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FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor

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

#221

Post by Projectiboga »

RecycledEle wrote: post #117
pastage wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

T1D here, needles are nothing compared to everything else an insulin dependent diabetic deals with. I guess only maybe 1 out of less than 100 shots hurt that much. It only happens when a nerve bundle is hit, then it smarts but it is still less bad than either high, or low blood sugar as well as how insane most every part of American 'health care' is. The main tricks for comfort are go with 29 gauge not the narrower more fragile types with the higher number gauges. The narrower ones have more fragile needle points and they can get damaged by bending during the insertion into the bottle. The other trick is to make sure the alcohol is dry before you take the shot.

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

#222

Post by abletonlive »

queuebert wrote: post #153
abletonlive wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dumb framework for dealing with incompetence. "I'm so incompetent that more data is going to lead to worse outcomes! So let me stick my head in the sand and not measure!" Imagine if any other profession operated under this framework: "Ehhh, if we inspect too hard we might make a repair on this airplane that will cause further damage, lets just not do the inspection"

Do you think tearing apart a working airplane and putting it back together in order to inspect it between every flight is a safe practice? Did you see the 737 door plug accident? You are missing part of the picture here. And that part is not that everyone else is dumb but you.

> Do you think tearing apart a working airplane and putting it back together in order to inspect it between every flight is a safe practice?

Do you think this is....the same thing as a continuous glucose monitor?

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

#223

Post by lr4444lr »

mangoman wrote: post #166

I recently had an unusual health event that resulted in me passing out. My wife, who is a physician, thought it might be hypoglycemia, since i'm at high risk for diabetes. She found a super friendly endocrinologist who put me on a CGM for two weeks. I never hit the hypoglycemia range during those two weeks, so it didn't really explain what my issue... but honestly the data was SUPER interesting. Just observing the va…

What kinds of food intake/non-intake habits aside from the obvious culprits surprised you?

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

#224

Post by umvi »

mlsu wrote: post #15
coldpie wrote: post #3

I'm T1D (insulin-dependent). I used a Dexcom for a couple years a while ago, back around the G3 through G5 era or so. I ended up stopping using it because my diabetes is very well managed, and I found it didn't make a huge difference to my management. With my insurance, each new sensor every week cost about $50, and would fail in various annoying ways: sometimes it would just stop working in the middle of the week, o…

Dexcom and Freestyle both have options (G7, FSL2) that have a much narrower form factor than the old sensors. They end up being far more reliable, because the sensor doesn't dislodge. The new Dexcom sensors are more accurate. Less drift and no calibration. Out of pocket cost is obviously your own situation but I think anyone with T1 should look at them. For me they are life changing, even moreso if you have a pump th…

> The new Dexcom sensors are more accurate. Less drift and no calibration.

I found the Dexcom G7 to be inaccurate by 10-20 mg/dL out of the box. I have LADA, and G7 initially was giving me a very rosy view of my blood glucose levels, until I started pessimistically calibrating it with a finger prick glucose monitor.

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

#225

Post by haswell »

smt88 wrote: post #50
haswell wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside from the fun, how did it go? Find anything surprising or insightful in the process? It sounds like an experiment I’d like to do for the purpose of optimizing my daily habits and establishing a better mental model for how my eating habits impact me throughout the day. But I really dislike needles.

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…

That's good to know. I think my aversion to needles is so strong that it stopped me from going beyond basic research. Bad on me.

But this does sounds like an interesting thing to try, if only to get a better idea of how my body works.

I've been tracking walking vs. resting heart rate, HRV, blood oxygen levels, and sleep for a few years using the Apple Watch, and while I know these measurements are imperfect, they've helped me better understand the impact of certain choices.

There's something that seems really beneficial about feeding my brain data about myself as a way to do the healthier things I've always wanted to want to do. The more data I have, the easier it feels to implement positive habit changes in a way that doesn't involve sheer willpower. There's something very satisfying about seeing the very tangible changes on a graph over time that indicate better health, even when it doesn't feel like the changes have done anything noticeable yet.

