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> However, one thing to be aware of is that you are not used to seeing your BP readings from the entire day. Same thing with those continuous glucose monitors

> However, one thing to be aware of is that you are not used to seeing your BP readings from the entire day. Same thing with those continuous glucose monitors that almost anyone can get and put on their arm now. The vast majority of the data and recommendations we have are for diabetics using regular single use measurements or a proper glucose tolerance test so shortly after the user eats a bowl of rice while wearing it, it sends them into a hypochondriac spiral when they see a peak of 200. Their doctor generally has to talk them down. There's just not that much data on what the average healthy person's response to blood sugar is, especially when it's continuously monitored.

outworlder 2y ago
> There's just not that much data on what the average healthy person's response to blood sugar is, especially when it's continuously monitored. Chicken and egg situation, no? People are advised not to use those devices because there isn't much data about them for otherwise healthy people. But if they don't use those devices, there won't be much data.
- throwup238 2y ago
  The data has to be collected under clinical conditions to control for confounding variables. People are notoriously bad at accurately recording their precise food intake which is probably the most important variable here. They need to do smaller controlled studies with provided diets. Large scale population studies with sensor data in the wild is going to be a trickier proposition that requires linking the sensors to the rest of the patients medical records which is a privacy mine field.
KingMob 2y ago
One of the things I wish had come out of the Quantified Self movement (which is now so mainstream, it wasn't even mentioned in this article), was a consensus awareness of how to mentally handle fluctuations when recording more data. We already knew that things like weight fluctuated in normal people (periods, hydration, meals, etc), but many of us are still defaulting to the inaccurate model of slowly-changing measurements recorded 1x/2x a year at the doctor's office. I'm sure people will get used to it, and many of the weight apps already wisely show averages to discourage fixating on individual measurements, but it feels like a missed opportunity.
crazymalhavoc 2y ago
From my point of view, that's the whole point of wearing a continuous biometric monitor so that you can see the normal variation. These one off medical tests that people use to make major life and health decisions seems kinda crazy to me.

outworlder 2y ago

> There's just not that much data on what the average healthy person's response to blood sugar is, especially when it's continuously monitored. Chicken and egg situation, no? People are advised not to use those devices because there isn't much data about them for otherwise healthy people. But if they don't use those devices, there won't be much data.

throwup238 2y ago
The data has to be collected under clinical conditions to control for confounding variables. People are notoriously bad at accurately recording their precise food intake which is probably the most important variable here. They need to do smaller controlled studies with provided diets. Large scale population studies with sensor data in the wild is going to be a trickier proposition that requires linking the sensors to the rest of the patients medical records which is a privacy mine field.

KingMob 2y ago

One of the things I wish had come out of the Quantified Self movement (which is now so mainstream, it wasn't even mentioned in this article), was a consensus awareness of how to mentally handle fluctuations when recording more data. We already knew that things like weight fluctuated in normal people (periods, hydration, meals, etc), but many of us are still defaulting to the inaccurate model of slowly-changing measurements recorded 1x/2x a year at the doctor's office. I'm sure people will get used to it, and many of the weight apps already wisely show averages to discourage fixating on individual measurements, but it feels like a missed opportunity.

crazymalhavoc 2y ago

From my point of view, that's the whole point of wearing a continuous biometric monitor so that you can see the normal variation. These one off medical tests that people use to make major life and health decisions seems kinda crazy to me.