Don’t miss Episode 71 of 'not ARTIFICIALLY Sweetened', THE podcast packed with unfiltered reflections on all thing’s diabetes!

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This Episode is brought to you in support of diabetes awareness & care by the CDE Online Pharmacy (⁠https://cdeonline.co.za/⁠), the online store of choice for people living with diabetes.

Whether you're living with diabetes, a health professional that facilitates diabetes care, or supporting someone with diabetes, you're in the right place! Join our journey, as we grow together in understanding, insight, & self-awareness to change lives for the better. Our deliberations are always honest, challenging & thought provoking. Nothing is off the table as we meet real people, discuss their real issues and stories, & together discover real answers to many vexing practical issues in diabetes & its care.

“I was blind, but now I can see - the Rise of CGM Technology”

Basic diabetes education - this week, Stan and Michael review the recent rise of more accessible continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technologies and share some vital insights:

• Only since the late 1990’s did we know that managing blood glucose levels lowers the risk of potential future diabetes related complications
• Why we need to monitor blood glucose levels in diabetes
• Crude historical proxy measures of blood glucose – e.g., urine tasting, chemical urine tests
• Indirect vs direct measures of blood glucose
• Finding glucose in the urine while taking SGLT-2 medications is expected!
• The role of the HbA1c test
• Capillary blood glucose monitoring - why repeat readings may vary & potential sources of errors
• Understanding the differences between finger-prick blood glucose testing & CGM
• Limitations of the HbA1c test & finger prick testing
• Exploring the need to understand & manage blood glucose excursions
• New management targets with CGM
• The benefits of shareable cloud-based rich CGM data & implications for enhancing diabetes care
• ‘Diabetes overwhelmus’ - data overload with CGM & how to handle this
• The components of typical CGM ‘systems’
• The indirect/proxy measure provided by CGM & the implications of this in daily glucose management
• Added insights into glycaemic trends & medications provided by CGM - using these to improve future outcomes
• CGM as a driver of advocacy
• The future of glucose monitoring
• The problem of the cost of CGM
• Hope for rapidly falling prices in the near future, possibly competing with the cost of finger prick monitoring
• CGM – an essential tool for management of T1DM, useful in certain people with T2DM & a huge future role as a wearable technology used as a proxy for measuring wellness
• “The data (from CGM) on its own is one thing, but what is done with the data is perhaps far more important than the data itself”

Advocacy message

Boitumelo Molema shares why advocacy is important to her – #safespaces

We want to hear from you!

If you have any questions, suggestions, comments or contributions for future episodes, or if you'd like to advertise on this podcast, email us @ ⁠Podcast@CDEDiabetes.co.za⁠

For health professionals working in diabetes

The 6-Module, 23 CPD point CDE Academy Very Low-Calorie Diet Course for Healthcare Professionals can help you assist your clients with excess adiposity & type 2 diabetes to improve their cardiometabolic risk profile, reduce their chronic medication burden, doses & costs & possibly achieve remission of their diabetes. More information & registration @ ⁠https://academy.cdeonline.co.za/vlcd-course/⁠

Learna/University of South Wales offer a one-year, online, part-time, distance learning Postgraduate Diploma in Diabetes Care. Sign up for a second year to earn an MSc in Diabetes. Gain a competitive edge & enhance your client care! Register @ ⁠https://my.learna.ac.uk/l/diabetes-ambassador-cde