HEALTH & FITNESS

The Role Of Wearable Tech In Diabetes Management

From CGMs that can detect one’s blood sugar levels every five minutes to Oura ring that measures your sleep, here are devices that helps in better management of diabetes.

If you have diabetes, you know just how important it is to keep your blood sugar levels under control. But how can you manage something you can’t measure? With cutting-edge technology these days you can measure your blood glucose levels in real time without the hourly prick on the finger thus better understanding your body, and helping your doctor better understand your disease.

Dr Marcus Ranney, Founder & CEO, Human Edge, has highlighted some innovative wearable devices that are helping diabetics to manage their condition better and explained their uses. These include:

Continuous glucose monitoring systems or CGMs

Often affixed to the patient’s arm, these devices come with sensors that can detect your blood sugar levels every five minutes. All CGM devices come with apps, easily compatible with most smartphones, that not only give you glucose readings but also allow you to set alarms for when your levels get too high or too low.

Sleep trackers

While measuring your blood sugar levels is crucial, it is also important to keep a tab on your nightly slumber with sleep trackers. Sleep tech, like the Oura ring and smartwatches that measure your sleep, give you an insight into the quality of sleep. Poor quality sleep often leads to a rise in blood glucose levels; so by measuring your cycle the number of hours you slept for, REM and NREM sleep, sleep interruptions, etc. you can improve your sleep, thus better managing your diabetes.

Smartwatches and bands

Diabetics must also use smartwatches and bands, like the Apple Watch or Fitbit, to also measure their HRV regularly. HRV or heart rate variability is the time interval between heartbeats and is a good indicator of your underlying physiological stress levels. The higher your HRV the better, but unfortunately people with type-2 diabetes tend to have a lower range of HRV score which can be an early warning sign of future cardiac events.

Lifestyle modifications to keep your blood sugar under control

To keep your diabetes under control, you also need to follow healthy lifestyle habits such as eating a healthy diet, regular exercise, keeping your weight in a healthy range, managing your stress levels, etc.

We know that excess weight or obesity can increase insulin resistance (your body become less effective at absorbing glucose from the blood). Exercising regularly and eating healthy, helps reduce accumulation of fat in the body and ward off health problems associated with excess weight.

Diabetics need to control their carbohydrate intake (foods that are high in sugars and starches) as well as carbs can increase your blood sugar exponentially. Include more high-fibre foods (such as example apple, carrots, beetroot, broccoli, chia seeds) as they can help lower your blood cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

It is also important for adults to get at least 7 hours of sleep every night. Sleep plays a crucial role in diabetes management. Disturbed sleep can raise your blood sugar levels, trigger stress hormones, make you hungrier the next day and increase risk of weight gain.

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