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British man with type 1 diabetes to receive tests after coming off insulin

diabetes.co.uk

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Re: British man with type 1 diabetes to receive tests after coming off insulin

#31

Post by pimeys »

yourapostasy wrote: post #30
pimeys wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And xDrip Plus works, if having an NFC enabled Android device. Hardware is by prescription, but if you are able to get the chips, any NFC device works with proper software. Of course you must know what you are doing. The readings should be calibrated every week with blood, but if you do this, your Android device with xDrip Plus is giving more accurate readings compared to the official reader. REMINDER Do not try to d…

Fascinating work, thank you for undertaking it and sharing your results and code. Have you compared your readings with venous blood draws? I've read that the reason people got excited over Theranos was because they were handwavey promising venous-grade results from capillary fingerstick blood collection. There is a marked difference between the kind of blood collected between the two. I suspect we won't resolve that…

The values from Libre are almost always different compared to the blood from fingertip. But using the great work from the Nightscout community one can calibrate the readings and they are very accurate.

The Libre chip stores 8 hours of measurements from every five minutes and even if the scale is wrong without the calibration the trend is right. It is absolutely useful to always see the trend and being able to react before anything bad happens. xDrip can, when correctly used, estimate how the sugar will react if I now take N units of insulin or eat M carbs.

Officially we will never get anything this nice, but if you're smart, just start building your own system. It takes time and depending where you live lots of money. But if I can understand my body better and I don't need to be afraid that I die at night, it is definitely worth it

Re: British man with type 1 diabetes to receive tests after coming off insulin

#32

Post by pimeys »

taternuts wrote: post #21
pimeys wrote: post #14

I'm a programmer and I've had a type 1 diabetes for the last 21 years. It is one of the most complex things in my life to take care of when all of the insulin therapies don't really work that well and I don't wake up to the nightly hypos. Luckily I'm in the German insurance system and getting an insulin pump first and later a CGM. Already I'm using an NFC chip in my arm giving results to my phone and from there to In…

> Already I'm using an NFC chip in my arm giving results to my phone and from there to InfluxDB and Grafana. Later with a proper CGM I also get automatic alarms which wake me and my partner if the sugar gets to low. Very cool! I've recently become friends with a type 1 diabetic and have been learning a lot about it myself. It really is an incredibly intrusive thing that involves constant supervision even with automat…

Here's my notes how to use Grafana and InfluxDB to monitor blood glucose levels. https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/blob/master/Do...

Re: British man with type 1 diabetes to receive tests after coming off insulin

#33

Post by bbrian »

pimeys wrote: post #22
Nilef wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interested in hearing more about that - How does the NFC chip get results?

It is the FreeStyle Libre, which has a small needle and a radio. The provided reader is not the most accurate, but you can read the results with any NFC enabled device. For Android xDrip plus is my choice and I've already contributed new features. A disclaimer: do not use any of these if you don't know exactly what you're doing. If you do acknowledge the risks and have some backup system for measurements, this system…

IIRC, you're not even supposed to rely on the Freestyle Libre exclusively, you've still to take the traditional finger pricks reasonably frequently to be sure its calibration isn't wrong.

Re: British man with type 1 diabetes to receive tests after coming off insulin

#34

Post by pimeys »

bbrian wrote: post #33
pimeys wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is the FreeStyle Libre, which has a small needle and a radio. The provided reader is not the most accurate, but you can read the results with any NFC enabled device. For Android xDrip plus is my choice and I've already contributed new features. A disclaimer: do not use any of these if you don't know exactly what you're doing. If you do acknowledge the risks and have some backup system for measurements, this system…

IIRC, you're not even supposed to rely on the Freestyle Libre exclusively, you've still to take the traditional finger pricks reasonably frequently to be sure its calibration isn't wrong.

I know that. But with calibrations xDrip can adjust its values which is not possible with the official device. For me it is enough to test from fingers about twice per week.

Re: British man with type 1 diabetes to receive tests after coming off insulin

#35

Post by delhanty »

karmel wrote: post #29

Here is the story from the Northampton Chronicle that is referenced but not linked to: http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/doctors-now-80-per-ce... Note that it is similarly without any substantive details. Not to be a naysayer, buuuutttt... knowing a fair amount about type 1 diabetes, I can suggest any number of possible explanations that are far short of "miracle." The most obvious one is that he had over-treate…

Thanks for this - think I should get tested for LADA when I get back home (Japan) in a month or so ...

