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.

@OSAP
One of my work colleagus husband was using them for training for Iron Man and Tough Mudders , dont think she was amused when she found out how much he was spending on them.
I agree with you about people using them who arent diabetic, but there are odd people out their who just go from one medical fad to another, ie gluton free,. There was a poster on MN who claimed to be pre , pre diabetic what ever that means!
I was only diagnosed 2 years ago and went straight onto insulin , i think it would have been a good learning tool for me in the beginning. I have managed to get very strict control of my blood glucose (Ha1bc 39 and 42 since and Libre was 97% in range) and halved my insulin .The libre gave me the confidence in what i was doing was right

My best friend has decided she’s ’gluten free’, I have also noticed there’s a link between this and when it’s convenient.

A whole new thread entirely!

T1 here, my workplace (around 1000 employees) obtained a staff special offer for zoe and lots of my colleagues took it up. A few of the annoying/insensitive things I've endured since:

1. Lady told me how exciting she got to check her blood sugar and how lucky I am to be able to do it all the time, and free on the NHS!
2. Triathlon man who read my blood sugar over my shoulder and decided to give me a lesson in what foods I should be eating and how important it is to stay under 6mmol
3. Lady who told me the sensor application is painless, its easy to keep my blood sugar under control with this technology, and I should thank my lucky stars I live in this day and age
4. Lady who now misses knowing what her blood sugar is doing and asks me what my blood sugar is approximately 8 times a day when we're both in the office.

I don't necessarily mind people using it, although I can't understand why (low GI good for bg, high GI bad for bg surely?). I just wish people would stop being insensitive dicks and thinking 2 weeks of wearing a sensor gives them an insight into being an insulin dependent diabetic.

If you go up to 9 mmol after a high carb food like chips and then come back down because your own body can get you down I wouldn't be overly concerned unless happening all the time. As a diabetic, something like a plate of chips, would take you far higher than 9 mmol - I'd probably be in the 20s without insulin and even with insulin would probably end up at 14 when the timings dont always match digestion rate.

I agree its something to keep an eye on and may indicate T2 diabetes, but equally I have over the years when I've finger pricked my non diabetic DH for a test, seen him go as high as 10 after a high carb meal and he is nowhere near the diabetic HBA1C.

Any high csrb food will increase BS diabetic or not but a non diabetic will be able to get back down within a target range and have a moderate spike.

I do agree it may be cause for concern but equally as I said in a pp, my current target from my consultant is to be below 10mmol 70% of the time. No one is going to have diabetic complications because they go as high as 9 mmol once a week but I think these sensors have made ppl obsess and worry.

I do agree a spike up to 9 may indicate T2 diabetes but equally this could be investigated through a HBA1C test.

I think the irritation needs to be at the marketing rather than the people who use it, but, my god, that would piss me off no end!

@Hellogoodbyehello4321 I remember, years ago, testing my dad and he was 10ish mmol. I can't remember if it was post, or pre meal, or what he may have eaten but he then went to the dr's and had an HbA1c. It was perfectly normal.

@Fleurty urgh! what a nightmare! Hope you're OK. The insensitivity of others comes from a place of not knowing, I guess. I do a lot of lip biting on behalf of my son.

@OSAP thank you. I think that's what I'm trying to say. Going up to 9 or 10 mmol COULD indicate T2 diabetes but actually could just be you've eaten a shit load of carbs.

Most diabetics aren't going to stop at 9 or 10 mmol. Last time I attempted a pizza, my blood sugar went so high, my sensor couldn't read it, which I think means it went over 27 😬

I'm just massively jealous because I have to limit carbs and clearly can't eat pizza. I can wake up at 10mmol somedays when I've not eaten for 10 hours. If I could spike at 9mmol after a high carb meal I'd be the happiest person on Earth.

But somehow ppl are convinced they need to cut out foods because they spiked at 8mmol, completely unaware that actually spiking at 8 or 9 mmol, or even 10, can still mean your HBA1C and risk of diabetes is absolutely fine & its all about your average.

Like I say, I'm just jealous, because if I had a working pancreas, I wouldn't be cutting out carbs unless I was absolutely sure I had to 🤣

@Fleurty - That's awful! I'd be tempted to have a word with HR/my manager, but the reality is, I'd probably do nothing but quietly seethe.

