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FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

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Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#71
post #13
post #8

What about all the other wearable sensors like https://www.stelo.com https://www.hellolingo.com

Those ‘only’ measure glucose levels. As the article says, this is the first approved device that monitors both ketone and glucose levels.

Ketones don't come from nowhere, they come from your body breaking muscles down in a last ditch effort to control sugars after they are dangerously elevated for extended periods of time, I'm talking 500+ over weeks. It's sort of like adding a "your car has been completely out of gas for one week" monitor to your "gas tank level" monitor.

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#72
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years back, there were a number of startups that essentially resold prescriptions of the ABT/DXCM CGM and provided personalized meal/exercise-response analytics on top. Seems like traction has been tough going, though. Dialing back from "anyone with potential metabolic issues" -- what's a realistic market? Something like high-level athletes and/or bio-hacker enthusiasts are the only folks who seem to care. On t…

Lactate actually comes for free with blood glucose when you measure it with a chemical sensor, it's just not something that's usually asked for. I definitely think it would be considered a form of doping to use it in competition, but I think recovery is where it would make more impact anyways. You also wouldn't want to use it before a race, as you'd run the risk of reduced pancreatic function. AGC will find its main…

There doesn't seem to be a continuous lactate sensor on the market. Lactic acid production and/or clearance are definitely useful data w.r.t. exercise (many training regimens talk about lactate thresholds) and also useful in in-patient settings.

No disagreement about AGC in the hospital -- there is a lot of lab/titration work in current clinical workflows for monitoring patient glucose levels.

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#73
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Automated glucose control will be the next frontier in so many areas of healthcare. What areas do you have in mind outside of diabetes management?

Preventive medicine is a bit one. If your fitness watch could measure blood glucose, I think it would be a ton more impactful in terms of health outcomes.

In what way? Nondiabetic folks self regular glucose just fine on their own.

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#74
post #8

What about all the other wearable sensors like https://www.stelo.com https://www.hellolingo.com

The difference is that these only measure blood sugar, while the new system also measures ketones, of keto diet fame, which are leading indicators of a really dangerous situation called diabetic ketoacidosis. It's treatable with a hospitalized IV insulin drip, but can be avoided if you have some advance notice.

Diabetic ketoacidosis only happens in T1D, or when you have something extremely wrong going on metabolically (like failing organs, etc).

Normally it should never happen. It happens at ketones like ~10+ mmol, and it's ~impossible to go more than ~6 for a healthy human even eating 100% fat and fasting for a week+ and doing marathons or whatever all at the same time.

The keto diet, can actually help in T1D, by keeping blood sugar more stable overall, but you still need insulin, just less.

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#75
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Automated glucose control will be the next frontier in so many areas of healthcare. What areas do you have in mind outside of diabetes management?

I’m willing to bet we can see longevity improvements from better blood sugar control. Not 100% certain but extremely likely, this would include potential heart attack and dementia reduction…

This has been tested actually. A clinical trial looking at tight blood sugar regulation was aborted after it resulted in multiple cardiac events.

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#76
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Preventive medicine is a bit one. If your fitness watch could measure blood glucose, I think it would be a ton more impactful in terms of health outcomes.

In what way? Nondiabetic folks self regular glucose just fine on their own.

In the same way a step counter encourages people to walk more, a glucose monitor on your watch could discourage you from eating that extra donut

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that these only measure blood sugar, while the new system also measures ketones, of keto diet fame, which are leading indicators of a really dangerous situation called diabetic ketoacidosis. It's treatable with a hospitalized IV insulin drip, but can be avoided if you have some advance notice.

Diabetic ketoacidosis only happens in T1D, or when you have something extremely wrong going on metabolically (like failing organs, etc). Normally it should never happen. It happens at ketones like ~10+ mmol, and it's ~impossible to go more than ~6 for a healthy human even eating 100% fat and fasting for a week+ and doing marathons or whatever all at the same time. The keto diet, can actually help in T1D, by keeping b…

It can happen in people with uncontrolled T2D as well. My cofounder is a pediatric ICU doctor who has treated hundreds of DKA patients.

Also there wasn't really a relationship of the keto diet to the rest of my post, just using it to contextualize a technical term with one that might be more familiar.

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#78
post #48

Automated glucose control will be the next frontier in so many areas of healthcare. I'm still skeptical that anyone will be able to noninvasively and accurately sense blood sugar, but I'm glad people (especially kids with T1) will have one more tool to help them. I hope they can figure out the reimbursement side to get it into the most hands possible!

> Automated glucose control will be the next frontier in so many areas of healthcare. What areas do you have in mind outside of diabetes management?

Also rare genetic issues like GSDs and FAODs may benefit immensely from dual glucose and ketone metering. Next we need potassium and magnesium meters and that will benefit the people with rare renal wasting syndromes like Gitelman and Bartters

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#79
post #48

Automated glucose control will be the next frontier in so many areas of healthcare. I'm still skeptical that anyone will be able to noninvasively and accurately sense blood sugar, but I'm glad people (especially kids with T1) will have one more tool to help them. I hope they can figure out the reimbursement side to get it into the most hands possible!

> Automated glucose control will be the next frontier in so many areas of healthcare. What areas do you have in mind outside of diabetes management?

Metabolism, and the endocrine system in general, is very responsive to physical activity. Even in athletes, glucose can have significant ups and downs when it gets intense.

It would be interesting to see this technology branch out into monitoring hormones, minerals, vitamins, etc. For all of human history, the closest we've had to realtime monitoring is just our mood. It would be life changing for anyone to have this feedback.

Re: FDA authorizes first wearable device that monitors ketone and blood sugar levels

#80
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way? Nondiabetic folks self regular glucose just fine on their own.

In the same way a step counter encourages people to walk more, a glucose monitor on your watch could discourage you from eating that extra donut

Does a step counter do that? All studies I've seen say they don't cause people to adapt their behavior
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