health

What is a Continuous Glucose Monitor?

Dr.Poonam Sharma

December 16, 2022

A continuous glucose monitor, what is it? How does it work? Is it necessary to get one? Should you rely on one? There are dozens of questions that might pop into your head when you hear the word, continuous glucose monitor. 

A continuous glucose monitor is more of a fitness buddy than a glucose monitoring gizmo. The HealthifyPro 2.0 comes with a CGM (continuous glucose monitor), a smart scale, deeper engagement with your coach, a calorie, sleep and water tracking system, and a metabolic control system.

Everything you need for a healthier and safer weight loss journey to manage your metabolic health is now accessible at the click of a button. A continuous glucose monitor is a wearable that you can wear on your arm, and a sensor calculates real-time glucose levels of your body. 

Again many questions arise. Who should be using a continuous glucose monitor? When should you use a continuous glucose monitor, so on and so forth? So let us knuckle straight down to knowing more about the HealthifyPro CGM.

What Does a Continuous Glucose Monitor Measure?

As the name suggests, this device allows you to measure your blood glucose levels. The moment you attach a CGM to your arm, you can witness the changes in glucose levels in your blood throughout the day. Then, with the help of sophisticated AI and coach interventions, you get to control and manage your blood glucose levels at any time of the day.

Therefore, a continuous glucose monitor is a helpful tool to track your blood glucose levels effortlessly. Powered with AI, the HealthifyPro continuous glucose monitor connects to your mobile phone, laptop, or computer as per your choice. This way, you get total control over your weight loss journey in your hands.

If you are a hyperglycemic or hypoglycemic patient, you probably know the struggles to keep track of your blood glucose levels now and then. However, regulating glucose levels within the specified limits is of utmost necessity. A sudden rise or fall in the blood glucose level is harmful to health.

Such conditions might lead to severe organ disorders if left untreated or unnoticed.

Who is it for use?

As far as the usage of the continuous glucose monitor is concerned, it is for everyone and not only if you have diabetes. There isn’t any limiting factor like an existing health condition, age or gender.

However, since blood glucose levels are intrinsically related to weight fluctuations and several lifestyle diseases, including PCOS, hypertension and diabetes, you can switch to an intelligent option like HealthifyPro CGM.  

This technology and device help you better understand your body and how it responds to glucose levels. We most often eat food that is tasty or that we have thought to be healthy.

For example, certain food combinations that we eat, like a simple plate of dal and rice, is not a complete meal. It is deficient in good quality fats and fibre. A CGM can immediately notify you and your coach about how this food combination affects your blood glucose levels.

As a result, adding a drizzle of homemade ghee and green salads can improve your blood glucose levels. Therefore, it becomes crucial to carry around a kit that is easy to use and produces smart results effectively. 

Why do you need to track blood sugar levels?

Well, tracking your blood glucose levels has many supreme benefits that can benefit you in the longer run. Here are a few reasons why glucose tracking is an important consideration:

  • To check your glucose levels: No matter if you have diabetes or not, it is always better to check glucose levels from time to time. Therefore, using a continuous glucose monitor helps your overall health stats. 
  • Effective for people who use regular insulin supplements: For diabetes or juvenile diabetes, you might be taking insulin medication or injections frequently. It is mandatory for you to constantly monitor your blood glucose levels throughout the day in such a situation. Thus, switching to a CGM is a practical step to take on. 
  • It helps focus on your weight loss goal: Obesity is one of the leading causes of type 2 diabetes. An increase in fat levels reduces or lowers the potential of the insulin enzyme and alters its functionality. Therefore, if you are on your weight loss journey, you might want to take charge of your blood glucose levels. Therefore, calculating and regulating your blood glucose level at various key junctions is a terrific way to reduce weight quickly. 
  • Monitors risks associated with high and low insulin levels: Your blood sugar levels often might be above the threshold limit or fall below the minimum limits. But, how do you know if your blood glucose levels are dropping or shooting up? Traditional methods would take forever to get the exact results. However, a HealthifyPro would procure your blood glucose levels in seconds without any faults. 
  • It is efficacious to avoid long-term signs of diabetes: When you get control over your glucose regulation, you can freely make healthier choices. Thus, a HealthifyPro continuous glucose monitor will provide you with the freedom to make your journey to combat diabetes a bit light and easy. In addition, with regular tracking reports, you can manage your eating habits and others. 

What are the Benefits of Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM)?

A continuous glucose monitor is always a better and more brilliant choice than traditional methods of blood sugar detection.

With developments in AI and technology, maintaining good health has become an easier task to achieve. Consider the benefits of a CGM before you get yourselves one! 

Dynamic results 

No need to prick your fingers ten times to get a single drop of blood! Also, no need to wait for your results and don’t worry about visiting pathology labs after your meal or before your meal.

With a continuous glucose monitor, you can track your glucose levels at any point of the day without any hassle. The results obtained are dynamic and showcase your glucose level when you measure yourself.

Precise results

A continuous glucose monitor measures your blood glucose levels across the day with every meal you eat and every workout you do. Since it measures your glucose levels throughout the day, it produces real-time results. 

