CGM or Continuous Glucose Monitoring

Commonly used continuous glucose monitors (CGM) are small devices with a tiny needle that measures the glucose (sugar) level in the interstital fluid under your skin. They can be applied to the back of the arm, for example, and sync with an app on your cell phone to provide a readout of your blood sugar level whenever you check it. 

They are most commonly used by people with diabetes to help control their disease. 

But they may be extremely useful in health maintenance even for those of us without diabetes.

First, a CGM can help determine whether you have “prediabetes” and are likely to progress to type 2 diabetes. This is a condition in which the cells in your body become resistant to the blood sugar lowering hormone, insulin. The pancreas makes more insulin in order to lower blood sugar levels, but the body does not resond normally. 

So both insulin and glucose levels are elevated, at least initially, unlike type 2 diabetes, in which the pancreas does not make enough insulin.

Type 2 diabetes has many of the same long term ill effects of type 1 diabetes, including deteriorating vision and kidney function. If your blood sugar upon awakening in the morning is consistently above 100 you are likely at risk for (or may actually have) type 2 diabetes.

CGM has great benefits beside early warning for type 2 diabetes. We want to generally keep our blood sugar under about 150, even after a meal. Sugary and even starchy foods might drive your well above this value. You can see which foods have the greatest impact – certainly sugary desserts, even bread, rice, and potatoes may do so. 

You may discover that eating rice with protein, such as fish, results in minimal blood sugar increases. You miay also find that rice is OK but bread is not. 

You can intelligently refine and improve your diet!

There is nothing like actually SEEING how your blood sugar responds to different foods if you want to improve your diet. 

Let’s face it – if you are not measuring it, you cannot manage it.

Note: Although I am a physician, the content in this article is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent illness or disease in the reader – it is for educational purposes only.

References

• Fox LA, Beck RW, Xing D and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Continuous Glucose Monitoring Study Group. Variation of interstitial glucose measurements assessed by continuous glucose monitors in healthy, nondiabetic individuals. Diabetes Care. 2010 Jun;33(6):1297-9
• Lee GS, Lupsa BC. Continuous Glucose Monitoring for the Internist. Med Clin North Am. 2021 Nov;105(6):967-982
• Wright EE, Subramanian S. Is Continuous Glucose Monitoring a Tool, an Intervention, or Both? Diabetes Technol Ther. 2023 06;25(S3):S48-S55.