Staying Healthy
Should I use a continuous glucose monitor?
Ask the doctor
I'm overweight, but don't have diabetes yet. Should I use a continuous glucose monitor, like people with diabetes do?People with diabetes need to monitor their level of blood sugar, often multiple times a day, to make sure it doesn't get either too high or too low. When I was beginning my medical career, measuring blood sugar levels required a venipuncture (using a needle to take a blood sample). That was not something a patient could do, so instead we asked patients to collect several urine samples a day and use a kit to measure the level of sugar in it. That gave a crude indication of when blood sugars were too high, but didn't help determine when sugars were too low.
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About the Author
Anthony L. Komaroff, MD, Editor in Chief, Harvard Health Letter; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing
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