Should I get a CGM

Newcomer introductions, personal anecdotes, caregiver issues, lab results, and n=1 experimentation.
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Tincup
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Re: Should I get a CGM

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Brenita wrote: Wed Dec 22, 2021 7:41 pm I joined the December DDF Challenge. It was amazing how simple it was and the information and guidance provided was very valuable. I will probably do this challenge a few more times. I also, do not need to lose much weigh just need to get the glucose in line. I am also signed up for the January Masterclass.

As you mentioned, I am trying the Z2 exercise after dinner. Hoping this will help.
Awesome! Glad you've found the information helpful!

For me, the Z2 idea seems to work best if I keep my heart rate within 10-15 beats of my MAF heart rate (180-age; in my case 114 as I'm 66 & I don't go over the MAF rate). If I go much lower than that, the effect doesn't happen. This week am traveling & Sunday night had some sunchokes with dinner. My serum glucose was ~113 mg/dL an hour or so after dinner. We had a small place and the roads weren't safe to go outside with my Heavy Hands hand weights. My average heart rate with 15 minutes of inside exercise was around 92 BPM. Couldn't seem to get it up higher in the confined space. Glucose after was around 110 mg/dL. Tuesday night repeated, but we are staying on a rural farm with no traffic on the ditch road. So went out and did 15 minutes averaging around 110 BPM. Before exercise glucose was 115, after was 79. Some months ago, I'd really spiked it to 180 mg/dL & was at home. This time did 40 or 45 minutes around 110 BPM outside and dropped it into the 70's.
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Re: Should I get a CGM

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Tincup wrote: Thu Dec 23, 2021 5:15 am For me, the Z2 idea seems to work best if I keep my heart rate within 10-15 beats of my MAF heart rate (180-age; in my case 114 as I'm 66 & I don't go over the MAF rate). If I go much lower than that, the effect doesn't happen. This week am traveling & Sunday night had some sunchokes with dinner. My serum glucose was ~113 mg/dL an hour or so after dinner. We had a small place and the roads weren't safe to go outside with my Heavy Hands hand weights. My average heart rate with 15 minutes of inside exercise was around 92 BPM. Couldn't seem to get it up higher in the confined space. Glucose after was around 110 mg/dL. Tuesday night repeated, but we are staying on a rural farm with no traffic on the ditch road. So went out and did 15 minutes averaging around 110 BPM. Before exercise glucose was 115, after was 79. Some months ago, I'd really spiked it to 180 mg/dL & was at home. This time did 40 or 45 minutes around 110 BPM outside and dropped it into the 70's.
Reading through this thread, Tincup. This is great validation information as to why I've always heard to take a walk after eating dinner (I guess any meal, now that I've read this.) Thanks!

P.S. This week my glucose was at 67 twice after I'd fasted 18-19 hours, having had a dinner the night before that was about 73% fat, 20% protein, and 7% carbs. Around this, a day and two before, I'd had ketone meter readings of .7, .9 and 1.1. The meter was blinking that 67 glucose was too low. What do you make of that? I often have readings in the 70's and 80's. Forgot the target Bredesen recommends.
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Re: Should I get a CGM

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Jan18 wrote: Tue Apr 12, 2022 7:57 pm P.S. This week my glucose was at 67 twice after I'd fasted 18-19 hours, having had a dinner the night before that was about 73% fat, 20% protein, and 7% carbs. Around this, a day and two before, I'd had ketone meter readings of .7, .9 and 1.1. The meter was blinking that 67 glucose was too low. What do you make of that? I often have readings in the 70's and 80's. Forgot the target Bredesen recommends.
Below 70 being too low is really for diabetics on higher carb diets. For those using insulin, blood sugar can drop very low, which can be dangerous. For someone like you, who is a) not using exogenous insulin and b) making ketones a reading of 67 is not a big issue. On multi-day fasts, my blood sugar commonly drops into the low 50's and ketones as much as 8. One time I dropped my blood sugar to 32. To prove a point, I went to the gym and set PR's on my lifts. When I told this story to an MD neurologist that I rock climb with & he said all the people he'd seen with blood glucose in the 30's were comatose. I said, they obviously weren't adapted.

In the 1960's George Cahill MD, at Harvard, fasted obese seminary students for 42 days. Then injected them with insulin. Their average glucose dropped to 18 and one guy was 9 mg/dL. They were still cognitively well because of their ketone (BHB) levels, which, from memory, were around 5 mmol/L.

For an unadapted person using insulin or drugs to make your pancreas make insulin, these levels can be fatal. I'm not suggesting others try for levels that I've reported for myself here.
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Re: Should I get a CGM

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Tincup wrote: Wed Apr 13, 2022 6:53 am For an unadapted person using insulin or drugs to make your pancreas make insulin, these levels can be fatal. I'm not suggesting others try for levels that I've reported for myself here.
Tincup, I'm a T2D and have had a CGM for a few months now, and while it has been interesting, I've been debating whether it is worth my $75/mo co-pay. It would make perfect sense if I were on insulin or some other drug where the highs and lows were more critical...but with my diet my BG levels tend to stay in a 50-60 point range and I never go low. I only took the CGM because my doctor did not believe me when I said I did not need to measure BG often because it did not change a whole lot. Most diabetics test more than I do, but how many finger pricks do you need to make the CGM worth it when it is not a matter of safety? I do like the Time in Target concept that is new with the CGM - they are finally beginning to see that the variation in BG is as important, if not more, than average BG.
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Re: Should I get a CGM

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Tincup wrote: Wed Apr 13, 2022 6:53 am

Below 70 being too low is really for diabetics on higher carb diets. For those using insulin, blood sugar can drop very low, which can be dangerous. For someone like you, who is a) not using exogenous insulin and b) making ketones a reading of 67 is not a big issue.
Thanks! I forget the meter is used by diabetics! I'm so used to thinking Apoe4 and dementia prevention that I associate it just with us. Good to hear that!

Barbara
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