The Wearable Device Our Doctors Swear By
I decided to wear a continuous glucose monitor out of shear curiosity and love of data, expecting not to find anything particularly life changing. I was very, very wrong! I now think that wearing a CGM is one of the most helpful data gathering tools out there and something everyone should try it for at least 1 month.
Things I learned:
Not all carbs are created equal – for me, most fruits and veg are OK but even the smallest amount of rice sends my blood sugar through the roof and it doesn’t matter how much protein I balance it with.
Not everyone reacts the same way to the same foods – eating the same meal can cause people’s blood sugar to change in opposite directions.
A 10-minute walk after eating helped my sugar return to baseline more quickly, whereas vigorous cardio and weight lifting cause a large spike as more glucose is being supplied to the muscles, but levels return more quickly to baseline than they do from food induced glucose spikes.
There are ways to hack your blood sugar! Order matters – eating salad and fibrous veggies, then protein and fat, then carbs caused a smaller spike than eating carbs first. 1 T of apple cider vinegar decreases the glucose spike in some. For me, it just delayed the spike, but didn’t lessen it. For some people, these hacks actually allowed them to INCREASE the amount of carbs they were consuming.
Glucose affects sleep and sleep affects glucose – the higher my evening glucose, the more I was prone to glucose spikes during the night, which led to poor sleep. The worse I slept, the more dysregulated by glucose would be the next day. Stabilizing my glucose has done wonders for my sleep!
Microbiome matters! In comparing blood sugar patters and microbiome diversity, I found distinct patterns in that those with adequate amounts of particular bacterial species and higher overall diversity tend to tolerate carbohydrates and manage weight better.
You can’t out supplement a bad diet or lifestyle – while deficiencies in nutrients required to regulate blood sugar will contribute to larger glucose swings, and herbs can help curb spikes and increase insulin sensitivity, there unfortunately is no replacement for doing the work! Eating the right foods, at the right times, and being active are essential.
A “normal” A1C and fasting insulin doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have dysregulated blood sugar – CGMs have been the tool that have helped crack some very complex and refractory cases.
The Hawthorne Effect is very real and very helpful! This is the effect whereby people change their behavior when the know they are being observed. I continue to wear a monitor several months into this experiment because it helps keep me in check.
Not everyone needs to be low-carb; it’s about finding which carbs you do best with and, more importantly, which one you do worst with.
Understanding what a specific food does to your body changes how you view that food. Once I learned that a food wasn’t good for me, I no longer wanted to eat it.
I found that it takes about 2 weeks to just observe what different foods do to your blood glucose and what you high and low blood sugar symptoms are, and another 2 weeks to implement changes and understand their effects.
Things I’ve seen improve with regulating blood glucose:
Energy levels (both more energy and more consistent energy throughout the day)
Mental clarity and ability to focus for longer periods of time
Dizziness upon standing
Sleep
Acne and other skin issues
Menstrual and hormonal irregularities
Autoimmune and inflammatory conditions
Pain levels
Mood/anxiety/depression
Weight
Exercise endurance
Lean muscle mass increase and maintenance
Blood work, particularly cardiovascular panels, inflammatory and autoimmune markers
There are a LOT of surprises when it comes to blood glucose regulation and there are many things that I learned from wearing a CGM that I never would have been able to determine from blood work, genetics, or keeping a diet journal.
I have no doubt that regulating blood sugar has a multitude of short-term benefits, but Naturopathic Medicine is all about playing the long game and I think the real payoff is in lowering your future risks cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and dementia, all of which begin with dysregulated blood glucose.
Interested in trialing a Continuous Glucose Monitor? We offer CGM prescriptions! Speak with your CGM (ha) doc to discuss if this device is right for you.