Glucose Monitoring

Hello, @ladybugmg – thanks for posting this article on glucose monitoring.

How do you currently monitor your glucose, @ladybugmg? What will the approval of this new monitoring device and ability to access it mean for you?

I am interested in this new monitoring device because a number of my family members suffer from diabetes. I am fortunate in that by changing my diet I was able to avoid the disease. At the first warning signs of it, I starting practicing what I learned from Diane Kress's book, The Diabetes Miracle: 3 Simple Steps to Prevent and Control Diabetes....

Your family members are lucky to have you looking out for them and their diabetes, @ladybugmg. Do your family members have Type I or Type II diabetes? What kind of glucose monitoring have they been using?

There are three generations in my family that have Type 2 Diabetes, some of whom already have the disease and others that have increased risk. They are scattered across the U.S, (from California to Delaware) so I don't know what method is being used to monitor. Both my late Mother and sister both had increased risk but like myself managed to avoid the disease mostly with diet and generally good eating habits and avoided drinking alcohol.

@ladybugmg Does alcohol increase the risk? I can't drink now of course since having had a liver transplant but I had no idea that it increased the risk. When I was first diagnosed having diabetes I did drink moderately -- generally a glass of wine with dinner.
JK

I found an article published by the Mayo Clinic that discusses alcohol and diabetes

Does alcohol and tobacco use increase the risk of diabetes?
Answers from Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D.
Yes, alcohol and tobacco use may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Alcohol
Although studies show that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol may actually lower the risk of diabetes, the opposite is true for people who drink greater amounts of alcohol.

Moderate alcohol use is defined as one drink a day for women of all ages and men older than age 65, and up to two drinks a day for men age 65 and younger.

Too much alcohol may cause chronic inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis), which can impair its ability to secrete insulin and potentially lead to diabetes.

Tobacco
Tobacco use can increase blood sugar levels and lead to insulin resistance. The more you smoke, the greater your risk of diabetes.

People who smoke heavily — more than 20 cigarettes a day — have almost double the risk of developing diabetes compared with people who don’t smoke.

@ladybugmg thanks. I don’t think either of those had anything to do with my diabetes then since I generally only had one glass of wine wth dinner and I gave up smoking @ 28 years before I developed diabetes. I stopped when I got pregnant. I also pretty much stopped drinking then and didn’t resume until they were off to college - I couldn’t afford to be mellow!
JK

Continuous glucose monitors (CGM) offer significant, daily benefits to people with type 1 diabetes, providing near-real time measurements of blood sugar levels, but they can be expensive. A new study by researchers from the University of Chicago Medicine, based on a 6-month clinical trial, finds that use of a CGM is cost-effective for adult patients with type 1 diabetes when compared to daily use of test strips. The results are well within the thresholds normally used by insurance plans to cover medical devices. During the trial, CGMs improved overall blood glucose control for the study group and reduced hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar episodes.

Read more https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180412102930.htm

Hi @ladybumg. I have been using a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) for about ten weeks now. It took me some time, and I still not where I would like to be, to get it calibrated for me and I still find that each new sensor takes about three days to usually be very close to what my meter says. I have been awakened quite a few nights warning me of hypo glycemic events. That is a true blessing for anyone who has a good number of lows, but I really wanted one for golfing or any outdoor activity when the weather gets to normal SC temps between May and October. I have found myself so paranoid during high heat that I just stayed inside and I certainly don't need to be out when it is 95 w/ 100% humidity, but this will allow me to get out until the heat is extreme. I am very much in favor of anything that eases part of the burden of diabetes. Anyone else have experience with CGM's?
Gary

Thank you for the information. I do not have diabetes but many members of my family are dealing with it. I will send followup information as it is made available. Did insurance or Medicare pay for the CGM monitoring?