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

#226

Post by Projectiboga »

haswell wrote: post #215
pastage wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to know more about it you can just read about how diabetics treat different foods. Short version; high GI is fast high blood sugar, lots fat and sugar can results long period of with high blood sugars. It is a CGM more or less what you would expect, insulin is the only hormone that lowers blood sugar, then you have all the stress hormones that raise it like adrenalin, growth hormone and cortisol plus gluc…

I'm more curious about the experience a non-diabetic person has. For one, the purpose of using the device is quite different, and not related to a life threatening situation. And because the focus isn't to manage this specific issue, the insights and potential utility seem like they'd be of an entirely different variety. e.g. I know that the things I eat impact my blood sugar, but don't have the same kind of intimate…

Main benefit is more data, only work is to accurately log meals and activity.

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

#227

Post by thecosas »

mattl wrote: post #179
bradleyy wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dexcom already has an integration; are you talking about hardware?

Yeah, it would be great if the watch could just do this for you, instead of needing to buy a new sensor every 14 days.

Based on everything I've seen so far, the technology for non-invasive glucose monitoring is still far away. Recently, the FDA even released a warning that any companies claiming they could are misleading people [1][2].

Don't get me wrong; I have had T1D for 30+ years and would love to have reliable, non-invasive, glucose monitoring on my wrist.

We've come so far already from a finger stick that would take 2 minutes to get a result. Have hope :-)

[1] https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/safety-communications/do...

[2] https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/21/24079495/smartwatch-smart...

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

#228

Post by smallerfish »

mikenew wrote: post #131
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…

Can you share a little about the "additional labs" you did? I wore a CGM for about a month. Also found that my glucose numbers were not nearly as good as I would have expected, especially considering that I'm quite active and not overweight. But it's the "what next" that I'm stuck on.

Check out Peter Attila's book. He has a couple chapters on metabolic syndrome that should be helpful.

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

#229

Post by thecosas »

coldpie wrote: post #201
thecosas wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

T1D currently using G6 / Omnipod Dash / open source Loop app. The worst is every 90 days when I get a new G6 transmitter. It comes in a box the size of Two video tapes stacked on top of each other. I've tried reaching out to my mail-order pharmacy about it since I know there are smaller versions of it (or used to be), but nothing yet. From what I've seen, the packaging for Dexcom G7 and it's applicator seems much sma…

Hahaha, the huge syringe thing? That was pretty wild! The spring ones felt like putting a needle to a balloon though, always made me tense when I was putting one on. Yeah the Dexcom stuff always felt like they were going for super-premium Packaging Experience. But after the first couple weeks that wears thin, and now you've got all this crap to throw away. Like, guys, my pen needles come in a dense little cardboard b…

"Let me just hyperventilate really quick before I literally plunger this thing into my body" was always how it felt lol.

Agreed that it's gotten old, especially if I'm traveling somewhere. Needing to cart what you needed (plus backups of course) ends up taking up a surprising amount of space.

I will say that making the switch from a tubed pump (t:slim) to a tubeless (omnipod), it's drastically cut down on the waste for pump stuff at least.

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

#230

Post by Projectiboga »

anonfornoreason wrote: post #92
epistasis wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, this is one of the better things I have done to take control of my own health! It was very very surprising which foods, and quantities of foods, caused huge spikes. However, this stuff is difficult to interpret. What should be the goal number for managing glucose spikes? What's good, what's bad? Ultimately there's a lot of judgement calls, just as there is with any health or fitness goal. I learned a lot from…

+1 +1 +1 to Peter Attia, huge amounts of great content. My philosophy is that if there's any single topic where I should be spending five hours a month researching, it's personal health. As far as spikes are concerned, I convinced my wife and my dad to both try out the same CGM. Neither of them really ever had any spikes of significance (maybe up to 130's), even when eating cake, etc. Obviously it varies from person…

Try melatonin it makes what insulin you have go farther. Type 2 diabetes is caused by excess inflammation.
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