Continuous glucose monitoring is a revolutionary technique to track your blood sugar levels throughout the day without doing any pricking. The gadget uses a sensor that’s inserted right under the skin and measures your blood sugar throughout the day. Regardless of the time, CGM devices continue to work and track your blood sugar levels and give you comprehensive information to tackle your diabetes.
Continuous glucose monitoring also ensures dynamic data flow which can give you an inkling of how lifestyle choices impact your blood sugar levels. It can also give you a better understanding of your glucose levels, ensuring that you have better control over your blood sugar levels. Thus, helping you make more informed decisions about your food intake.
The Mechanics of Glucose Monitoring Work
Continuous glucose monitoring can work both in real-time and over longer periods of time so you know the ups and downs of your blood sugar levels. Unlike the other devices where you need to prick your finger with a lancet and put a drop of blood on the test strip of the meter; CGM devices are inserted right under your skin, either near your stomach or in your arm, and can measure your blood sugar level automatically.
The sensor strip can evaluate your interstitial glucose levels every few minutes. Next, it uses a transmitter to send the information to a monitor. Depending on the type of CGM device you use, the monitor for information is next transmitted to it so that it can be used in the form of a different device – such as an insulin pump, or with your smartphone.
Benefits of Continuous Glucose Monitoring Devices
Convenience is one of the key benefits of using a continuous glucose monitor. You don’t have to prick your finger to test your blood sugar. Instead, it’s transmitted to your chosen device and documented in an easy-to-understand chart. This also gives you a better understanding of your lifestyle choices and diet that may affect your sugar levels.
When you use this device to see how certain food or exercise impacts your blood sugar levels, it immediately translates to better decisions and healthy choices. It will definitely result in reduced A1C levels in your body, and fewer hypoglycemia incidents or other such emergencies. It can also give you an idea of how your blood sugar readings change at night.
It May Reduces A1C Levels
The A1C test evaluates your average blood sugar levels during the time period of two to three months. With the help of a CGM device, you may find it easier to reduce the overall A1C levels.
This happens because you can manage the blood sugar levels better due to the overall long-term reading. Higher A1C levels mean poor control and more complications in the long term. Thus, resulting in better diabetic management and helping you to avoid future blood-sugar-related complications.
Reduced Hypoglycemia
Hypoglycemia happens when your blood sugar levels suddenly dip too low. It’s dangerous for your body to be in that state for too long as it may lead to unconsciousness, confusion, and in severe cases seizures.
Managing your blood glucose levels with a continuous glucose monitoring device can help you reduce the time of staying in a hypoglycemic state. Since you can continuously observe your blood sugar level, the hypoglycemic state is easy to avoid and maintain.
Provides Regular Notifications
CGM devices can give you regular notifications about your blood sugar levels so you have a better idea about how to stay on top of your condition. If your glucose levels move erratically at certain times throughout the day, your CGM device can get a predictive behavior to alert you of the impending lows and highs of the blood sugar dips and rises.
Fewer Emergency Reports
Regular notifications may mean that you can report fewer blood sugar-related emergencies. This can turn out to be a great boon for diabetics as sudden blood sugar emergencies can often turn out to be life-threatening. The use of this device can help you manage your condition and make it less likely for you to enter into a diabetic shock.
CGM devices are certainly a revolutionary idea to take care of your health. While we don’t know whether we can stop pricking our fingers to check on our blood sugar levels, we do know that it gives us a good or in some cases better option to be on top of our blood-sugar monitoring game. Do consult your doctor before opting for the CGM device.