Glucose Monitors for Preventive Healthcare: A Guide
Glucose monitoring is a system that uses a device to continuously monitor and track your blood glucose levels to aid you in understanding them better. Doctors and medical practitioners usually recommend glucose monitoring devices for people with diabetes. However, anyone can use these devices to help protect themselves from developing diabetes and other related or additional medical disorders due to too low, too high, or irregular glucose levels.
According to the adage “Prevention is better than cure,” it is always better to avoid getting diabetes than to deal with the condition. Those with diabetes go through abrupt fluctuations in their blood glucose levels. Your daily routine, behavioural patterns, nutrition, and other factors can cause an increase or decrease in your blood sugar levels.
People who consider themselves in perfect health will soon develop diabetes if their blood glucose levels fluctuate or remain chronically high. However, the problem will not arise if they use glucose monitors and take care of their glucose levels. The best way to ensure everyone has access to preventative healthcare is through the different glucose monitor types that are currently available.
The use of the initiative HealthifyPro2.0, offered by one of the top digital health platforms in India, is now one of the best solutions available. It includes a wearable device called BIOS that analyses blood glucose levels. Additionally, they provide instructions on how to keep the glucose level stable after analysis. Moreover, users of HealthifyPro 2.0 get health and fitness coaches who frequently monitor their glucose levels, metabolism, etc., and offer prompt assistance and counsel as needed.
Different Glucose Monitoring Methods
Three glucose monitoring devices are available: continuous glucose monitors, blood glucose monitors, and A1C tests. Such devices can help track the levels at different times, making measuring blood glucose hassle-free and convenient.
Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGM)
Continuous glucose monitors, commonly referred to as CGM, are one of the most convenient glucose monitoring systems that track your glucose levels at all times, updating every one to fifteen minutes. The fact that makes CGMs so convenient is their way of providing the measurements and results in an easily portable tracker/monitor or on your mobile phone.
Most CGMs come with a small sensor that may have an adhesive to easily stick to your skin and sometimes a monitor that helps you see your glucose level readings. You may wear the sensor for 14 days or more in a single stretch. These monitors also include a transmitter that may or may not be attached to the sensor responsible for transmitting the measurements to its respective monitors. These devices also have a reader or a receiver accountable for allowing your monitor, smartphones, or similar devices to receive the measures from the transmitter.
Studies prove the capability of CGMs to let their users understand the fluctuations that may be happening in their blood glucose levels, making it a very beneficial kind of glucose monitoring system. In addition, the measurements and data from these devices help you understand the trends of glucose levels in your blood.
Everybody experiences different changes in their metabolic rate and blood glucose levels. Utilising CGMs enables you to recognise your body’s trends and what suits you best, enabling you to create custom food regimens that are most effective at maintaining healthy glucose levels. Diabetes and other disorders related to excessive blood glucose levels are most frequently brought on by your lifestyle choices. CGMs assist you in changing to a healthier lifestyle, thereby preventing the development of such illnesses.
Blood Glucose Monitors (BGM)
Blood glucose monitors are another kind of glucose monitoring system, best known as a home blood sugar meter, a glucose meter, or simply a glucometer. These are blood tests you can do at your home, thus helping you to self-monitor your blood glucose levels. Before CGM became a popular and convenient choice for measuring glucose levels, BGMs were the devices that doctors and medical practitioners recommended if they suspected you to have constantly fluctuating blood sugar levels.
The device detects the amount of glucose present in a drop of blood at that particular time. A drop of blood gets taken from your finger as the blood sample to conduct the test. It is called a fingerstick. The monitor will read the level when you put the blood drop onto the test strip. As a result, BGM users must perform fingersticks frequently throughout the day, occasionally even at night, or as instructed by their physician. It is beneficial to repeat it several times to obtain correct blood glucose levels, see how they fluctuate, and identify potential fluctuation causes.
Studies suggest continuous testing throughout the day can improve your blood sugar levels. The results you get from this fingerstick testing will help your doctor determine if your blood glucose levels are always at an optimal level or not. In addition, you can use the results you get to make necessary changes to your lifestyle, diet, etc., if required. Also, ask your doctor if you need any medications or insulin in case of high glucose levels.
How to Use BGMs?
Below are the steps that you need to follow to use the blood glucose meter properly:
- After taking the meter out, make sure it is clean.
- Once you remove the test strip, close it tightly with a container to avoid contamination.
- Now wash your hands with soap and water and thoroughly dry them.
- Finally, massage your hands for proper blood circulation.
- Prick your finger using a lancet, squeeze from the base of that finger and gently put blood drop onto the test strip.
- Within seconds, you will notice the results and record them. If you think the reading is not in the target range, note down the possible reasons.
- After use, dispose of the lancet and strip it in the trash.
- Store the rest of the test strips well in the container with the test kit. Avoid exposing them to moisture, heat, or cold temperatures.
