5 ms·

If the needle in the CGM bothers you, don't let it. It's a quick, painless jab with a tiny needle at the beginning and then the needle comes out. The part that

by smt88 3y ago

If the needle in the CGM bothers you, don't let it. It's a quick, painless jab with a tiny needle at the beginning and then the needle comes out. The part that stays in your body is just a flexible filament made of plastic. I did this experiment as well, and the main thing it did was completely stop me from snacking. My habits got better because I could see how my BG could never return to baseline if I allowed myself to snack between meals. Other than that, it was also interesting to see certain things would badly spike my BG and other things wouldn't, and they weren't always what you'd expect. A lot of "keto" and "diabetic-friendly" products are terrible for most people's BG and were for mine. I found that some things, like black tea, actually made my BG drop as well. Overall it's worth doing at least once.

coffeebeqn 3y ago
Where do you put the needle thing? Does it get in the way of everyday things?
- singlow 3y ago
  Typically it is on the back of the upper arm where it is covered by a short sleeve shirt. Generally it does not get in the way.
  - RecycledEle 3y ago
    I also use a piece of kinesiology tape to make sure my CGM does not fall off.
- Aqua_Geek 3y ago
  The sensor typically goes on the back of your upper arm (your tricep). You can accidentally bump into things with it, but it was infrequent enough that it didn’t bother me. The needle is only used in the application of the sensor. It’s spring-loaded and retracts after the sensor is attached. I hate needles, but I found that the tape on the sensor provided enough stimuli to overwhelm my brain and not really feel the needle when it went in.
- pastage 3y ago
  No it never gets in the way. I would not recommend doing it unless you are a diabetic, the results are not that interesting. It took me two years to get used to smacking that needle into the upper arm/stomach/leg, spending up to 20 min -40 min getting over the fear was not a fun time.
  - RecycledEle 3y ago
    I feel for anyone who has both diabetes and a fear of needles. Having said that, it's no bug deal for 90% of people.
    - Projectiboga 3y ago
      T1D here, needles are nothing compared to everything else an insulin dependent diabetic deals with. I guess only maybe 1 out of less than 100 shots hurt that much. It only happens when a nerve bundle is hit, then it smarts but it is still less bad than either high, or low blood sugar as well as how insane most every part of American 'health care' is. The main tricks for comfort are go with 29 gauge not the narrower more fragile types with the higher number gauges. The narrower ones have more fragile needle points and they can get damaged by bending during the insertion into the bottle. The other trick is to make sure the alcohol is dry before you take the shot.
- RecycledEle 3y ago
  The needle stick a flexible tube in a few mm, then the needle pulls out. Think of it as a 5mm thick patch and ignore the tiny tube sucking your blood.
- xen2xen1 3y ago
  I keep mine on the front of my upper arm, where I automatically notice and protect it. The back of my arm usually means it's off in a few hours.
TaylorAlexander 3y ago
My understanding is that for healthy individuals, spiking blood glucose levels is not a problem. Did you get in to any of the research on that? Glucose is a problem for diabetics because they can’t regulate it, but healthy people can. At least this is loosely what I have heard, somewhat third hand. Any information is appreciated.
- pie420 3y ago
  Not a doctor, but from what I have seen, there is a healthy amount of spiking from eating normal foods, but our modern diets are so sugar and carb heavy that the glucose spikes are way outside the range that our bodies evolved to handle. Hunter gatherers would maybe eat some berries here (much smaller and less sweet than modern berries) and there. The modern human eating pizza, tons of bread, ice cream, soda, etc. creates such massive glucose spikes that they are unhealthy and unsustainable for the pancreas to handle for 60+ years. Again, not a doctor and not sure if this is accurate, but this is my very limited understanding
  - throwup238 3y ago
    > Hunter gatherers would maybe eat some berries here (much smaller and less sweet than modern berries) and there. Archaic humans had access to plenty of wild fruit that were high in sugar and tubers that were high in complex carbs. They even had access to concentrated forms of sugar like sugarcane and honey. They obviously didn't have refined sugars in everything they eat like we do but that they had access to limited sugar in the form of berries is a persistent myth. They would have been exposed to large glucose spikes regularly whenever they came upon a new tree that was in season while migrating.
    - amenghra 3y ago
      We live 2x-3x longer than we used to. We should take the best possible care of our bodies.
      - Fricken 3y ago
haswell 3y ago
That's good to know. I think my aversion to needles is so strong that it stopped me from going beyond basic research. Bad on me. But this does sounds like an interesting thing to try, if only to get a better idea of how my body works. I've been tracking walking vs. resting heart rate, HRV, blood oxygen levels, and sleep for a few years using the Apple Watch, and while I know these measurements are imperfect, they've helped me better understand the impact of certain choices. There's something that seems really beneficial about feeding my brain data about myself as a way to do the healthier things I've always wanted to want to do. The more data I have, the easier it feels to implement positive habit changes in a way that doesn't involve sheer willpower. There's something very satisfying about seeing the very tangible changes on a graph over time that indicate better health, even when it doesn't feel like the changes have done anything noticeable yet.
philsnow 3y ago
> A lot of "keto" and "diabetic-friendly" products are terrible for most people's BG and were for mine. Absolutely, there are a lot of companies trying to cash in on this new-ish market, and they'll do anything to their products to get the net carbs down to 0-2g "per serving" -- scare quotes around that because this is a particular annoyance of food labeling in the States: food labels declare the amount of various nutrients per "serving", but 1) they get to choose the serving size [0] and 2) they get to round numbers, so if they just pick the serving size such that it's 1.499g of carbs per serving, they get to put that it's "1g", and so on. It makes it impossible to compare food labels between different items even among the same manufacturer (and even the same SKU but different/later packaging, because they don't have to issue a new SKU when they change the food label). If instead they were required to show amounts in g per kg (or ml per l for liquids, or whatever), they could be compared more easily. [0] The FDA provides "Reference Amounts Customarily Consumed" and asks manufacturers to refer to them when deciding their serving sizes, but (from [1]): > FDA's guidance documents, including this guidance, do not establish legally enforceable responsibilities. Instead, guidances describe our current thinking on a topic and should be viewed only as recommendations [...] so really they can pick almost anything they like > [...] unless specific regulatory or statutory requirements are cited. unless the food is medicinal in some way, I guess? [1] https://www.fda.gov/media/102587/download https://www.fda.gov/media/102587/download

