🩸 Monitoring my Blood Sugar as a Non-Diabetic I used a continuous glucose monitor for a month as a non-diabetic - here’s what I learned. Earlier this year, I used a continuous glucose monitor for a month. Even though I don't have any early markers for metabolic issues, I wanted to see what I could learn. One of my learnings was this notion of "metabolic health" which can be measured by blood sugar, triglycerides, cholesterol, blood pressure, and other data points. Metabolism is multi-faceted, but can be thought of as the process by which your body converts input (food & drink) into energy. The health of this process is crucial as it directly relates to your long-term risk for heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and more immediate concerns like your energy on any given Tuesday. One of the best ways to get a read on your metabolism is by measuring your blood sugar. However, most of us have only one data point to reference - our annual physical. This data point (if we even manage to get it) is inherently flawed as it takes a single snapshot of blood sugar while fasted and extrapolates that to an entire year's worth of health. This data point can be useful to understand if we have acute glucose insensitivity or early indications of diabetes - but what about understanding how a pastry might affect your mood the rest of the day? Glucose monitoring has evolved over the years from unreliable urine testing, to machines that draw lots of blood, to more recent finger prick systems. In 1999, the first continuous glucose monitor (CGM) was approved as a stylish wrist watch that could continuously monitor blood sugar levels, but it didn't find widespread adoption since it was quite invasive. As the century progressed, Dexcom, Abbot, and Medtronic continued to make improvements on the design and created an non-invasive device that could monitor blood sugar levels through a small layer of fluid (interstitial) beneath the skin.