Behaviour Change

A CGM provides you with precise results every time. As a result, you instinctively know what works for you and what does not. Everything that we do, right or wrong, is a function of our habits.

A CGM helps you to form better habits. For example, you know that simply adding a mixed vegetable salad with moong dal khichdi and a portion of raita works better with your glucose levels.

Healthy habits ultimately change your food and lifestyle behaviour, and as a result, you become healthy in the HealthifyMe way.  

Easy to manage

The HealthifyPro Continuous Glucose Monitor takes only a few seconds to attach to your arm and start its work. Simply attach the sensor to the CGM and fix the CGM to your arm.

Cover it with a CGM cushion provided in the kit, and you are good to go. Connect your CGM with your mobile phone or computer and get, set, go! 

Continuous tracking helps to achieve faster change in the course of habits

 It is noticeable that every time you get your progress reports, you get the spirit to work harder. With a Pro kit, you can track your glucose levels throughout the day and get precise results every time.

This way, you can track the number of calories you’ve burnt and the amount of them you will be eating in your every meal. A continuous tracking report is an easy way to stay motivated every time. 

Understand your reaction to individual foods

Our blood-sugar responses to foods are highly personal. While your blood sugar may spike from a cookie but not from a banana, someone else may react differently.

In addition, our glucose reactions are also affected by our microbiome, genes, overall fitness, sleep status, stress, and what else we’ve eaten recently.

Because of all these factors, simply reading carb content on a label or going by the glycemic index is not sufficient to help us find the diet and lifestyle that will allow us to maintain stable glucose. 

Catch metabolic dysfunction early

 We can begin to develop insulin resistance more than ten years before it shows up in our fasting blood sugar test at the doctor. A CGM can help us see our total postprandial blood sugar response, giving us more insight into how our body handles a glucose load.

And the earlier we catch metabolic impairment, the easier it is to arrest its development before it reaches prediabetes or diabetes.

Fully automated

You don’t need to insert needles in your fingers or arms and toy with those glucose monitoring devices.

Stick your CGM to your arm, and you are ready to burn your carbs and sugars! A CGM will work in correspondence with your body throughout the day and give you the results accordingly. 

How to Make the Best Use of a CGM?

To make the best use of CGM, you need to take severe actions toward maintaining your health stats.

You can’t be eating junk all day and expect your CGM to show false results! Eating right and exercising regularly are two simple steps to get the most out of your continuous glucose monitor. 

How Can You Get a CGM?

To get a HealthifyPro CGM, you need to enrol yourselves to Healthify. Once you register yourself, you can order the Pro version and the scale kit.

This fully equipped kit comes with a CGM, a smart scale, a metabolic panel test at the comfort of your home, a continuous interaction window with your coach, and several trackers like calorie, sleep, water intake and Studio Fit Workouts. 

How Much Does a CGM cost?

A CGM can be a little more expensive than a generic weight loss plan as it uses technology to deliver dynamic and precise results right away.

Driven by AI tech, a continuous glucose monitor showcases your results rapidly and displays them over your phones and laptops. The accuracy of the results and the personalised experience in every measurement are worth the price and hype. 

Pros and Cons of Using a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM)

Pros of a continuous glucose monitor

  • It is perfect for people with type 1 diabetes as it helps check blood glucose levels as and when required throughout the day. 
  • It offers more comprehensive results than traditional methods of testing blood glucose levels. 
  • Easy to manage and track your progress every day. 
  • Access to consistent and accurate data about our blood sugar can help us make informed and healthy diet and lifestyle choices to help support our longevity and wellbeing.

Cons of a continuous glucose monitor

  • Not affordable to many as it consists of delicate sensors and in-built AI tech. Thus, this device can be a little expensive for some people. 
  • A little discomfort while installing at the beginning. It might take you some time to understand how to fix a CGM around your arm. 
  • Not so easy to understand at first, But eventually, you will get acquainted with it. 

Conclusion

A CGM is an enabler that helps you understand how your food and lifestyle affect you. Therefore, it allows you to address your health in a specific manner.

We all know the importance of a good diet and a healthy lifestyle; what we lack is we do not know how much we get affected by seemingly innocent food intakes.

For example, a standard Indian plate complete with multigrain roti, paneer and salad may be perfect for you at lunchtime. However, it may not work if you consume it at 4 pm and never leave your work desk.

A CGM records all the spikes we experience through diet and lack of exercise. Life is uncertain, and the best we can do is to look after ourselves to be there for our loved ones. Therefore, go ahead and take charge and look at health from a different perspective with the employment of this innovative tool.

About the Author

I, Dr. Poonam have 3+ years of experience in the field of Medicine. Currently serving as a Resident Physician at HealthifyMe, I have worked with premier hospitals such as Manipal Hospital, Bangalore as a Resident in Plastic and Reconstructive surgery and Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital, Chennai as a Medical Officer. I aspire to put my knowledge in medicine to use in providing healthcare and fitness services to people and help enhance my abilities in meeting the ever-growing healthcare needs.


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