by smt88 3y ago

coffeebeqn 3y ago

Where do you put the needle thing? Does it get in the way of everyday things?

singlow 3y ago
Typically it is on the back of the upper arm where it is covered by a short sleeve shirt. Generally it does not get in the way.
- RecycledEle 3y ago
  I also use a piece of kinesiology tape to make sure my CGM does not fall off.
Aqua_Geek 3y ago
The sensor typically goes on the back of your upper arm (your tricep). You can accidentally bump into things with it, but it was infrequent enough that it didn’t bother me. The needle is only used in the application of the sensor. It’s spring-loaded and retracts after the sensor is attached. I hate needles, but I found that the tape on the sensor provided enough stimuli to overwhelm my brain and not really feel the needle when it went in.
pastage 3y ago
No it never gets in the way. I would not recommend doing it unless you are a diabetic, the results are not that interesting. It took me two years to get used to smacking that needle into the upper arm/stomach/leg, spending up to 20 min -40 min getting over the fear was not a fun time.
- RecycledEle 3y ago
  I feel for anyone who has both diabetes and a fear of needles. Having said that, it's no bug deal for 90% of people.
  - Projectiboga 3y ago
    T1D here, needles are nothing compared to everything else an insulin dependent diabetic deals with. I guess only maybe 1 out of less than 100 shots hurt that much. It only happens when a nerve bundle is hit, then it smarts but it is still less bad than either high, or low blood sugar as well as how insane most every part of American 'health care' is. The main tricks for comfort are go with 29 gauge not the narrower more fragile types with the higher number gauges. The narrower ones have more fragile needle points and they can get damaged by bending during the insertion into the bottle. The other trick is to make sure the alcohol is dry before you take the shot.
RecycledEle 3y ago
The needle stick a flexible tube in a few mm, then the needle pulls out. Think of it as a 5mm thick patch and ignore the tiny tube sucking your blood.
xen2xen1 3y ago
I keep mine on the front of my upper arm, where I automatically notice and protect it. The back of my arm usually means it's off in a few hours.

