Isn't that the key point and means Dexcom/Libre would cost you (or your insurance company) several thousands of dollars/pounds/euros/etc every single year. For many people they already have an iphone and just need an Apple watch which could last for several years.
> Since our errant immunity is localized on the insulin producing beta cells being on immune supressants would still be better than being insulin deoendent
As a Type 1 diabetic, I'm not sure I would agree. Surely immune suppressants would suppress our whole immune system not just the faulty bit which opens us up to all sorts of problems. I don't think that is someone I would like to risk just to avoid taking insulin. Mind you I have to confess my attitude might be affected by the fact that I don't have to pay for insulin.
I have read a few people who say they prefer the dexcom because the freestyle is pre-calibrated and Abbott's software doesn't allow you to calibrate the device.
(I've never tried the dexcom and am very happy with my libre)
There are 66K thousand forks of https://github.com/nightscout/cgm-remote-monitor and I suspect the vast majority are using the free heroku version, so I would guess there are going to be quite a few unhappy diabetics!
> But it sounds like bringing blood sugar up is a big part of managing T1D, so I'm just wondering why that would be the case for a diabetic but not for a non-diabetic.
If you think of insulin as moving the glucose out of your blood stream into a storage area, eg your liver, then, when a normal person's blood sugar goes low, their body stops producing insulin and at the same time dumps some glucose from storage (eg the liver) back into the blood stream.
But if I have injected some insulin, the insulin will still be working and I can't just tell it to stop. So even if my liver tries to help me by dumping glucose into my blood stream, the injected insulin will try to move it back! So it is harder and takes longer for my blood sugar to rise on its own.
Hence non-diabetics can increase their blood sugar levels when needed, but that is a lot harder for diabetics who are on medication.
The biggest problem that I find controlling my BS levels, is not overdosing, but dealing with the unexpected. For example, taking insulin before a meal and then dropping my dinner plate and then trying to find something similar that I can eat quickly or getting an important phone call and being interrupted before I get a chance to eat. Or maybe just getting stuck in traffic and missing a meal.
Keto/low carb diets seem to work better for non-insulin dependent diabetics who are producing some insulin, just not enough. I think most Type 1's would still need some (significant) amount of insulin even on a keto diet, so the hypo problem still exists.
If you mean an up arrow as well as a down arrow, this means it can increase *or* decrease the blood sugar levels. Usually this means it will affect different people in different ways, but sometimes it can mean that it will affect the same person in different ways at different times.
For example, most people find that exercise will decrease their blood sugars, but some people have reported that intense exercise causes their levels to rise.
When I go for a walk, usually my blood sugar immediately jumps up slightly and then after 10 or 15 minutes it starts to fall. After 30 minutes I am back to where I started and then my levels continue to fall after that.
> The good news is that it is actually really hard to die from low blood sugar, assuming good medical care is available.
And yet, have there not been a number of cases where medical professionals have been convicted of the murders of several patients by injecting them with insulin? I would expect that these patients should have had 'good medical care' available to them.
I have not read the book, but perhaps it is ignoring the fact that extreme hypos may trigger other problems such as heart attacks. When a condition becomes common enough to be given a non-medical name, as in the 'dead in bed' syndrome, then I you can't *assume* you will survive for 24 hours.
The risk of death might be lower than I think, but I'm not to be ignoring any alarms I get.
I think the usual recommendation is before meals, two hours after meals and before going to bed. So that was 7 times a day for me. The big problem with testing more times is that you are literally damaging your fingers and hoping that they heal before you need to use that area on your finger again. For me this didn't always happen and is one of the reasons I love my FreeStyle Libre.
Isn't that the key point and means Dexcom/Libre would cost you (or your insurance company) several thousands of dollars/pounds/euros/etc every single year. For many people they already have an iphone and just need an Apple watch which could last for several years.