AIBU as a Type 1 Diabetic, to be baffled the seemingly sudden influx of non diabetics using CGM's...?

[OSAP]

If your pancreas works, you don't need one.

Blood glucose isn't exclusively influenced by the food you eat so 'personalised nutrition plans' 'metabolic trackers' etc etc are a, usually expensive, gimmick.

Nobody seemed too fussed about their 'blood glucose' when it involved finger pricks, but the Freestyle Libre now seems to have become a must have accessory for the 'worried well' who now seem to need to know what their blood sugar is doing, all while not really understanding what most of it means.

The SM ads of Davina McCall et al putting them on are particularly galling. I can’t explain why.

Type 1
23yrs
Only thing that annoys me is when they say wow it doesn't hurt. The don't post the painful ones, the bleeders, the bruisers the ones that are inaccurate for the dosage of insulin that can make us too high or low etc...
we have NO choice.

I don't know. I can see that the marketing is annoying and misleading, and it's not actually necessary.

But at an individual level, I imagine most people are genuinely trying to be healthier. They may be misguided, and may have been taken in by the marketing, but I'd direct my annoyance more at the company than individuals.

@LovelaceBiggWither

I'm not pissing on T2 either. You have misunderstood.

People taking care of themselves, and taking responsibility for their health - overall a good thing for NHS

Heard on radio 4 this week that there are an estimated 1.5 million undiagnosed people in the UK, unaware that they have the condition.

*Even type 2's, Why on earth would you be testing more than a few times a day? So why wear something that you don't have to? Just so you can scan it a few times?

Have you ever worn one? They are horrible!! Something that is sticky and itchy and an irritant and has a small plastic tube. The body automatically always tries to excrete thinking that it is a foreign object.

I wear one because I have to why on earth would anyone else the stupidity makes my blood rage with anger.*

It certainly sounds like you are pissing on Type 2s with this comment

I spent a couple of hours googling looking for published data from Zoe. There is very little around and what they have is mostly small pilot studies. People are paying a lot of money to join their study cohort. And they don't let people with poor adherence to their guidance retest, which strikes me as poor science as there is no baseline comparator. Looks like it may be more about making money from the worried well than high quality clinical studies.

I close loop with libre and dash (after being told I wouldn’t eligible for omnipod 5 as my control is too good 🫠) so don’t have to pay for sensors, could you do that? I believe dexcom is thought to be more accurate but I find libre 2 great alongside xdrip4ios.

I’m finding the fad annoying too and I think it’s because I feel like it minimises what we have to go through, people thinking it’s cool and interesting although I admit I may be unreasonable to feel like that. I also think people just don’t understand biology. There’s no issue in your bg spiking slightly after food, that’s what it’s supposed to do. Libre will show that grapes cause a bigger spike than butter but clearly it’s better to eat ten grapes than a stick of butter…

https://wchh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pdi.2475

This is interesting- the gist is that people are being encouraged to think that a certain food is bad for them, individually, because their blood sugar spiked after eating it. Without taking into account that there are eleventy-billion (scientific term!) things that affect blood sugar levels (fat, protein, last night's gin, Saturday's half-marathon, sex, tomorrow's exam). And that actually, rather than selling cgms and diet plans, people should be encouraged to eat more fibre and do more exercise.

i have one as a funny type 3 - the closest description endocrinology can get for me!!

it’s amazing how many people ‘want a shot’
or the Facebook page full of doctors using Zoe.

id happily give them mine in exchange for a normal pancreas 🙄

I'm with you OP. For years I had to fund my own cgm (and still partially so now. Will explain to help fellow type ones in a mo..)
It's the celeb endorsements by Davina McCall etc that annoy me. I think everything has been said already but if you're not diabetic all you're doing is lining the pockets of the cgm companies and emptying your bank balance.
@NotThatWitty and any other T1's who have to self fund a G6/G7. There is a way round it. You can get a dexcom 1 on nhs prescription as it's on tariff and same cost as a Libre.
Then you can use the sensors but put a G6/7 transmitter in them and they work just the same and you can HCL with it. (You need a sensor conversion code)
Another way is via the diy community where you can buy a transmitter that you can change the battery in yourself, lasts 6 months or so and extends the sensors. . One off purchase but will last.
Only downside is dexcom are moving to an all in one dexcom one (like the g7)
So im not sure what I'll do then.
Hopefully it won't happen imminently

Post prandial glucose is 2 hrs after eating. Going above 7.8 is not abnormal, as long as it is back below that after 2 hrs.

from pp’s link above:

Likewise, the lower 2-hour plasma glucose (2hPG) cut-off of impaired glucose tolerance of 7.8mmol/L does not mean that any glucose rise above 7.8mmol/L is a sign that a person has prediabetes. The duration of hyperglycaemia is important here: glucose remains elevated 2 hours after a glucose load because beta-cell dysfunction and insulin resistance have developed to such a degree that the body is not able to dispose of the glucose effectively.