A1C Test
The A1C test is like a regular blood test done every three months to understand the blood sugar control in the past months. The A1C tests help you and your doctor to understand your blood sugar levels. In most cases, the doctor or a medical practitioner prescribes an A1C test to someone they suspect to have diabetes or inconsistent glucose levels. Then, they determine your A1C test goal, which may generally be less than 7-8%, depending on your age. However, there are also A1C test kits available in the market that you can use at home to test blood glucose levels.
After taking an A1C test, the labs may provide your result in two ways:
- A1C as a percentage reading.
- Estimated average glucose (eAG) readings in the same numbers as your daily blood sugar readings
After you take the test, if the results are too high or low, you may have to adjust your diabetes medications and routine plan.
The HealthifyMe Note
Continuous glucose monitors are undoubtedly the most efficient and practical of the three types of glucose monitors. These are useful for people with diabetes and anyone who wants balanced blood glucose levels and better metabolic health. Doctors exclusively suggest blood glucose monitors and A1C tests for those with diabetes and those with evident disease symptoms. Unlike BGMs and A1C tests, a CGM measures a person’s blood glucose levels every five to fifteen minutes throughout the day, making it more convenient and helpful than the former ones.
The Importance of Using Glucose Monitors
Diabetes is among the most prevalent diseases worldwide, affecting a large population yearly. More than 422 million people suffer from the disease worldwide, and not less than 1 to 6 million deaths occur because of diabetes annually. The figures are concerning, yet there are scarcely enough preventative measures, which is why the rates are so high.
Diabetes is a severe and long-lasting disease. Studies say that diabetes can affect many major organs, including the heart, blood vessels, nerves, eyes, and kidneys, thus resulting in long-term medical complications. The bloodstream is responsible for transporting glucose to different body parts to supply other organs with the required energy to perform several life functions. When this glucose level in the blood goes beyond the suitable level, the pancreas secretes insulin to get it back to normal. However, for a diabetic patient, insulin production may be low, or the body becomes incapable of using it effectively.
Once you get diabetes, your doctor will prescribe you regular medications along with several restrictions on food, behavioural patterns, and lifestyle. Additionally, your situation could worsen if you skip doses of prescribed drugs.
Importance of Glucose Monitors for Non-Diabetic People
Devices like continuous glucose monitors warn you as soon as they find a spike in blood glucose levels or if it goes below the optimal level. It will help you, a person with no diabetes, to understand what food item you eat or what behavioural pattern you follow causes such fluctuations and fix them accordingly. In such cases, the restrictions are minimal, and no medications are involved.
A suitable item or behavioural pattern that affects blood glucose levels varies from person to person. So, following pre-set diet plans that many may follow may work well for keeping your glucose levels in balance, but the diet plan may also not do any good. Glucose monitoring devices, on the other hand, will let you understand what works best for you and allow you to devise a lifestyle that works uniquely for you.
The CGMs provided by digital health platforms like HealthifyMe offer users personal health and fitness coaches and an AI that regularly tracks their glucose levels. They warn you as soon as they see an undesirable fluctuation in the numbers and provide instructions to bring it back to the optimal level. Such convenient devices can reduce the rate of diabetic patients to a large number globally.
Importance of Glucose Monitors for Diabetic Patients
According to doctors, most diabetic patients should use a glucose monitor, as it is essential to understand their progress with treatment, drugs, and diet regimens. A glucose monitor, especially a CGM, tracks the glucose levels throughout the day, and those patients will have to share their results with their doctors.
The results provided by glucose monitors help your doctor understand the effect of diabetes medications to bring back blood glucose to an optimal level. Furthermore, they will be able to understand what foods or behavioural patterns often affect glucose levels which will help them treat you accordingly. They can ask you to make further changes to your diet plans, exercises, or behavioural patterns depending on your average blood glucose levels, which they can easily acquire by the patients’ use of glucose monitors. Studies noticed that devices like continuous glucose monitors are more effective in treating diabetes than other methods that may include medications.
The HealthifyMe Note
The development of continuous glucose monitors is a boon to people with diabetes as they can easily monitor their glucose levels without using fingersticks. It is a revolutionary invention for people with diabetes, providing accurate blood sugar levels. In addition, it often comes with an alarm system that immediately warns the user if the levels go dangerously low or high. Therefore, these are undoubtedly a device every diabetes patient must have to manage the disease well.
Conclusion
Everyone must stop believing that diabetic individuals only use glucose monitors to manage their condition. While these devices are the most useful for them, everyone can use systems like continuous glucose monitors to unlock their glucose data, ensure they are not getting prediabetic, and adjust their lifestyle accordingly. Glucose monitors are the answer to preventive healthcare in the field of diabetes. In addition, these monitors will empower you to make healthy diet changes and help you achieve good exercise routines. It will help you prevent diabetes and improve overall physical and mental health.
