Can people without diabetes benefit from wearing a CGM?

The role of continuous glucose monitors

If you have diabetes and need insulin, it’s crucial to track your glucose levels because those levels determine how much insulin to give yourself. Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood sugar by helping cells absorb glucose for energy and storage.

A CGM can be easier to use but more costly than a glucometer. A glucometer, which also tests blood glucose levels, requires you to prick your finger, put the blood on a test strip and place the strip in a meter to determine your blood glucose level.

Who could benefit from using continuous glucose monitors without diabetes?

If your blood glucose levels are normal, and you have no risk factors for diabetes, you don’t need a CGM.

You could benefit from wearing a CGM if you:

• Have prediabetes
• Are at risk of diabetes because of family history

Wearing a CGM could give you a better idea of how meals and exercise affect your glucose levels. Knowing that might help you make better choices about what you eat or how often you exercise.

How often should you wear a continuous glucose monitor if you don’t have diabetes?

Unless you have diabetes, you don’t need to wear the monitor every day. It’s better to wear it for a couple of weeks or a month, just to get a sense of your glucose levels, then talk to your healthcare provider to have them interpret your results and determine if you’d benefit from continuing to wear it.

The risk of wearing a continuous glucose monitor

Be mindful that a CGM could cause you to become apprehensive and, in many cases, obsessed with what you eat and how food raises your blood glucose level. If that happens, you may start to restrict certain foods or excessively exercise out of fear of your blood glucose levels or your weight.

What influences how high and how fast your glucose levels rise?

• What you eat
• The amount of carbohydrates you eat
• The type of carbohydrates you eat – simple carbs raise blood sugar much faster than complex carbs
• How much fat was eaten with the meal – fat slows digestion
• Exercise
• Stress
• Illness – someone who is sick will have higher glucose levels
• Medications such as steroids and antihistamines can raise blood sugar

How your blood sugar changes after you eat

Everyone’s blood sugar rises after they eat. It peaks about 90 minutes following a meal.

In a healthy adult without diabetes…

• Blood sugar stays below 140 mg/dL, but it could go higher depending on what you ate.
• Two to three hours after that meal, glucose levels return to a range between 80 mg/dL to 120 mg/dL.

In an adult with diabetes…

• Blood glucose levels can go up to 180 mg/dL or even higher following a meal.
• Two to three hours after eating that meal, glucose levels may not go down much.
• Medication and, in some instances, insulin may be needed to bring down those glucose levels.

What does prediabetes look like on a continuous glucose monitor?

When someone is in prediabetes, a stage that can lead to diabetes, they typically have…

• A fasting glucose level of 100mg/dL to 125 mg/dL when their blood is tested after eight or more hours without eating. A normal fasting glucose level would be in the range of 70 to 99 mg/dL.
• No significant drop in blood glucose levels two to three hours after a meal
• An estimated hemoglobin AIC between 5.7% and 6.4% – although a Hemoglobin A1C level cannot be displayed on a CGM, the GMI “Glucose Management Indicator” is a percentage that estimates your A1C.

Will insurance pay for continuous glucose monitoring if you’re not diabetic?

Insurance plans typically don’t cover CGMs if you don’t have diabetes. You need to be prescribed insulin to qualify for insurance to cover the cost of a CGM.

The average cost of an over-the-counter CGM is about $250 a month. That covers two sensors, each lasting 10 to 15 days.

If you buy an over-the-counter monitor, you can turn off the alerts or alarms for when your blood sugar is going too high or dropping too low. And none of the data it collects goes automatically to a healthcare provider as the monitors for people with diabetes do.

A CGM can help you learn how your body responds to food, exercise, sleep and stress. But it hasn’t been proven that people without diabetes need a CGM, or that it can replace other trusted ways to measure health. And keep in mind that it’s important not to obsess over every fluctuation in your glucose levels.