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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

#321

Post by rnewme »

gregschlom wrote: post #154
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…

> so the tube stays in your arm and your skin under the monitor remains broken That's not how it works, at least for the Freestyle Libre 3. The cross section of the needle has C shape rather than a O (technically I believe it's called a cannula). When you remove the applicator that C shape allows the needle to be removed through the hole at the top of the sensor, and only the flexible filament stays I your arm.

I belive he called the flexible filament "tube" and that you are both saying the same thing. Ie skin stays open (albeit in very tiny spot where the filament is sticked in)

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

#322

Post by cstrahan »

ijustlovemath wrote: post #316
bakedoatmeal wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the connection between being at risk of diabetes and hypoglycemia? Wouldn’t a pre-diabetic be very protected from hypoglycemia?

No, diabetes is fundamentally a lack of ability to control your blood sugar. This means you get lots of highs but also lots of lows. It's a common misconception that diabetes just means your blood sugar is always high; rather, your sugar is high because your body no longer controls it actively.

I'm pretty certain you're mistaken here. Diabetes is specifically characterized by elevated blood glucose, either due to pancreas not producing enough insulin or your body becoming descensitized to insulin.

You will find that diabetics often do have low blood sugar, but that's because they overestimate how much insulin they need to inect, causing their blood sugar to go too low. The hypoglycemia in this scenario is not caused by diabetes, but rather a dangerous side effect of the treatment.

OP doesn't have diabetes, and (unless he's abusing insulin for body building purposes) isn't taking insulin. His postprandial hypoglycemia is likely a benign case of "reactive hypoglycemia" (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes/expe...).

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

#323

Post by RHSeeger »

mikepurvis wrote: post #319
jorvi wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not even diabetic but they always pre-check your blood during blood / plasma donating. I would say it doesn't even register as a pinprick and feels more like the percussive slap of a tiny elastic band.

Ha, I would say quite the opposite, that the finger prick is my least favourite part of giving blood— it's ironic that taking a few drops could be that much worse than the big honking needle which draws an entire pint, but I guess fingertips just have a lot of nerve endings.

As a diabetic, I've always found that the finger prick for testing my blood hurt more than the insulin needles.

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

#324

Post by smt88 »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #74
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…

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.

My A1c is right on the edge of prediabetes, so I wasn't as concerned about the spikes as I was about my baseline, how long spikes last, etc.

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

#325

Post by LegitShady »

philsnow wrote: post #261
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.

I almost completely forgot about the monitor itself, and only paid attention to the numbers on my phone. It's that unobtrusive (at least the Libre 3 one that I used). I let the needle (actually: annulus? see sibling comment) get into my head because I was curious and looked at it. It looks a lot scarier than it is, kind of like using contact lenses for the first time: before you've used them, you get into your own he…

what other sweeteners did you try? Can't get allulose in canada (unless you buy it from a shady importer) because Health Canada says there isn't enough data to say its safe, so its not approved sweetener.

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

#326

Post by temp_praneshp »

vlabakje90 wrote: post #252
temp_praneshp wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ones on diabetic warehouse don't work well enough ( https://www.diabeticwarehouse.org/collections/continuous-glu... ? Or is that site sketch for you? I think you can just get one if you are willing to burn $500 (not cheap, but only in the price range of a higher-end smartwatch)

Keep in mind that a single sensor will work for only a week or two, depending on the type. So it's not exactly right to compare the price to a smartwatch.

Ah okay, thanks for telling me that; I thought you keep recharging the battery every week from the description.

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

#328

Post by int_19h »

EasyMark wrote: post #303
NoPicklez wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That could also be because a fair amount of the bread in supermarkets today is closer to confectionary than homemade sourdough.

light bread starts turning into sugar almost instantly in the mouth and stomach. It's only one step removed and saliva can break it down quickly because it has amylase. Sour dough and whole wheat/grain breads tend to break down a bit slower. You can freeze bread overnight and make it a bit more "resistant" to breaking down quickly and I pretty much do this with all my breads along with toasting them a bit for sandwic…

Do you mean that they need to be cold when they are consumed, or is it the process of freezing itself that does something, even if it's later reheated?

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

#329

Post by int_19h »

Aurornis wrote: post #111
narrator wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 shoul…

Speaking as someone who has spent several months trying to adjust to a CPAP machine before finally giving up, it's not because it's annoying, it's because I literally can't sleep with the damn thing strapped onto my face. I'm well aware of the benefits, and I would love it if I could have them... but between sleep apnea and no sleep at all, the choice is obvious.

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

#330

Post by necovek »

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…

I personally wouldn't mind having the data if a need comes up, but this is simply overtracking for no particular purpose.

Basically, our bodies go through much "turmoil" over the course of any day, and watching over one too many parameters is like getting hooked to TV or a video game.

Generally, medical science can mostly tell you what averages or most common patterns are, so if you do not line up with them and don't understand this, you can get overstressed.

So unless you are really someone who can objectively consider your readings combined with effects you might be seeing, I'd say don't do it.

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