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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

#281

Post by unlikelytomato »

tetramer wrote: post #182
gtirloni wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The unnecessary interventions are done by licensed doctors? Why?

You don't know if it's a false positive or not until you do further interventions. Realizing it's unnecessary is only evident in hindsight. E.g. CT scan shows an incidental, tiny lung nodule. You do a biopsy. Unfortunately, during the process of getting a biopsy, you develop a pneumothorax (an uncommon but well-known complication of a lung biopsy) and need a chest tube, hospitalization, etc. You get discharged and yo…

the gap between cgm and a biopsy from a CT scan is vast. CGM is not enough to trigger any such intervention. Unnecessary interventions are absolutely a concern. A CGM is about as controversial as someone taking their own heart rate to help them calm down from panic attacks. Minimally invasive and nobody would base a dramatic intervention on this data alone.

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

#282

Post by sxg »

rodly wrote: post #280
lr4444lr wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Long-term they will likely make no changes because human desire, habits and behaviors are rarely unknown to us. The parent comment mentioned feeling tired after consuming something with a lot of sugar, was that really a mystery prior to using CGM? I doubt it. Sure it's interesting to correlate to your perceived wellness (or lack thereof) with a wearable spitting out data but after the novelty of this discovery wears…

> The parent comment mentioned feeling tired after consuming something with a lot of sugar, was that really a mystery prior to using CGM? I doubt it.

They may not have known just how sugary that item was since most people don't bother to calculate the sugar content of everything they consume, but the CGM puts a number on it. That experience could be enough to change the OPs behavior. I agree that most people may not care to make behavioral changes in response to more data, but there are definitely other people who will.

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

#283

Post by mikenew »

cheriot wrote: post #275
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…

Thanks for confirming. Normal feedback on health habits is delayed by months/years and hard to trace back to specific actions so your story makes a lot of sense. I might have to get over my dislike of needles :|

It's more akin to a finger prick than a needle. Might still be a bit psychologically challenging but I've done it and it's really not bad at all.

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

#285

Post by ng12 »

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…

You went back to finger sticks? I am floored. Do you follow a strict low carb diet? How often are you exercising?

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

#286

Post by neeleshs »

al_borland wrote: post #254
jseliger wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before I got cancer, I had one through Levels, and it was informative. Dessert is much worse than I'd thought. Rice, too, including brown rice. I remember eating some biryani and a small bit of naan at an Indian restaurant and thinking that I'd been pretty healthy, only to see a spike of like 80.

I saw an interview a while back between Tim Ferriss and someone who had tried CGM for fun/research. One thing he noticed was the huge impact a short walk after a meal brought down his blood sugar levels. Tim then mentioned he experienced the same thing and that there is a saying in China, something to the effect of, "take 100 steps after a meal, live 99 years." This also linked up with something I had looked up a few…

Taking 100 steps after a meal is a common saying in India as well. The saying also advises sleep on ones left side for good health. Goes like this in Kannada - "Undu nooradi nadedu, edamaggulagi malagidare vaidyana bhandatavilla sarvajna"

Literally "if you walk a hundred steps after eating and sleep on you left, there won't be any doctor's shenanigans"

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

#287

Post by tetramer »

unlikelytomato wrote: post #281
tetramer wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't know if it's a false positive or not until you do further interventions. Realizing it's unnecessary is only evident in hindsight. E.g. CT scan shows an incidental, tiny lung nodule. You do a biopsy. Unfortunately, during the process of getting a biopsy, you develop a pneumothorax (an uncommon but well-known complication of a lung biopsy) and need a chest tube, hospitalization, etc. You get discharged and yo…

the gap between cgm and a biopsy from a CT scan is vast. CGM is not enough to trigger any such intervention. Unnecessary interventions are absolutely a concern. A CGM is about as controversial as someone taking their own heart rate to help them calm down from panic attacks. Minimally invasive and nobody would base a dramatic intervention on this data alone.

Sure. As I stated in my original comment, I'm excited about CGMs being widely available. The example in my comment was very specifically answering "why do doctors perform unnecessary interventions?".

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

#288

Post by o_____________o »

rodly wrote: post #280
lr4444lr wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Long-term they will likely make no changes because human desire, habits and behaviors are rarely unknown to us. The parent comment mentioned feeling tired after consuming something with a lot of sugar, was that really a mystery prior to using CGM? I doubt it. Sure it's interesting to correlate to your perceived wellness (or lack thereof) with a wearable spitting out data but after the novelty of this discovery wears…

It's more than intake. It's food order, stress, sleep, context, and so on. Did you eat enough fiber, did you add more fat this time, did you drink the night before? Did you walk afterwards? Unless your life is extremely regimented and uniform, they provide a ton of data.

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

#289

Post by dleink »

rodly wrote: post #280
lr4444lr wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Long-term they will likely make no changes because human desire, habits and behaviors are rarely unknown to us. The parent comment mentioned feeling tired after consuming something with a lot of sugar, was that really a mystery prior to using CGM? I doubt it. Sure it's interesting to correlate to your perceived wellness (or lack thereof) with a wearable spitting out data but after the novelty of this discovery wears…

> Long-term they will likely make no changes because human desire, habits and behaviors are rarely unknown to us.

It seems like this thinking leads to desires, habits and behaviors remaining a mystery to us.

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

#290

Post by o_____________o »

jseliger wrote: post #148
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…

Before I got cancer, I had one through Levels, and it was informative. Dessert is much worse than I'd thought. Rice, too, including brown rice. I remember eating some biryani and a small bit of naan at an Indian restaurant and thinking that I'd been pretty healthy, only to see a spike of like 80.

Eat fiber first. Add more protein. Eat reheated rice (resistant starches). Isn't it interesting how much these little details matter?
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