This picture offered by Abbott’s Lingo division in July 2025, reveals the Lingo wearable gadget for steady glucose monitoring. Credit score: Abbott/Lingo through AP
1 / 4-size gadget that tracks the rise and fall of sugar in your blood is the most recent supply of hope—and hype—within the rising buzz round wearable well being expertise.
Steady glucose screens, small patches that present 24-hour perception into concentrations of sugar within the blood, may very well be a instrument for Individuals to “take control over their own health,” Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just lately advised federal lawmakers.
“They can take responsibility,” Kennedy mentioned. “They can begin to make good judgments about their diet, about their physical activity, about the way they live their lives.”
The gadgets have lifesaving advantages for individuals with diabetes, the illness induced when blood sugar stays excessive as a result of their our bodies do not make sufficient insulin or change into proof against it. The situation, which impacts greater than 38 million individuals within the U.S., raises the chance of great well being issues akin to coronary heart and kidney illness and imaginative and prescient loss.
However the gadgets have surged in reputation amongst individuals with out diabetes. Gross sales have been pushed by high-profile entrepreneurs akin to Casey Means, the nominee for U.S. surgeon common.
There’s scant proof the screens are helpful for individuals with regular blood sugar ranges, mentioned Dr. Jody Dushay, an endocrine specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Middle.
Wholesome our bodies can successfully regulate glucose after meals and supply the vitality they should perform. Glucose screens might lead individuals to misread regular swings in blood sugar that occur after consuming or exercise. As well as, the gadgets could be “notoriously inaccurate,” offering deceptive readings, she mentioned.
“The problem with wearing these is that you can just be zooming in on and creating pathology when it’s not there,” Dushay mentioned.
Here is what it is advisable know concerning the gadgets:
Here is what a steady glucose monitor does
The gadget is a small patch, concerning the dimension of two stacked quarters, normally positioned on the higher arm or abdomen. It makes use of a needle to painlessly pierce the pores and skin for a tiny sensor.
The sensor measures the glucose in fluid below the pores and skin, delivering a sign each couple of minutes to a cellphone app or a handheld show. The apps sometimes file blood sugar ranges and assist individuals monitor the meals they eat and the way they influence these ranges.
When wholesome individuals eat a meal that accommodates carbohydrates, their blood sugar rises, peaks and falls in response to the meals.
A wholesome fasting blood glucose stage for an individual with out diabetes is roughly 70 milligrams per deciliter to 99 milligrams per deciliter. A variety from 100 to 126 milligrams per deciliter signifies prediabetes and above 126 milligrams per deciliter signifies diabetes, based on the American Diabetes Affiliation.
In adults with out diabetes, blood sugar ranges can climb to 140 milligrams per deciliter or extra inside an hour of a meal, earlier than falling again to baseline ranges inside two or three hours, based on the affiliation. It is a signal the physique is processing sugar usually.
Steady glucose screens have been accessible because the late Nineteen Nineties
For many years, these gadgets have been accessible just for individuals with diabetes. The screens revolutionized care by permitting extra exact adjustment of insulin used to deal with diabetes and giving individuals the power to change meals and exercise extra precisely.
Final 12 months, the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration permitted the primary over-the-counter screens. Since then, many corporations have emerged to market them, claiming to offer intensive, individualized well being monitoring. Price is mostly about $100 a month.
They’ve actually caught on with customers interested in how meals and exercise have an effect on their blood sugar ranges. For example, Noom, the weight-loss and health app, launched a blood glucose characteristic final 12 months that has confirmed extraordinarily standard, mentioned Alexander Fabry, an organization government.
“Of the people who are using a CGM, the vast majority of them don’t have a diabetes diagnosis,” he mentioned.
Who can use the screens?
The gadgets have been lifesaving for individuals with diabetes. And they are often useful for individuals with threat elements for the illness, together with weight problems, prediabetes, a historical past of gestational diabetes or a household historical past of the situation.
The gadgets can permit customers to see how particular meals and exercise decisions have an effect on their blood sugar in close to real-time, mentioned Dr. Alaina Vidmar, a pediatric weight problems specialist at Kids’s Hospital Los Angeles.
“After a large meal, you may watch your blood sugar go up and sort of learn something about yourself,” Vidmar mentioned. “For example, I drink a sugar-sweetened soda and my blood sugar goes up really high, really fast. And maybe I don’t feel as good, right?”
What are the cautions?
Individuals with out threat elements for diabetes might flip to the screens simply because they’re curious, mentioned Dr. David Kessler. A former FDA commissioner, Kessler would not have diabetes, however he wore a monitor for a pair months throughout analysis for his current e-book, “Diet, Drugs and Dopamine.”
“I think it’s a very interesting tool to experiment with if you’re so inclined,” Kessler mentioned.
However, he famous, the gadgets cannot be used to diagnose or deal with illness. Even consultants do not agree on interpret or present well being recommendation for individuals with out diabetes primarily based on blood sugar information.
“No one knows what’s optimal in the nondiabetic state,” he mentioned.
Earlier than utilizing a monitor, Dushay asks sufferers to think about their motives.
“What do you think you’re going to get from the data?” she mentioned. “What is to be gained from wearing that monitor?”
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Steady glucose screens are in vogue. However do you really want to trace your blood sugar? (2025, July 26)
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