@WreckTangled and @GinandGingerBeer - Thank you both, but I use the Medtronic Guardian 4 sensors.

As a side note - I wonder how this influx may end up affecting things like airport security in the future? My transmitter and sensors can't go through X-ray machines, and so I need to go to the side to get mine swabbed at airports. I also chose to not walk through the security scanner things, and so ask for a pat down instead, due to my pump.
Many times, I have had to wait longer to pass through security for these things to happen. Occasionally, I have been fast-tracked through security to do this - this is much less often, but does depend on the airport (Palma airport in Mallorca was fantastic at this, and have a whole special assistance security room that allowed for this, as just one example of where a more 'fast-tracked' approach has helped. In fact, this particular airport sticks out, as they could not do enough to help me, and as I always panic going through security, they eased all my anxieties and made it very smooth).
I wonder if all the people wearing sensors for the fad diets see this happen, and then try the same? The majority wouldn't (why wear a sensor on holiday and get the sensor tan marks, when you have the luxury to take it off?), but I wouldn't put it past a few CFs in this world to try it on. Again, this would minimise all the stress and extra packing that diabetics can have when traveling abroad.

Don’t most of the wearers for programmes like Zoe only have them on for two weeks anyway…?

Quick tangent here, but I’ve never managed to get one to stay on long when I’ve been somewhere hot. I’ve had to resort to finger pricks.

I’ve never had a a sensor unstick. I have lost one or two by catching them on my bra strap but that’s it. I think some people have ‘sticky skin’ as it seems some people constantly have issues with them sticking whereas others have none. I struggled to get one off this morning after over 14 days (it ended last night).

Wow. I think I have 1 in every 3 either come off early, or not work in the first place.

I do get issues with my pod bleeding and therefore not working properly. Or sometimes it can just be really painful. One time my handset completely died and disconnected my pod at the same time and I was about to leave for a festival, ended up missing half of it whilst I waited at home injecting fast acting every 30 mins waiting for them to deliver a new one. Technology is great but only when it works 😅

I have reactive hypoglycaemia, I have been self-funding a CGM as it has helped me identify my hypo triggers, patterns and manage my diet/ exercise. Been to the Dr about hypos over a year ago and NHS has done nothing (yet) to help me manage it, other than mixed meal test and fasting test to confirm diagnosis.
This thread raises really important questions about Zoe. I asked to do Zoe, for the dietary support, but if you have diabetes or reactive hypoglycaemia they don’t let you participate. But the whole nature of Zoe is going to uncover participants with diabetes and reactive hypoglycaemia- you can see it on the CGM graphs people post on the Zoe Facebook page. How can Zoe not let people with metabolic conditions participate, when the nature of their program is to accidentally test for metabolic conditions, that they are then not medically trained to advise about?

To explain further- the eating different types of muffin test and recording of glucose reaction with the CGM for Zoe, is really similar to the NHS mixed meal test I’ve just had for reactive hypoglycaemia. Both are to show your blood sugar control over a period of time in reaction to carbs, protein and fat (NHS use an ensure drink and records your glucose and insulin response for 5 hours).
But Zoe has no knowledge that they are essentially running a test for reactive hypoglycaemia and instead labelling it ‘poor blood sugar’

How are people affording them?
My 17 year old son collapsed in severe DKA last year and was Diagnosed immediately with diabetes
He was found to have necrotizing acute pancreatitis (we have no idea why and was diagnosed with type 3c diabetes treated as type one ( he has virtually no pancreas left) and is insulin dependent
He has a Dexcom,funded by the NHS( my understanding is they will.only fund type one,s or those treated as type ones) the Diabetes team told us that a three month supply of Dexcom,s cost around £800
.

Type 2 or pre diabetic maybe but type one I doubt it it can be a medical emergency to leave it untreated My son was in severe Diabetic Ketone Acidosis ,on diagnosis his blood sugars were through the roof he wss blue lighted to hospital, straight through to resus
And wss in critical care within a hour it was life threatening.

@MrsSkylerWhite Also, how many ‘undiagnosed T2’ patients are in the target market of Zoe etc?

That isn’t slating T2, rest assured, as lots of factors contribute (it apparently has a stronger genetic element that T1, which I was surprised about).

Im Type 2 on insulin twice a day, i am supposed to test 4 times a day! I do get lows at lunch time.
I have a libre once and was 97% in range. It was free but have paid for the 2nd one which i will use on holiday next week. I didnt find it itchy at all and i have allergies to plasters and exema problems

@bruffin when I was pregnant, the Gp’s seemed to mix the two up so much! Personally, I think the more technology people can access the better.

Which is a tangent, again, re Zoe but…