I've just finished sixteen days wearing a continuous glucose monitor. The sensor came off this week, and I'll write up what it showed shortly.
Here's why I did it.
Until now I measured the way most people do — a fasting reading in the morning once a week, and an A1C every few months. Both looked fine. A fine result is a fine result, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
But a morning reading is one moment out of a day, and an A1C is an average of roughly three months. Neither shows you what your blood sugar levels did in between. Something can average well and still move around a great deal.
That's what I wanted to see. Not a better number — the same number, in more detail.
What I can tell you already is that some of what I assumed was fine wasn't, and some of what I'd been avoiding mattered less than I thought. I'm not giving you specifics yet. Sixteen days is enough to see patterns and not enough to be careless with, and I'd rather report it properly than quickly.
If you want a version of this that costs almost nothing, use the meter you already have and test one hour after a meal you think is safe. Not fasting — one hour after. That reading shows you something a morning number can't. Do it for a week, on the meals you eat most often.
If you'd rather try a sensor yourself, I've compared the main options here.
The write-up is coming. If there's something you'd want me to look for in the data, reply and tell me — I'd rather answer questions people actually have than the findings I found interesting.
— Alistair
PureNovus
Educational, not medical advice.