But I'm in the U.S. right now: does anyone have any recommendations for a basic CGM setup that I could get off Amazon?

Re: British man with type 1 diabetes to receive tests after coming off insulin

#36

Post by robobro »

delhanty wrote: post #35
karmel wrote: post #29

Here is the story from the Northampton Chronicle that is referenced but not linked to: http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/doctors-now-80-per-ce... Note that it is similarly without any substantive details. Not to be a naysayer, buuuutttt... knowing a fair amount about type 1 diabetes, I can suggest any number of possible explanations that are far short of "miracle." The most obvious one is that he had over-treate…

Thanks for this - think I should get tested for LADA when I get back home (Japan) in a month or so ... But I'm in the U.S. right now: does anyone have any recommendations for a basic CGM setup that I could get off Amazon?

nope, they're pretty spendy.. If you want to see whether or not you're diabetic, get a cheap glucometer. You ought to be able to get one with 10 or 15 demo strips for under $20. check your blood sugar first thing in the morning after you wake up, and if it's over 100, you are pre-diabetic (congratulations!)

Re: British man with type 1 diabetes to receive tests after coming off insulin

#37

Post by SwellJoe »

lutusp wrote: post #26

Quote: "Mr Darkes says that doctors are now 80 per cent convinced he is cured of the condition, which has never before been reversed." I suspect (and it can't be more than a suspicion) that many of those with diabetes diagnoses never take the risk of reevaluating their physical condition, but passively continue their medication -- and that seems wise and prudent. Maybe a carefully designed study, an animal study at f…

Given the ongoing cost and incredible amount of hassle involved in managing insulin for diabetics, I would think many would jump at the opportunity to discontinue medicating multiple times a day, and would go to pretty great lengths to do so.

But, the risk of "testing" insulin response yourself would be pretty high, too, so I would hope folks would do so under doctor supervision. Hopefully, this will make that kind of experimentation become more common. If there's something to it, a whole lot of people could see a tremendous improvement in their quality of life.

Re: British man with type 1 diabetes to receive tests after coming off insulin

#38

Post by delhanty »

robobro wrote: post #36
delhanty wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for this - think I should get tested for LADA when I get back home (Japan) in a month or so ... But I'm in the U.S. right now: does anyone have any recommendations for a basic CGM setup that I could get off Amazon?

nope, they're pretty spendy.. If you want to see whether or not you're diabetic, get a cheap glucometer. You ought to be able to get one with 10 or 15 demo strips for under $20. check your blood sugar first thing in the morning after you wake up, and if it's over 100, you are pre-diabetic (congratulations!)

Thank you - I will get the strips at least.

Do you have a $ figure for "pretty spendy"? I really want to sort out the bouts of fatigue though, so in that sense I'm not that price sensitive.

Re: British man with type 1 diabetes to receive tests after coming off insulin

#39

Post by alexee »

Sadly this article doesn't say if he can eat cakes or cookies without dangerously high blood sugars. This test could say quite definitively if he is cured or not.

Usually term "reversed" is used in context of Type 2 diabetes, meaning that patient can have normal range blood sugar without any medications, but patients still cannot eat cookies/cakes without blood sugar spiking to dangerous levels.

Re: British man with type 1 diabetes to receive tests after coming off insulin

#40

Post by alexee »

delhanty wrote: post #38
robobro wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nope, they're pretty spendy.. If you want to see whether or not you're diabetic, get a cheap glucometer. You ought to be able to get one with 10 or 15 demo strips for under $20. check your blood sugar first thing in the morning after you wake up, and if it's over 100, you are pre-diabetic (congratulations!)

Thank you - I will get the strips at least. Do you have a $ figure for "pretty spendy"? I really want to sort out the bouts of fatigue though, so in that sense I'm not that price sensitive.

You can order Free Style Libre (online), starter package for $200 or so (check their website). They probably don't ship to the US, as they're not approved there, so you'd have to use some mail forwarder.
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