FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor • Hacker News Board

Re: FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor

#111

Post by Aurornis » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 8:17 PM UTC

narrator wrote: post #77

happytiger wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s some sage advice. People are often surprised when I tell them about the insane levels of pre-diabetes in the US: > The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion notes that approximately 96 million U.S. adults aged 18 years and older (38% of the adult population) have prediabetes, and nearly 80% of them are unaware that they have it. It’s honestly insane to continue a way of life that’…

The other insane thing is studies have shown that type 2 diabetes can be reversed by fasting. Fasting is problematic to the medical industry because it is zero cost. "Some studies found that patients were able to reverse their need for insulin therapy during therapeutic intermittent fasting protocols with supervision by their physician." https://clindiabetesendo.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/...

> Fasting is problematic to the medical industry because it is zero cost.

No, fasting is problematic because people don't like it.

Health conscious people don't understand how much resistance the average patient has to advice about lifestyle modifications, or how difficult it is to get patients to adhere to recommended lifestyle changes.

A good example is sleep apnea and CPAP machines: In theory, a CPAP machine should provide life-changing improvements in sleep quality and daytime energy for someone with sleep apnea, yet patient adherence rates are shockingly low (even when covered by insurance). Many patients are simply annoyed by the machines and give up on it.

That's not to mention the fact that weight loss is extremely effective in many (though not all) sleep apnea situations, but it's rare that patients will actually follow through with that.

Re: FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor

#112

Post by RecycledEle » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 8:17 PM UTC

coffeebeqn wrote: post #60

smt88 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the needle in the CGM bothers you, don't let it. It's a quick, painless jab with a tiny needle at the beginning and then the needle comes out. The part that stays in your body is just a flexible filament made of plastic. I did this experiment as well, and the main thing it did was completely stop me from snacking. My habits got better because I could see how my BG could never return to baseline if I allowed myself…

Where do you put the needle thing? Does it get in the way of everyday things?

The needle stick a flexible tube in a few mm, then the needle pulls out.

Think of it as a 5mm thick patch and ignore the tiny tube sucking your blood.

Re: FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor

#113

Post by justinclift » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 8:17 PM UTC

pastage wrote: post #94

justinclift wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bluetooth has a terrible reputation around reliability. :(

In the loop community (CGM+insuling pump) you usually have a list of phones that work well with Bluetooth. Yes that changes when the phones get new powersaving settings and driver updates, usually it works well on good phones.

Yeah, that sounds like a practical approach for dealing with it. :)

Re: FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor

#114

Post by akira2501 » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 8:17 PM UTC

Aaronstotle wrote: post #79

anonfornoreason wrote: post #56

I would recommend anyone to experiment with this. I did, and found out I was more glucose sensitive than I expected. This led me to get more broad labs done, with which I was able to find additional treatable issues that are likely the cause. If I hadn't done this, I would have found out via symptoms years later, after irreversible damage had already been done. You are your only medical advocate, no one else is going…

This is why it made me upset to see this Doctor on TikTok telling people unless you have Diabetes, you don't need a glucose monitor and making fun of people who had one. Where is the harm in getting data on how your own body deals with glucose?

> Where is the harm in getting data on how your own body deals with glucose?

That's not what you're actually measuring though. You're just measuring instantaneous blood sugar levels.

You're hoping that your process for correlating this data with other events and trends in your life is accurate and useful. Unless you're planning on bringing a lot of documentation and other data recording to pair with this, it's not likely this single data point is going to beneficially change outcomes for you.

Re: FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor

#115

Post by akira2501 » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 8:18 PM UTC

eurleif wrote: post #107

queuebert wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

False positives in medicine can cause unnecessary interventions that carry their own risks. Believe it or not, there is an optimum level of ignorance for maximum health.

If having more information leads to worse outcomes, that's fundamentally a problem with how you're responding to the information, not with having the information.

If I'm not trained to correctly respond to the information then why should I believe that I'm going to?

Re: FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor

#116

Post by mattl » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 8:18 PM UTC

thfuran wrote: post #6

RobotToaster wrote: post #2

So the ones already all over amazon aren't supposed to be there?

I just searched for one and found >Important information Legal Disclaimer : Statements regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition. At the very bottom of the description. That seems like complete BS that shouldn't hold up, but I don't know.

That's on virtually every supplement website it seems.

Re: FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor

#117

Post by RecycledEle » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 8:18 PM UTC

pastage wrote: post #75

coffeebeqn wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you put the needle thing? Does it get in the way of everyday things?

No it never gets in the way. I would not recommend doing it unless you are a diabetic, the results are not that interesting. It took me two years to get used to smacking that needle into the upper arm/stomach/leg, spending up to 20 min -40 min getting over the fear was not a fun time.

I feel for anyone who has both diabetes and a fear of needles.

Having said that, it's no bug deal for 90% of people.

Re: FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor

#118

Post by RecycledEle » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 8:18 PM UTC

singlow wrote: post #65

coffeebeqn wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you put the needle thing? Does it get in the way of everyday things?

Typically it is on the back of the upper arm where it is covered by a short sleeve shirt. Generally it does not get in the way.

I also use a piece of kinesiology tape to make sure my CGM does not fall off.

Re: FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor

#119

Post by hlfshell » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 8:21 PM UTC

znpy wrote: post #102

philsnow wrote: post #30

I dove into CGMs a little bit about a year ago, mostly just for fun. Yes, I paid money to some online prescription mill for CGMs (Abbott Freestyle Libre 3, IIRC), and then put one in my arm (the applicator is a short syringe section that has the monitor tube threaded into it, so the tube stays in your arm and your skin under the monitor remains broken) for a couple weeks. Just to see how various foods would affect my…

What's the lifetime of a single device? Are you supposed to remove it before a shower and reapply it later?

No, it's mostly water proof. You wear it through showers and even swimming for 2 straight weeks. The adhesive is pretty good; rarely does it come off on its own prior to say, a week and a half in.

It holds 8 hours of data (1 reading per minute) and you can just hold up your phone to read the last 8 hours of data for your overall data.

Re: FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor

#120

Post by mhb » Wed, Mar 06, 2024, 8:23 PM UTC

akira2501 wrote: post #115

eurleif wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If having more information leads to worse outcomes, that's fundamentally a problem with how you're responding to the information, not with having the information.

If I'm not trained to correctly respond to the information then why should I believe that I'm going to?

You can learn?