Conclusion from 2 weeks with CGM (Part 3) #32

What things did CGM showed me about my PCOS?

Hello all,

This is part 3 of my experience with CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor), and I want to ramp up by showing some other cool learnings and discussing what good looks like.

A few of us from the newsletter are planning to do a CGM experiment together 👯‍♀️. This means joining a WhatsApp group, we all buy the sensor together and share what we find for 2 weeks. The sensor is painless to use and it can be purchased as a one off for £48.29 directly at Abbott. If you are keen to join, hit reply with your number and I will add you (there is no additional cost than the sensor).

What should the glucose levels be for healthy individuals?

When looking at healthy individuals (those without insulin resistance or other glucose metabolism issues), it showed that healthy participants:

• stay between 3.9 - 7.8 mmol/L 96% of the time

• only going above 7.8 mmol/L for less than 30 min/day

• going below 3.9 mmol/L for less than 15 min/day

• on average, glucose levels were 5.5 ± 0.4 mmol/L

This methodology of assessing glucose levels is generally 91.4% accurate, so there is still a chance this could be wrong. These are the healthy ranges, so anything different warrants further investigation.

My results were as follows:

1. Time spent between 3.9 - 7.8 mmol/L 100% ✅

2. Average glucose level 5.7 mmol/L ✅

3. Hba1c as a result of GCM 33mmol/L (compared to 29 mmol/L that I got at a blood test results and compared to the diabetic threshold of 48mmol/L) ✅

According to research, these are within the normal range. I have always assumed that issues with my glucose metabolism drive my PCOS, but after this experiment, I am questioning if that is true. Throughout the past weeks, I tried hard to spike my glucose levels, so I ate things I would normally avoid. I am assuming this is why my average is at 5.7. I would like this to drop a bit lower, so I might do an experiment where I eat for two weeks only things that keep my blood sugar low to see my results.

What are other things you learnt?

As I mentioned, I tried hard to spike my glucose levels, and to my surprise, it was harder than I thought. I want to caveat that I have done a lot of exercise in the past two weeks, so I am sure that has positively affected it.

1. Burger with fries

I was very curious about this one, but to my surprise, it only hit 8mmom/mol 3h very briefly after eating it, but for most, it stayed below.

2. Ben&Jerries and Kandy Kittens

For this one, I didn’t hold back. I wanted to see what having A LOT of sugar at once does. It didn’t disappoint. My blood sugar levels spiked to 9.7 mmol/L - the highest I managed. It didn’t stay high for long, but it shows what some foods do to our bodies.

3. Chocolate-covered biscuits (6 of them)

One of my absolute favourite biscuits spiked my glucose levels but nothing crazy.

4. Homemade pizza + Sauna

I am a very lucky girl with a boyfriend who loves cooking, so he made homemade pizza for us. My glucose levels stayed pretty stable in the evening. I did 90 min of exercise that morning (Weights + Spin), which helped the muscles soak up the glucose as they were depleted. The other two spikes you see there are 1) oat milk coffee before exercising and 2) sauna + cold shower.

I was surprised to see how much the sauna and a cold shower spiked my glucose levels, but it’s explained by the fact that your body goes through a temperature shock.

I have eaten these foods because I wanted to see how my blood sugar levels are. I loved it but wouldn’t say this is a PCOS-friendly diet. You can see that my blood sugar levels stay fairly balanced for most of my day.

In conclusion, I would recommend trying this if you can afford it. It’s an easy way to learn about your body and see what certain foods can do to your blood sugar levels. I want to emphasise that spikes are natural, and we don’t need to obsess over having a linear graph.

See you next Sunday,

Francesca

¹ Sources

1. Holzer, R., Bloch, W., & Brinkmann, C. (2022). Continuous glucose monitoring in healthy adults-possible applications in health care, wellness, and sports. Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 22(5), 2030. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22052030

Shah, V. N., DuBose, S. N., Li, Z., Beck, R. W., Peters, A. L., Weinstock, R. S., Kruger, D., Tansey, M., Sparling, D., Woerner, S., Vendrame, F., Bergenstal, R., Tamborlane, W. V., Watson, S. E., & Sherr, J. (2019). Continuous glucose monitoring profiles in healthy nondiabetic participants: A multicenter prospective study. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 104(10), 4356–4364. https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2018-02763

Disclaimer: We are all unique in our ways, so this information is for educational purposes only. In my communications, I summarise research data and bring my experience. This shouldn’t be viewed as medical advice at any point. Please further consult your healthcare provider about your health needs.