes because it changes very often, jumping or falling dangerously. It's a nightmare. Checking glucose is 1000 times more important than ketones which are almost never a problem. If you get accurate glucose readings you are highly unlikely to ever experience ketoacidosis in the first place. Before ketones become a problem, glucose has to stay high for hours. Abbott is pulling this marketing trick instead of improving the quality of their sensors. Libre 2 is absolute crap. Libre 3 is somewhat okay and sometimes even mediocre - which is still a pretty bad situation. Bad glucose sensor is a nightmare and it can kill a person or a child much likely than ketoacidosis. It will actually lead to ketoacidosis by showing incorrect glucose readings. Now I wonder whether they added a ketone sensor as a failsafe for their low quality glucose sensors.

No one asked them to add a ketone sensor as an add-on to their glucose sensor, except maybe their marketing department. People want higher quality glucose sensors that fail less often and are more accurate. Glucose sensors, not ketones!

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

#53

I have to imagine Apple was pushing for similar functionality but probably got distracted over the last few years due to the lawsuits.

Apple would want to make something non-invasive. I don’t think this is non-invasive. It looks a lot like the existing CGMs, but it does more.

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

#54
post #48

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?

Ketones have some dieting and weight loss applications, so I guess you could do better real time tracking of how you're digesting carbs and when it's okay to eat? maybe

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

#55
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

Lactate actually comes for free with blood glucose when you measure it with a chemical sensor, it's just not something that's usually asked for. I definitely think it would be considered a form of doping to use it in competition, but I think recovery is where it would make more impact anyways. You also wouldn't want to use it before a race, as you'd run the risk of reduced pancreatic function.

AGC will find its main application in surgical and inpatient uses, eg in cardiac, neuro, burn, ICU, and people with diabetes in any hospital setting.

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

#56
post #42
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:/…

All high level endurance athletes are on high carb diets all the time and are never anywhere near ketosis (unless something has gone very wrong)

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

#57

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.

There are 6 month implantable CGMs, they're just quite expensive.

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

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am curious how this will help. During training? During the actual race, the strategy is to eat a much as you can without puking.

I am aware of the "eating wins races" strategy for endurance sports. Glucose and ketone monitoring seems a natural, more precise extension of that strategy. Isn't the point of carb-cramming to get more glucose into your blood stream, where your muscles can convert that into forward motion?

Yes. But you don't need to monitor glucose levels to do this. Because it's well known you can productively use as much as you could manage to consume (without vomiting). So all the device will ever tell you (if you're in the middle of significant endurance event) is that you need to raise your blood sugar. It'd be no more actionable than a writing 'your blood sugar is low' on your hand with a sharpie.

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

#59
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'.

seems to be: https://nolanhergert.github.io/notes_old/0media/physics/noni...

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

#60
post #48

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?

Cardiac surgery, burn units, ICU, neuro come to mind. All have been studied to show mortality and complications improvements with AGC, but unfortunately the commercial technology has not materialized yet.
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