September 18, 2019

Understanding science

Qualy #26 – What is Peter looking to achieve and monitor with his blood glucose monitor?

Read Time < 1 minute

Today’s episode of The Qualys is from podcast #26 – AMA #3: supplements, women’s health, patient care, and more.


The Qualys is a subscriber-exclusive podcast, released Tuesday through Friday, and published exclusively on our private, subscriber-only podcast feed. Qualys is short-hand for “qualifying round,” which are typically the fastest laps driven in a race car—done before the race to determine starting position on the grid for race day. The Qualys are short (i.e., “fast”), typically less than ten minutes, and highlight the best questions, topics, and tactics discussed on The Drive.

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  1. A few years ago my doctor said I was pre-diabetic based on Hg A1C scores. So I started testing my BG with the finger pricks. My BG was rarely high and fasting BG improved greatly by dropping refined carbs from my diet and increasing the intake of vegetables. A few weeks ago my doctor said the CGM were now very affordable and he prescribed the Freestyle Libre (14 day sensor) to me. My copay was only $10.85 per sensor and I didn’t bother to get the reader since you can get the APP on your phone and get readings that way. I know the Dexcom is Dr. Attia’s preferred CGM but I have had good results with the Freestyle Libre. I’m not trying to be an advertisement for one or the other. Anyway, after wearing the sensor for three weeks now I agree with Dr. Attia that being able to see what one’s BG is at any given time is fascinating and helps control my behavior. My guess is that, like Dr. Attia, my red blood cells live longer than the average and that causes my Hg A1C to be higher (a couple months ago 5.7).

    • So i’m working with my Doctor, and I have the potion of one or the other (Dexcom vs. Abbot Libre). I work in secure facilities that have limits on what technology can be brought in (no phone, probably no receiver). I was trying to understand if there were any real differences between these products other than price – but in Peter’s discussions, there is never any discussion about whether there are real differences apart from the bluetooth integration with the watch/phone (which i can’t have for large period of a given day).

      I can’t find ANY data that really explains how much data is stored locally (between “receiver/app downloads”. It sounds like the Libre will store 8 hours, and the G6 may store up to 3 hours before data begins getting overwritten. To me, this leads me towards the Libre just to get more data – unless there is some difference in accuracy or something.

      Any feedback/help would be really useful in helping to figure out which direction to go. It also sounds like the Libre2 might have bluetooth and resolve some of that capability gap – but that doesn’t help me!).

      Thanks!

      • @justin I’m not a doctor, but have used both. In my experience, the primary difference is that the Libre has to be scanned to send data to your phone (or receiver). It will hold 8hrs worth of sensor data, so it sounds like that’d be fine for you if you can at least scan once every 8 hours. The Dexcom G6 constantly streams to your phone (or receiver). I’m not sure, though, how long it can go being out of range before it will lose data though.

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