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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

#291

Post by CaptainNegative »

barbazoo wrote: post #236
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 symptoms would one have to present for an "online prescription mill"/"virtual care provider" to prescribe a CGM? I'm fascinated by this and would love to try it out but I don't want to bother my family doctor with this.

The only symptoms needed are a pulse, the ability to type out a credit card number, and availability for a sham phone call. It's virtually impossible to not get prescribed one from a mill.

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

#292

Post by chefandy »

mlsu wrote: post #208
autoexec wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their own privacy policy says they share data for marketing purposes. I don't think they'd do that without any compensation and their app includes personalized ads. HIPAA only covers "protected health information" and not all of the data collected by their products. They also state: "You can ask us not to use or share certain protected health information for treatment, payment, or our operations. We are not required…

I'm bet they probably do collect e.g. your phone's operating system and use that to figure out which market segment you belong to. But as far as I know Dexcom doesn't have any agreements with anyone to sell their user's data; If they have ads in the dex app I've never seen one. I would be extremely surprised if that were the case. >You can ask us not to use or share certain protected health information for treatment,…

I'm a lot more concerned by what my insurance company can do with the data than marketing companies-- they regularly deny claims based on data collected by device vendors.

In the following article, see: Sleep aid or surveillance device?

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/11/21/6697510...

Maybe glucose monitoring data is different than sleep data, but I don't see why it would be. In that article, even random customer service representatives had access to his device data despite his asking them to stop storing it. I had a similar experience with a medical device that the person in the article had with their CPAP machine: I yanked a wireless modem out of the thing and stuck a flash card in there, because fuck those creeps. They sent me a very large bill retroactively denying coverage for the device for non-compliance, but luckily I didn't end up having to pay because they accepted the local data I provided without (much of) a fight. But what if the claim wasn't for a comparatively inexpensive machine, and it was for an inpatient medical procedure with surgery, lots of imaging, and a 10k ambulance ride? You better fucking believe I'm not going to voluntarily help them weasel out of coverage.

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

#293

Post by Fricken »

amenghra wrote: post #172
throwup238 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hunter gatherers would maybe eat some berries here (much smaller and less sweet than modern berries) and there. Archaic humans had access to plenty of wild fruit that were high in sugar and tubers that were high in complex carbs. They even had access to concentrated forms of sugar like sugarcane and honey. They obviously didn't have refined sugars in everything they eat like we do but that they had access to limite…

We live 2x-3x longer than we used to. We should take the best possible care of our bodies.

Only as a statistical average. Hunter gatherers who survived past age 5 had a good chance of living into their 60s and 70s.

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

#294

Post by EasyMark »

neeleshs wrote: post #286
al_borland wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"

sleeping on your left side can help with gastrointestinal issues somewhat (like reflux) or after eating an acidic dinner.

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

#295

Post by EasyMark »

meindnoch wrote: post #173
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.

Momentary high blood sugar is perfectly fine after eating carbohydrate-rich meals.

for sure, the length of the spike is just as important, it's like energy and it's an area under the curve type of phenomena

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

#296

Post by EasyMark »

o_____________o wrote: post #290
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.

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

healthy proteins and fats are good for you, both will slow down digestion time. I rarely eat only rice as the main course of a meal, and usually eat something either with it or before it, and it's almost always brown rice.

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

#297

Post by EasyMark »

pcorsaro wrote: post #169
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that for healthy individuals, spiking blood glucose levels is not a problem. Did you get in to any of the research on that? Glucose is a problem for diabetics because they can’t regulate it, but healthy people can. At least this is loosely what I have heard, somewhat third hand. Any information is appreciated.

I'm not the OP, but I had a CGM several times through Levels. I can tell you that the major spikes (glucose over 200 after sitting between 80-90) really made me feel like shit. The 2 times I can remember it getting that high were when I had too much sushi, and a huge bowl with white rice from Chipotle. Brown rice never seemed to spike me nearly as bad, especially if paired with something high in fiber like black/brow…

straight rice and bread break down into sugars -very- quickly in the stomach, that's why mixing them with stuff like you mentioned (heavy in fat and/or protein) can really dampen the spikes in my own observations. Those are just anectdotal though and what works for me doesn't work for everyone. I do like to eat a salad first with some good fibrous veggies though OR something like eat some of a chicken/fish entrée or steak if I'm having that as part of a meal.

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

#298

Post by dog_boxer72 »

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…

Is it really such a stretch to imagine that maybe some people really don’t correlate those things? People aren’t research papers, we have multiple cognitive distortions working all the time obfusticating the truth, but tech like this can help bypass them

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

#299

Post by EasyMark »

throwup238 wrote: post #141
pie420 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a doctor, but from what I have seen, there is a healthy amount of spiking from eating normal foods, but our modern diets are so sugar and carb heavy that the glucose spikes are way outside the range that our bodies evolved to handle. Hunter gatherers would maybe eat some berries here (much smaller and less sweet than modern berries) and there. The modern human eating pizza, tons of bread, ice cream, soda, etc. cr…

> Hunter gatherers would maybe eat some berries here (much smaller and less sweet than modern berries) and there. Archaic humans had access to plenty of wild fruit that were high in sugar and tubers that were high in complex carbs. They even had access to concentrated forms of sugar like sugarcane and honey. They obviously didn't have refined sugars in everything they eat like we do but that they had access to limite…

fruit and berries do have sugars but in their wild state they tend to have much less than their modern equivalents bred to be sweeter and tastier. Even then they still typically are 75-95% water and often have some fiber, antioxidants, and vitamins which all can help with inflammation unlike snickers bars.

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

#300

Post by pastage »

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…

It is probably easier to find interesting things curious people with diabetes has done, sure you might want help to sort out the interesting bits.

Optimizing sugar in take for exercise might be an interesting thing todo as non diabetic. There is no tool to continuously measure ketons though which is the fun part. CGMs are so slow. I really see no use at the moment.

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