Hack #14: CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) - The Next Big Thing for Everyone

I started writing this several weeks ago, but if I wait too much longer it won’t even be news anymore: CGMs will be the NEXT BIG THING for athletes, carb watchers or just the body-statistics-curious to be using to manage their glucose levels. 
       First of all, for the uninitiated, a CGM, or continuous glucose monitor is a device you attach to your arm (usually) that can be scanned regularly or automatically sends data every minute or so to see what one’s glucose levels are in their bodies. For diabetics, these devices are a game changer, because it only requires using a needle once every week or two to inject a filament into the subcutaneous layer of one’s skin instead of poking one’s finger with a needle several times a day to coax out a drop of blood to take a reading. 
       CGMs are also great because they can tell someone whether their blood glucose is going up or down, or falling into dangerous ranges that require more sugar or more insulin to regulate. With insulin pumps that some people also attach to their bodies, it’s an even more convenient way to help regulate blood sugar levels without constant injections before every meal. 
       Also for the uninitiated, “blood sugar” (or “glucose”) levels are measures that pretty much everyone gets when they have blood drawn just before their annual exam. If you’re like me, you tend to ignore those dozens of numbers that come back each time, except maybe those items that get flagged in red, and cholesterol levels, which everyone tends to pay attention to.
       If your glucose count is less than 100, or just barely over it, chances are your doctor won’t even point it out to you. Mine was just over 100 for nearly 13 years of testing, until a few years ago when it started hitting 106, and 116, and then 123. The challenge with glucose levels, however, is that they bounce around a lot from minute to minute, depending on food ingested, movement, stress and all kinds of factors. A “fasting” blood test helps to ensure your glucose levels will be relatively low, though, now that I have a monitor I see in the morning how my glucose can jump from the 60s to the 90s just by getting out of bed.
       So that’s why doctors will probably also add an a1C test for people who consistently bat over 100 on their glucose levels because this test estimates how much total sugar is in a person’s blood at a given time, regardless of fasting, etc.  Unfortunately, my low 100s number jumped to 297 last summer when I unknowingly contracted Type 1 Diabetes, and my a1C came in at 19.7 - meaning that 20% of my blood was sugar! And that’s a problem for blood vessels, especially the tiny ones around the retina. 
       Anyway, back to CGMs for the rest of the world. Turns out, they’re also instructive for people even if they have a healthy functioning pancreas (the producer of the body’s insulin, which helps sugar in the blood stream to be absorbed into cells and feed the body), because it shows you what happens to your body’s blood sugar levels when you eat certain foods.
       For me, I can consume protein and fat all day long and barely move the needle on my CGM. Adding certain vegetables like broccoli, spinach, asparagus and other low-carbohydrate produce to my omelettes and salads also shows little effect on my CGM. But eat a corn chip or some corn kernels (or unfortunately, cornbread) and PRESTO! My blood sugar will jump from below 100 to 250 or over 300 in a few minutes, like I was eating straight sugar. Same with rice, pasta, bread, oatmeal, potatoes, most fruits and grains, if I have more than a bite or two of them with other foods. 
       For a diabetic, they will calculate the number of carbs, proteins, and fats in a meal just as they’re about to eat it to help them estimate how much rapid insulin to take to help avoid or quickly flatten the spike that the food is about to cause in their bodies, just as natural insulin would do on its own. 
      But a body that doesn’t have Type 2 insulin resistance to overcome, or Type 1 lack of insulin present, technically doesn’t need to monitor their glucose, right? Well, glucose spikes affect everyone to the degree that it stops the body from taking energy out of stored fat cells, and instead focuses on both using the rush of new carbs hitting the stomach to produce energy AND ALSO starts converting carbs and storing them in fat cells. 
       So for someone trying to lose weight, many studies show that a very low-carb diet will force the body to draw on fat cells to create energy, a process that is enabled by “ketosis.” And while keto diets don’t require monitoring glucose levels, what it DOES do is to educate the CGM wearer of those foods that may be short-circuiting fat loss, and instead may be contributing to weight gain. Another thing that can occur when higher-carb foods are eaten, is that the carb-conversion process also temporarily inhibits the type of energy the brain feeds on, causing tiredness or lack of mental focus for awhile (sometimes called “sugar crashes”). 
       There are places on the Internet that people can get access to CGMs even if they aren’t diabetic, but they can be expensive - $200-300 a month - because insurance is unlikely to cover them. But for every article like this one suggesting that CGMs can help educate people about what happens to their body when they eat certain foods, there are 5 articles discouraging people from using them, because they fear it will cause people to avoid healthy carbohydrates that the body needs to survive. 
       In fact, even the diabetic dietitian specialists I’ve been coached by in the past 6 months have cautioned me to keep eating potatoes, or said I deserve to have desserts, or asked me if my diet has been “sustainable” for me. Of course, they don’t ask if my exercise decisions have been sustainable or not? They only care that I don’t turn to a diet filled strictly with meat, cheese and butter because that’s just wrong (actually, they fear it will raise my cholesterol levels, even if there still aren’t studies proving this link between high-cholesterol foods and high cholesterol levels). 
       So, if you start to notice these little white quarter-size plastic disks on people’s triceps (or a round bandage covering a lump in the same place), you may have spotted a diabetic who can see their minute-by-minute blood glucose changes, or it may just be someone who’s simply curious to find out how their body reacts when they eat certain foods.