How Do Continuous Glucose Monitors Work? (video/podcast)

If you’re one of the nearly 40 million people in the United States living with diabetes, it’s critical that you maintain healthy blood sugar levels. Most people test their levels by pricking their finger and placing a drop of blood on a glucose monitor, which then reports the blood sugar level.

“You have to do this several times a day if you want to accurately try and distinguish what’s happening before you eat a meal, after you eat a meal, at times of exercise when the blood sugars might dip down,” says Dr. Philis-Tsimikas. “So you’re talking about potentially testing four to six times a day if you want to keep good track of what's going on with your blood sugar levels.”

As the name implies, continuous glucose monitors track blood sugar levels constantly. These small devices easily attach to the body and cause minimal discomfort when first applied; in fact, many people don’t even feel the tiny needle being inserted through the skin. They can be worn around the clock, even while bathing or swimming, for 10 to 14 days.

“Think about not having to stick your finger for 10 to 14 days,” says Dr. Philis-Tsimikas. “What a benefit for our patients. Plus, nobody know you are wearing it, so you can go about your day and nobody knows about your medical health issue is.”

 Plus, the device sends the blood sugar reading directly to your smartphone in real time, so you can take action if needed.

“That’s the beauty of this is. If levels go higher, you can do something about it. Maybe I have to take a little extra medication at this time, or maybe I need to take a walk,” says Dr. Philis-Tsimikas. “If it’s related to stress, maybe I need to bring some of those stress levels and blood sugar levels down.”

Moreover, 24/7 monitoring can warn of potentially concerning changes in glucose levels at times when you wouldn’t manually test, such as during the night or while driving.

Continuous glucose monitoring devices work for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, but they have one added benefit in type 1 — they can connect to an insulin pump.

An insulin pump automatically delivers insulin into the body through the skin on a continuous basis. Previously, that amount of insulin had to be manipulated and injected by the patient themselves. Now, the continuous glucose monitor device can send the blood sugar reading to the insulin pump, which has algorithms that use the data to predict how much insulin to deliver.

“This allows the patient to much more tightly control those blood sugar values, which is really nice,” says Dr. Phillis-Tsimikas. “They don’t have to think about it as often as they used to and helps lift some of that burden they may feel.”

Continuous glucose monitoring may even be useful for the 10 million people who have diabetes and don’t know it. Often, these are people who have a family history of diabetes or have risk factors for the disease but have not been formally diagnosed.

“You could place a monitor and potentially detect much earlier if you have diabetes or are at risk for it,” Dr. Philis-Tsimikas explains. “And that could be very valuable because if we could catch this earlier, we can treat earlier and provide resources to allow you to best manage the disease.”

In many cases, health insurance will cover continuous glucose monitoring devices, but they are also available over the counter.

“This is amazing new technology and I think it’s only going to continue to contribute to the benefit of how we take care of our patients now and in the future,” says Dr. Philis-Tsimikas.

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