5 Key Insights About Dexcom's Stelo and Abbott's Lingo Glucose Monitors

A continuous glucose monitor is a small wearable device that tracks blood sugar levels in real time. The device, commonly prescribed to diabetics to titrate medications (such as insulin) to stabilize blood sugar levels, is now gaining traction among the population. without it Diabetes to optimize your health and wellness.

In March 2024, the Food and Drug Administration cleared Dexcom's Stelo as the first commercially available continuous glucose monitor available without a prescription. In June 2024, the FDA cleared Abbott's terminology. Monitors cost between $83 and $99 per month out-of-pocket, depending on the number of devices you purchase. Other versions of continuous glucose monitors are available by prescription for diabetics and are generally covered by insurance.

Here are five things you should know about using continuous glucose monitors for general health and wellness in people who haven't been diagnosed with diabetes.

1. Continuous glucose monitor provides real-time insights into energy metabolism and health

Using a continuous glucose monitor involves attaching a sensor to your body, typically on the back of your arm or abdomen. During placement, a small needle goes just under the skin and leaves a small tube in place that measures blood sugar levels. After placement, you can let it soften for a day or two.

Glucose is tracked through a smartphone app. The device typically stays there for two weeks and then needs to be replaced.

Blood sugar levels fluctuate throughout the day and night, reflecting how the body metabolizes energy and provides clues to metabolic health. Users of the device can correlate glucose peaks and troughs with food, exercise, stress, and sleep, and can begin to understand how specific levels affect energy, mood, and focus. Even just two weeks or a month of tracking data can be enough for people to get a sense of the relationship between blood sugar fluctuations, metabolism, and how they feel.

Continuous glucose monitors also assess fasting glucose, which is the level after not eating for 8 hours, by checking what your glucose is early in the morning. Fasting glucose ranges from 70 to 100 mg/dL. Higher fasting levels are a sign of prediabetes (101-125 mg/dL) or diabetes (>125 mg/dL) and should be evaluated by a doctor.

2. continuous glucose monitor Helps fine-tune your diet

By tracking how food and blood sugar levels change, users can prevent individual or combinations of foods from causing or large spikes. For example, eating just a sesame bagel can result in huge spikes. In contrast, pairing the same bagel with proteins and vegetables like turkey, lettuce, and tomatoes results in slower absorption and lower spikes. Additionally, eating foods in a certain order, such as eating lettuce or tomato first, or gobbling a bagel can lead to even lower spikes.

Importantly, two people can have completely different blood sugar responses to the same bowl of oatmeal. Understanding an individual's unique glucose patterns can help people avoid large spikes and create meals that support sustained energy and overall well-being.

Several companies have been launched to assist in the interpretation of continuous glucose monitor data. nutrisense It helps users log meals and analyze how activity affects blood sugar levels. Users are paired with a nutritionist for tailored advice. level It assigns a “metabolic score” to food and activity based on how it affects fluctuations, and provides feedback on how users can stabilize their levels.

3. continuous glucose monitor May help optimize exercise

During exercise, blood sugar fluctuates based on intensity, duration, and type. Aerobic exercise like jogging uses glucose steadily, but anaerobic exercise like weightlifting and high-intensity exercise like sprinting can cause temporary spikes. By using a continuous glucose monitor, athletes can monitor these changes in real time and adjust their pre-workout meals, hydration, and snack usage to ensure sustained energy levels throughout their training . Post-exercise glucose data can also help with food selection, ensure recovery and muscle glucose stores (called glycogen) are replenished.

Continuous glucose monitors assess metabolic flexibility, the body's ability to burn or switch between burning carbohydrates and fat for fuel, allowing athletes to fine-tune their training routines to optimize energy efficiency, athletic performance, and metabolic health. You can also make it configurable. company Supersapiens We're innovating in this space, targeting athletes like runners and cyclists, providing insight into how their glucose levels respond during training, eating, and recovery.

However, despite the conceptual benefits of using continuous glucose monitoring to optimize exercise, there are currently no peer-reviewed studies showing that the devices actually improve performance in measurable ways. There is little research.

4. Glucose levels are higher than you think, affecting stress and sleep

Stress and sleep play important roles in regulating blood sugar levels, sometimes in dramatic ways. Stress increases sugar levels by causing the release of hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, which signal the liver to release stored glucose for energy. When this becomes chronic, the risk of insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction increases. Similarly, by impairing insulin sensitivity and altering the hunger hormones ghrelin and leptin, sleep deprivation or quality can affect glucose regulation, leading to overeating and unstable glucose patterns.

By wearing a continuous glucose monitor, users can observe how stressful events or poor sleep quality affect their blood sugar patterns and diet, helping to identify trends and triggers. Users can also monitor interventions that improve stress and sleep, such as improving sleep hygiene, meditation, yoga, or biofeedback.

5. continuous glucose monitor It's not a magic bullet. they are data tools

Continuous glucose monitors provide valuable data, but it is important not to overstate their benefits. Ultimately, information is only as good as how it is used. 2024 review One randomized trial studying the device in both diabetic and non-diabetic patients found that continuous glucose monitor-based feedback reduced hemoglobin A1C. This is a marker of glucose control over the past 2-3 months. Small amount. They concluded that the device had a small positive impact on glucose control, but more studies were needed to show benefit. Doctors have also stated concerns That continuous glucose monitoring could lead to disordered eating if people focused on glucose or changed their diet dramatically.

Ultimately, companies like Dexcom, Abbott and others are working to revolutionize health and wellness by providing real-time, actionable data directly to end users. To maximize the benefits of monitoring, users should approach data with a curious and experimental mindset, rather than fear or letting it create rigid rules. Working with a health care professional or nutrition expert to interpret your data can also help support your overall health goals.