And this post just highlights what others on this thread have been saying about Zoe minimising the daily struggles that diabetes have to face just to stay alive. It also reinforces stigma of diabetes being the 'fat people's disease' that we only have because we ate 'too much sugar/too many carbs'.

I am so so angry on your behalf.

@Fleurty how fucking rude of them

@Fleurty that's awful, I'm so sorry. I find that really upsetting and I think that highlights one of the concerns I have with ZOE, it's increasing the ignorance around diabetes

There is a study from Stanford uni that found T1 diabetics make something like 160 extra decisions a day than the average person just to stay alive. Probably wouldn't be as much of a novelty if any of them had even 50% of the mental load.

As for the guy telling you how to stay at 6 mmol - I have no words. I believe the current guidance for T1 diabetics is to aim for HBA1C of 48 which is equivalent to about 7.4 mmol average because more than that would mean the risk of hypos and killing ourselves would outweigh the risk of lower blood sugar. You may as sooner tell me to win the lottery next Saturday as tell me to average at 6 mmol. Absolute ignorant fool.

This is definitely the issue, it's making it seem a simple thing to treat, and the problem is that whenever I try to explain that I look like the arsehole!

It's so hard because people don't mean to be insensitive, they just underestimate how relentless and fatiguing it is to deal with 24/7 and zoe seems to be increasing that underestimation rather than creating a better understanding of how hard it is.

@OSAP You don’t need to call them to replace a sensor you just fill in the online form and they post it to you. Google libre sensor support form and it will come up.

@SoEmbarrassed2024 Abbot aren’t encouraging non diabetics to try libre with a two week free trial. The terms and conditions of the trial are that it’s only available for diabetics.

Have you tried the seriously low carb pizzas? They’re so good! Not cheap but you only need half and you’re full (with a side salad or whatever). My last hba1c was 5.3 and I’m trying to get it at that level with zero hypos which hopefully will happen since I started looping last week. I need to stop eating shit though 😅

I haven't but thanks for the recommendation, I will have a look. I do love pizza but in all my years as a diabetic, I've never been able to make it work at all.

Best of luck with your loop.

@Oblomov24

Several T2's have already explained why.

@OSAP

you need to make your mind up re T2's. Agreeing they're useful to T2 posters then agreeing with T1's posting things

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?

saying 'it's bizarre!'

Its not bizarre to want to know what spikes or what the affects of certain food have over several hours.

I did nothing 'to bring T2 on myself (as per the standard narrative. I was slim & healthy until I became T2 through a medical situation. I'm no more to blame for my T2 than any T1's.

as I said earlier, they shouldn't even be both Diabetic then T1/T2/Twhstever else they should be differentiated before 'Diabetic' BUT just because they're different, doesn't mean T2 doesn't need 'handling'. If it was called something else there would be a better understanding of them both. We might not have the ' oh T1's were born with it' T2's are the fat lazy people who brough it on themselves narrative.

@FabFebHalfTerm
You've misquoted me. It wasn't me that says it was bizarre.

@FabFebHalfTerm I was referring to wanting to wear a medical device, a Libre, when there is no medical need to as bizarre. I do not think it’s bizarre to wear one when you’re Type 2. I also didn’t say that Type 2’s only need to know their BG a few times a day. I don’t know loads about T2, but get the impression it varies a lot.

I also agree wholeheartedly that the two should have different names.

This thread isn’t supposed to be about any diabetics though, it was started talking about people wearing one who aren’t diabetic.

T1 only accounts for about 5% of diabetics. I'm not saying T2 doesn't need "handling" @FabFebHalfTerm. It needs care and investment. My Dh is T2.

I object mainly to T2 being given libre2's when T1's aren't even given them, or access is limited, nor a pump, nor a cgm, (less than 5% have a funded cgm which is shocking) because funding rules for some CCG's.

T2 is important. But it's not like T1. "T1 diabetics make something like 160 extra decisions a day than the average person just to stay alive."
That's no surprise to me.

