New Recruit Tip #1

Get a CGM

If you've recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes or even if you just want to find out more about your metabolic health, then it's worth trying a Continuos Glucose Meter (CGM). Your healthcare advisor probably won't like this idea because it's considered as only necessary for type 1 diabetes and they'll be worried about prescription costs. CGMs are expensive at around £50-£60 and they only last two weeks, but the information you can get, even in that short time frame will guide you as to how your body is responding to different foods. It's been the key to me figuring out how to get down from a HbA1c of 133 to 48 mmol/mol (14.3% - 6.5%) in six months. I couldn't have done it without the information from my CGM. It's not like a hyperdermic injection, its a flexible tip that sits just under your skin and doesn't hurt. If you've been recently diagnosed, it's worth being aware of the fact that it is much easier to get type 2 diabetes into remission now than in several years, or decades later. The sooner you get on top of it, the easier it will be.

Abbott are currently offering a free trial of their Libre 2 Plus sensor so you can try one for a couple of weeks to see if you get any usefull information from it. You don't have to sign up to a subscription and then have the hassle of cancelling it; you just get your first one for free.

Just a note if you want to buy more sensors, make sure to tick the VAT exemption option and enter your relevant medical condition to remove the VAT on the purchase price.

The FreeStyle LibreLink app connects to your CGM and collects and stores the data for you. It also gives you lots of graphs to look at things like your 7-day average, times in ranges and daily patterns. You can also set alarms at custom levels to alert you if you're going too low or too high.

The Libre 3 sensor has a different app which does the same thing but it's annoying if you switch between the two as you'll get gaps in your data. The only real benefit I've found to the Libre3 is it's a lot smaller. It's also more expensive so not really necessary.

I can't believe I've only just figured this out... The LibreView site is marketed as giving your medical team access to your CGM data which is great, but I always thought that meant you couldn't view it yourself, but you can - just create an account and you can link your data using the LibreLink app to get update graphs like mine below. You can also export your glucose data to a file to analyse in spreadsheet format.