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I recently switched doctors because I told her I wanted to do blood sugar tests after each meal and throughout the day to see how my food intake (or lack thereo

by e40 9y ago

I recently switched doctors because I told her I wanted to do blood sugar tests after each meal and throughout the day to see how my food intake (or lack thereof, since I do IF) would impact my blood sugar. She literally sent me a screed about how I was an idiot and the mortality rate for people who do this type of thing is much higher. (I realize I can just go to CVS and buy the tools to do it, but I do find all the options overwhelming and haven't had time to do the research.) I'm glad to see this happening.

naasking 9y ago
> She literally sent me a screed about how I was an idiot and the mortality rate for people who do this type of thing is much higher. What was her evidence?
- e40 9y ago
  She claimed "studies" showed this. Honestly, I called Kaiser immediately and requested a new PCP and didn't really care to delve into it. I wasn't doing it because I'm a hypochondriac, I had a genuine interest in minimizing (in a healthy way) my blood sugar (she completely ignore that part of my request).
didgeoridoo 9y ago
Well, to be fair, the life expectancy of people who check their blood sugar multiple times per day IS substantially lower. Because these people are generally diabetic.
gumby 9y ago
> I wanted to do blood sugar tests after each meal and throughout the day to see how my food intake (or lack thereof, since I do IF) would impact my blood sugar...I realize I can just go to CVS and buy the tools to do it, but I do find all the options overwhelming and haven't had time to do the research. I'll save you the work. Do go to CVS, buy the cheap cvS branded meter, a single box of strips, a single box of lancets and one lancing device if it doesn't come with the cheap meter. This is probably all you'll ever need. Then go buy an abbott Freestyle Libre meter from France, Italy or a UK mail order pharmacy. This will measure your glucose continuously for a couple of weeks via a disposable patch; you can collect the data with an android phone. Transdermal glucose is different from circulatory glucose, so the point of the regular kit is to normalize the transdermal readings with the actual BG levels. Since you're not actually trying to keep yourself alive (as I am) you could skip this and simply look at the shape of the curve. The other thing to do is log your sleep, excercise, diet (with something like MyFitnessPal that tracks your macros if you get the paid version) and stress levels. Then you can correlate glucose modulation with these exogenous factors. You have to get your meter and consumables (patches) from the countries I listed (not, say, germany which requires a prescription). The device has been recently approved in the US but Abbott set it up so in the US the patches only last 10 days instead of two weeks and can only be read by a physician.

by e40 9y ago

naasking 9y ago

> She literally sent me a screed about how I was an idiot and the mortality rate for people who do this type of thing is much higher. What was her evidence?

e40 9y ago
She claimed "studies" showed this. Honestly, I called Kaiser immediately and requested a new PCP and didn't really care to delve into it. I wasn't doing it because I'm a hypochondriac, I had a genuine interest in minimizing (in a healthy way) my blood sugar (she completely ignore that part of my request).

didgeoridoo 9y ago

Well, to be fair, the life expectancy of people who check their blood sugar multiple times per day IS substantially lower. Because these people are generally diabetic.

gumby 9y ago

> I wanted to do blood sugar tests after each meal and throughout the day to see how my food intake (or lack thereof, since I do IF) would impact my blood sugar...I realize I can just go to CVS and buy the tools to do it, but I do find all the options overwhelming and haven't had time to do the research. I'll save you the work. Do go to CVS, buy the cheap cvS branded meter, a single box of strips, a single box of lancets and one lancing device if it doesn't come with the cheap meter. This is probably all you'll ever need. Then go buy an abbott Freestyle Libre meter from France, Italy or a UK mail order pharmacy. This will measure your glucose continuously for a couple of weeks via a disposable patch; you can collect the data with an android phone. Transdermal glucose is different from circulatory glucose, so the point of the regular kit is to normalize the transdermal readings with the actual BG levels. Since you're not actually trying to keep yourself alive (as I am) you could skip this and simply look at the shape of the curve. The other thing to do is log your sleep, excercise, diet (with something like MyFitnessPal that tracks your macros if you get the paid version) and stress levels. Then you can correlate glucose modulation with these exogenous factors. You have to get your meter and consumables (patches) from the countries I listed (not, say, germany which requires a prescription). The device has been recently approved in the US but Abbott set it up so in the US the patches only last 10 days instead of two weeks and can only be read by a physician.