@John_Hemming i am also tracking glucose via CGM. My rapa dose day (5mg plus GFJ rapa dose after 2 weeks no rapa) was crazy for glucose variability. I was also taking 1000mg metformin. The next day was back to normal (very low glucose variability)
I also found drinking grapefruit juice was terrible for glucose spiking vs eating a grapefruit.
Mine varies a lot with alcohol as well. (alcohol drives it down). As you know I am doing a really quite high dose (22mg plus GFJ previously 16mg plus GFJ), but quite infrequently. Hence I have 3 days of CGM basically with no rapamycin at all followed by a chunky dose.
It will be good to compare our charts when things have stabilised. I could post some of them now, but I am thinking of annotating mine with food and drink which is quite laborious.
I am inclined to stick with the CGM until my glucose settles back down to something like before I took the rapamycin. I got an extra session when my One+ fell off which ended up with a few more days and I have two more sessions. This should take me to a point at which the effect of rapamycin has completely faded.
@John_Hemming i will annotate my charts as well. My CGM experiment will end this week.
Preview. I’m changing my mind about sglt2 (does seem to lower blood glucose even when moderate) and metformin vs berberine (berberine doesn’t do anything on my blood glucose while metformin does).
@Joseph_Lavelle@John_Hemming This is some great info guys! I’m interested in seeing the results of your CGM monitoring as well! I’m taking an SGLT2I + 500 mg Metformin (1 g on Rapa day) + Berberine daily. I’m interested in seeing what my next HBA1C reading is. My guess is that Berberine may be a hit or miss supplement that may affect some people and not others. I have no idea if it’s beneficial to me until I get my next bloodwork done early next year.
@John_Hemming Im a big berberine fan. I’m just surprised and sorry that it doesn’t seem to lower my blood glucose. It isn’t a substitute for metformin is what I’m discovering.
@DeStrider I recommend trying a CGM. Perhaps you can get a free 14 day trial from Abbott. You will learn a surprising amount. The more you experiment the more you will learn. I’ve lost about 8 pounds while using the CGM due to doing fasts and eating less while I tried this and that.
I have been leaning toward anti-CGM for a while but not any longer. It’s perfect for people like us on the edge of pre-diabetes. I don’t know if the blood glucose measurement from my blood work (fasting glucose) is exactly the same as my interstitial fluid glucose measurement but the reconciliation is hard. My CGM reading doesn’t move much +/- 30 mg/dl (or for long) under my normal lifestyle / diet. But my fasting glucose CGM is higher than my fasting glucose bloodwork by 10-15 mg/dl.
The surprising weight loss has come from the SGLT2I (Empagliflozin). I’m at the bottom of my normal weight range and I still eat the same (if not more). I can tell that it works as my urine has developed a unique smell from all the glucose I have been excreting!
It’s amazing to be able to eat my normal diet (maybe more) and still lose weight.
It’s definitely made me thirstier though, so my daily water intake has doubled.
I’m already on my third Libre3 sensor. 2 of them malfunctioned and had to be returned/exchanged. When I wear it on my left arm, it shows abnormally low glucose ( 50s range). When I check it with OneTouch finger reading, it’s 30 points off. When I wear it on my right arm, it shows abnormally high glucose, in the range of 180-200 (again 20-30 points off if compared with OneTouch finger reading).
@LaraPo Thats amazingly bad. I worry about believing in bad data. Mostly I just watch the patterns to see what effects different foods, combinations of foods, times of eating, medications, and time between eating has on glucose. I hope the CGM is accurate enough for that.
Yes, it does show trends, but the numbers are not reliable. If glucose is at or below 50 it sends you a beeping alarm even at night. I had to get up and remeasure manually my BG. It was normal in mid 70s range. It’s very annoying.
random question, is it really necessary to measure glucose (24/7) if you are NOT a diabetic person? In other words, why should I care if my glucose went to 130 after eating a whole apple pie (warmed and topped with butter pecan ice cream ) and then the next day the glucose went back to 80? Isn’t that what should happen anyway?
Maybe I compressed mine when attaching it. I tried to push on it as hard as I could per somebody’s advice on this forum. Mine is far away from elbow, closer to shoulder. Maybe it affects it as well.
@RapMet if your fasting glucose is <80 and HbA1c is around 5.0 and you don’t have family history of t2d, then I wouldn’t worry about it.
But if you discover that you have a slow insulin response to glucose and you eat foods which spike your blood glucose high (>180 mg/dl) and it stays high for hours, then you might be looking at a future problem. This might motivate you to change your diet or lose visceral fat or exercise after eating etc.
Excluding a ketogenic diet, I’m not sure why good blood markers wouldn’t preclude an insulin resistance or beta cell issue but if you look you might see something useful. The risk is you might give up your apple pie a la mode for no good reason. But maybe that’s okay.
It happens at night when you roll over on the side where the CGM is applied and you compress the limb. Without a CGM your fingers tingle (“fall asleep”), and you roll over. With a CGM it thinks your glucose is dangerously low, and the alarm sounds. I turned off Bluetooth at night while wearing a CGM, since it still synchronizes the overnight data when you turn it back on in the morning, and I know I am not at risk of hypoglycemia.
Location is important and all depends on where the optical fiber ends. When you apply pressure it will compress the blood and lymphatic vessels around the sensor so that fiber optic end does not see enough fluid anymore.
I use a GCM but I calibrate it every day with a finger prick and they are all over the place sometimes ± 40 over the correct reading.
To calibrate you need to wait for the glucose to be stable for at least 30min before you measure with your finger.
The Dexcom Gx have a build in calibration function in the app but not the Libre.
Which CGM do you use? G7 and Libre 3 are more accurate.
Also: are you sure the issue is the CGM and not the fingerprint? Have you ever tried to have a proper blood test at the same time to compare to the gold standard?