I lie in bed. Before I've even opened my eyes, I think : Am I low, am I ok, did I go low in the night, did I alarm and sleep through it? how low, how many times, can I be bothered to lean over and open the app re my cgm/libre2/whatever and check, can I get up, am I in a fit state to look after the boys (when they were younger) , do I need to test first, or can I get up and get straight in the shower.

Oh I must remember to get the spag Bol for dinner out of the freezer. I'll have more protein for breakfast, assuming the weather ok and can I thus cycle the boys to school. I must remember to lower my basal for that, plus because I've got a meeting with the accountant at 10:30 and I don't want to go low. I'll test before I go in to the meeting, I'll run myself slightly higher so I don't go low during that meeting. Will meeting finish early? Will I be able to have lunch? I've got a salad prepped I must remember to lower my carb ratio for that also I'm leaving work early to go to school, so I must remember to check/test before I leave work, lower my basal again, because I'll be cycling to the school and then cycling home with both boys. lower carb tea because I'm having carb free pasta, but I've got to go out to a meeting after that, so I must remember to check/test again, and to lower basal yet again for the evening.

And then I open my eyes. And start the day.

It's wearing. I've done it for 50 years and it's invasive, 24/7, no break.

When i got diagnosed with T2 I was told mine was genetic, It actually took a few months to decide whether i was T1 or LADA or T2, My pancreas was not producing insulin but i it turns out i am not producing antibodies so T2.
Being type 2 on insulin , i do have to worry about hypos. Thankfully i do know when i need to eat as i start to shake in the 4s which is usually approaching lunch time. I do have to plan far more now when i eat , than before i was diagnosed
I am supposed to test 4 times a day now minimum,plus more after excercise or if ill etc, but i only get 100 test strips at a time, which is 25 days at a time.

This thread isn't supposed to be infighting between diabetics.

Sorry if I said T2's shouldn't be scanning, using a libre2. If some want to use it, fine. Most don't need to. I correct myself. Sorry for earlier comment.

Back to the original OP.

Zoe. Spector and Bartlett. Feeding off peoples health anxiety. Telling them they need to wear a very expensive scanning insert, changed twice a month. To give info on their blood sugars. Corrupt. All about money.

Apparently there is a stronger genetic link to T2 than there is T1, which I found surprising.

obomov2 - am so with you on the factt hat people do not get the effort required to maintain loodsugar, plan your day, eat and exercise and keep safe.

The current fad feeds into the worried wel - my colleague, no DM, got one and pointed out that he felt hypo if his blood sugar was 4.5 and I lost it at him! I will give you a hypo 2.9, because you mismatched your insulin and carb intake, whilst chasing your child down the road before they run out in traffic.

Like you, after 50+ yrs I am tired of the constant need to try and miantain a range which only suits someone sat at a desk all day. For the average diabetic 4-7 is a pipe dream with a normal life - extra fight of stairs - let me know 15 mins iin advance so I can have some sugar before I start.

I compared mine with my colleague who was astounded that I found it so hard to not do 4-7 necause he did! My daw phenomenon had only hit 11 that day aswell. He was appalled.

Let them waste their monies - but do not even try to tell me about blood sugar and insulin and exercise.

Like you I remember the old strength insulin, glasssyringes and 6 stainless steel needles, urine testing - 5 drops of water and 10 drops urine - bue good, orange v bad, purple ketone tabets, I remember the advent of blood testing machines, u100 insulin, geneticay modified insulin, pumps, cgms - when you triviaise my illness, you show your ignorance of what it is actually like.

I am now old enough for people to assume I am Type 2 and not Type 1 and insut me even more!

Thankfully I have not had anyone wearing a CGM (who’s not diabetic, any type) share their newly acquired expertise on blood sugar. Fingers crossed that won’t happen!

Until this thread, the use of CGM’s with those who don’t need them trivialising the effort it takes didn’t occur to me either. I suppose, as has just been highlighted above by @uneffingbelievable its a constant juggle you can’t switch off from.

I googled the Stanford Uni info someone mentioned earlier, and really rams it home when you see it in black and white.

Research from Stanford University in 2014 found that people living with type 1 diabetes make an extra 180 health-related decisions a day than someone without diabetes. That's an extraordinary amount of extra decisions to be made – about once every 5 minutes you are awake.