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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

#341

Post by lynx23 »

necovek wrote: post #339
necovek wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

And reading further, there is evidence of people getting worked up about what are not problematic readings in this very thread.

Watching a heartrate monitor sometimes has the reserve-progress-bar effect. You know the deal. You realize the pump is on a hightened frequency, so you see what your smart watch says. And the more you watch it, the more anxious you get, so the rate stays more or less high.

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

#342

Post by ksaun »

reaperman wrote: post #58
itpragmatik wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least for me the readings that it shows are not accurate (when verified with old style finger pricking glucose monitoring machine). These CGMs are good for knowing the general variability of glucose level in your blood based on your diet exercise etc; I don’t trust the absolute numbers from CGM like Freestyle Libre - haven’t used any other one though yet.

It would be interesting to see whether a group of 20-100 people could manually calibrate their readings by fitting their CGM readings to their fingerprick glucose readers. I wonder what the accuracy would be after a very basic personal curve fit. I do this with a lot of consumer measurement devices. Both for thermometers and scales (food, human, and cheap 0.1mg scales). As well as thermostats, like the kitchen oven.…

The entire system is too complicated, and the CGM too variable in accuracy, for such calibration to work in the way I think you are suggesting.

Each time the CGM is applied, the situation is different because of the exact position and various other factors. And the CGM is not 100% consistent.

You do/can calibrate the CGM as needed. For example, when the CGM first activates, standard practice is to check with a fingerprick to see how accurate the CGM is this time and (sometimes) calibrate. (As noted in other comments, the CGM and fingerprick are not detecting exactly the same thing.)

And the next time you apply the CGM (we use a Dexcom G6, which is changed every 10 days), any previous calibration is irrelevant. There's a lot of variability and many factors that can affect results (exact location, scar tissue from previous CGM application, recent exercise, a recent hot shower, etc.)

(I didn't explain that well, but hopefully you get the idea.)

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

#343

Post by cleandreams »

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 am prediabetic and I have one. It's partly covered by insurance. By the metrics my estimated average glucose has gone down from 129 to 98 or so (normal). I haven't had my HbA1c in awhile.

I think they are amazing. It's been SO HELPFUL. However I don't think it makes sense for normal people. I am on a reddit group for prediabetes and it's not unusual that people who are underweight (anorexic?) and have completely normal metrics come in and post in an utterly freaked out state. These are people who are somewhat compulsive and anxious. I think that if you are normal for blood glucose having access to all this data can make you compulsive and anxious.

However, for me as a prediabetic, it is really useful. It tells you what’s going on with your blood sugar in real time with no ideology. In the beginning I was spiking from things that a nutritionist would say was OK. I found whole grains didn’t work for me. I was shocked at how much I spiked from oatmeal. What causes blood glucose spikes does not map directly to number of carbs and also every body is different.

After 6 mo of lowered carbs, weight training, and getting down to normal BMI, I can now eat SMALL portions of things like brown rice. My health has improved. It's great. IMHO all prediabetics and diabetics should have one, covered by insurance. It would really improve health and reduce complications.

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

#345

Post by aledalgrande »

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 actually just got one of these CGMs after listening to Peter Attia's (audio)book Outlive and started monitoring my glucose and experimenting with meals and exercise to see what effects they have. Apart from the weirdness of having something attached to your skin, it's like having another watch and you won't notice after a while. It's pretty cool and a lot more people than just diabetics would benefit from this knowledge.

Like I just learned for example about resistant starches, of which one is cooled potatoes: I ate the exact same dish but the first time, right after cooking, my levels shot up (not abnormally but you should ideally never have spikes, so your body doesn't have to keep pumping insulin), and then the second time, reheated, it was like I didn't eat anything. I was surprised so I researched and found https://www.webmd.com/diet/what-to-know-resistant-starches

Everyone is different so I definitely suggest to try them out for a month and see what gives you spikes in your diet. Then try to get rid of those spikes.

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

#348

Post by imp0cat »

int_19h wrote: post #328
EasyMark wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The process of cooling down converts starches in rice, pasta, potatoes etc... to a more resistant forms that your body cannot process easily.

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

#349

Post by keymasta »

dkarras wrote: post #304
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…

how is having low blood sugar a sign of pre-diabetes? I get frequent bouts of hypoglycemia.

It could be related but I also want to weigh in here and say this. Hypoglycemia can occur with no relation to the other side of diabetic symptoms, i.e, hyperglycemia. In other words there are people who suffer from hypoglycemia without ever getting high blood sugar, and so they are not "diabetic" which would mean you can have issues from both directions.

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

#350

Post by Attummm »

anorwell wrote: post #142
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.

The longevity people think that blood glucose levels are an important predictor for rate of (biological) aging. See e.g. https://www.lifespan.io/topic/blood-glucose-is-a-biomarker-o...

Well, they're not just people. They are longevity scientists.
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