TaylorAlexander 3y ago

My understanding is that for healthy individuals, spiking blood glucose levels is not a problem. Did you get in to any of the research on that? Glucose is a problem for diabetics because they can’t regulate it, but healthy people can. At least this is loosely what I have heard, somewhat third hand. Any information is appreciated.

pie420 3y ago
Not a doctor, but from what I have seen, there is a healthy amount of spiking from eating normal foods, but our modern diets are so sugar and carb heavy that the glucose spikes are way outside the range that our bodies evolved to handle. Hunter gatherers would maybe eat some berries here (much smaller and less sweet than modern berries) and there. The modern human eating pizza, tons of bread, ice cream, soda, etc. creates such massive glucose spikes that they are unhealthy and unsustainable for the pancreas to handle for 60+ years. Again, not a doctor and not sure if this is accurate, but this is my very limited understanding
- throwup238 3y ago
  > Hunter gatherers would maybe eat some berries here (much smaller and less sweet than modern berries) and there. Archaic humans had access to plenty of wild fruit that were high in sugar and tubers that were high in complex carbs. They even had access to concentrated forms of sugar like sugarcane and honey. They obviously didn't have refined sugars in everything they eat like we do but that they had access to limited sugar in the form of berries is a persistent myth. They would have been exposed to large glucose spikes regularly whenever they came upon a new tree that was in season while migrating.
  - amenghra 3y ago
    We live 2x-3x longer than we used to. We should take the best possible care of our bodies.
    - Fricken 3y ago

haswell 3y ago

That's good to know. I think my aversion to needles is so strong that it stopped me from going beyond basic research. Bad on me. But this does sounds like an interesting thing to try, if only to get a better idea of how my body works. I've been tracking walking vs. resting heart rate, HRV, blood oxygen levels, and sleep for a few years using the Apple Watch, and while I know these measurements are imperfect, they've helped me better understand the impact of certain choices. There's something that seems really beneficial about feeding my brain data about myself as a way to do the healthier things I've always wanted to want to do. The more data I have, the easier it feels to implement positive habit changes in a way that doesn't involve sheer willpower. There's something very satisfying about seeing the very tangible changes on a graph over time that indicate better health, even when it doesn't feel like the changes have done anything noticeable yet.

philsnow 3y ago

> A lot of "keto" and "diabetic-friendly" products are terrible for most people's BG and were for mine. Absolutely, there are a lot of companies trying to cash in on this new-ish market, and they'll do anything to their products to get the net carbs down to 0-2g "per serving" -- scare quotes around that because this is a particular annoyance of food labeling in the States: food labels declare the amount of various nutrients per "serving", but 1) they get to choose the serving size [0] and 2) they get to round numbers, so if they just pick the serving size such that it's 1.499g of carbs per serving, they get to put that it's "1g", and so on. It makes it impossible to compare food labels between different items even among the same manufacturer (and even the same SKU but different/later packaging, because they don't have to issue a new SKU when they change the food label). If instead they were required to show amounts in g per kg (or ml per l for liquids, or whatever), they could be compared more easily. [0] The FDA provides "Reference Amounts Customarily Consumed" and asks manufacturers to refer to them when deciding their serving sizes, but (from [1]): > FDA's guidance documents, including this guidance, do not establish legally enforceable responsibilities. Instead, guidances describe our current thinking on a topic and should be viewed only as recommendations [...] so really they can pick almost anything they like > [...] unless specific regulatory or statutory requirements are cited. unless the food is medicinal in some way, I guess? [1] https://www.fda.gov/media/102587/download https://www.fda.gov/media/102587/download