Any diabetic nurses or GPs about? Pre-diabetes and continuous glucose monitor showing little variation

[LegoTherapy]

I’ve been diagnosed with pre-diabetes. I’m not overweight and eating healthily and am very active every day, except the odd Sunday.
Out of curiosity I signed up for the two week trial of a continuous glucose monitor to see if I could pinpoint what foods spike my blood sugar. Nothing spikes it. The highest it’s been was 8.1 after a fig roll and was down again within a few minutes. After meals it goes to around 6-6.6 then comes back down quickly. I’ve had quite a lot of readings under 4 but felt fine. I’m wondering why my HbA1c showed prediabetes yet I’m not getting any spikes. Today is much like any other in terms of readings and looks like the attached. I’ve challenged my body by eating and drinking high carb/sugar foods and it refuses to get excited and keeps things steady.
It’s really interesting and I love numbers (autism) so this is fun to do for me but can anybody help me make sense of it please?
Obviously shamelessly posting for traffic

What was your hba1c?

My HbA1c was 44. They’ve sent me on a course and it’s all stuff I already do.

Sorry not an answer but did your gp do the 2 week continuous monitoring or was it a private company??

@Motomum23I signed up with Abbott for their free trial.

There’s your answer 😉

@Notouchingmybhuna the diagnosis came from my GP so I’m
not sure what you mean. I signed up for the free trial out of curiosity and my GP knows nothing about it.

Stick with the advice your GP you and the follow up they have suggested.

‘free trials’ of anything healthcare related are risky in terms of accuracy of results. Regulation of these companies is sketchy and you have zero clue about how accurate they are.

What were you doing in the afternoon? You were above 6 for 3 hours?

@Agiftandacurse Monk fan? I was exercising but it wasn’t above 6 the whole time. It’s usually 4 something or 5 something but mainly 4 something.,

the graph shows it better

On the app it gives you a predicted Hba1c. What does yours say?

yes love him

How long has it been on for? First 24 hrs can show lower results as it calibrates, what I would do when I used one after my initial diagnoses of T2 diabetes was to put a new one on a day before the old one expired then scan and activate it after it had been on for more than 24 hrs. Something to do with initial inflammation and higher platelets around the injection site.

@Agiftandacurse love Monk so much. Ds calls me Monk 😂 Not enough data for predicted HbA1c.
@InfoSecInTheCity3 days so not long.

Me too! It will be interesting to see the prediction when it is available. It’s possible you are subconsciously altering your behaviour (no post meal spikes at all). It’s possible you learnt more from the course than you realised. It’s possible the sensor isn’t accurate (some are a bit dodgy). It’s possible your HbA1c isn’t accurate (sometimes they’re not- better to have a trend). I’m not prediabetic but have worn a few and often have more variation than your graph. Hard to say with just that snapshot

I only started the course a few days ago and have deliberately challenged my body with cake and a caramel Frappuccino along with going out for pizza and pudding. It goes up but not high and comes down within minutes.

If it is going up but coming down quickly and your fasting is normal then that all sounds very normal. Updated needed at the end of your 2 weeks!

One more thing change your target range to upper limit 7.8 not 10. Then visually you’ll get a feel for how long you’re above that

Yes I need to play around with the app and limits. I’m below 4 most days at some point.
Im treating it as an experiment and not taking anything as gospel.

I use this device - something to be aware of is the inaccuracy. My Libre can tell me I’m 5.5 but my fingerprick can often be much higher ie 8.5. The Libre is good for showing spikes, patterns, when you’re dropping, going high or stable but I’ve found huge inaccuracies and still fingerprick test to be safe. So the numbers you’re seeing may well be much lower than you actually are.

Abbott devices are used in diabetes and are available on prescription for some patients with diabetes and are very accurate and rigorously trialled and tested . They interstitial glucose , not blood glucose and there is a few minute delay between the two .

The OP isn’t diabetic 😉

I know , I was replying to the message that the devices are not accurate.

@LegoTherapy . You are only in the pre diabetic stage , based on your HbA1c result . HbA1c is a measure of how much glucose has " stuck " to your red blood cells, so is very much an " average " and not a snap shot . Your body seems to be producing enough insulin to prevent spikes in glucose but the " average " is taking your HbA1c to just about the non diabetic range .

...which is why we would have a kid at work with their phone going crazy, Mum practically driving through the closed gates wanting a search party sent out when the kid was sat with me getting really frustrated that it wouldn't shut up - and I couldn't get through to Mum to say everything was fine/the kid wasn't collapsed in a toilet somewhere because she was simultaneously constantly ringing Reception to open the gates at the same time as hammering on the entry pad.

Not criticising it or their Mum at all, it's just what happens with the two methods of measurement, but the lag could elicit some rather dramatic human responses.

I’m a Type 1 diabetic, have been for many years and this is the same CGM I am prescribed for my care. All T1D are entitled to them on the NHS, T2 can self fund at £60 a sensor so it’s a no brainer for them to offer a free trial for you to hopefully sign up. Its definitely not an untested, inaccurate gimmick