The Best Glucose Monitor for Your Health Goals
After doing hundreds of finger sticks to manage gestational diabetes during my first pregnancy, I get why so many doctors say the best glucose monitor is one that monitors glucose continuously. Continuous glucose monitors are quarter-size wearables that give you real-time, personalized insights about how your last meal or workout is actually impacting your body. (So they’re great for data—plus, they cut way down on the need for those annoying finger sticks and pricey test strips.)
“CGMs are a great way to understand your own unique metabolic blueprint,” says Robin Berzin, MD, a functional medicine physician and founder of Parsley Health, a virtual clinic. “Everybody responds to different foods metabolically a little differently based on their genetics, lean muscle mass, and body composition, even their microbiome.” A continuous glucose monitor might show, for example, that a meal you think is healthy—say, a breakfast yogurt with berries and low-sugar granola—actually sends your glucose levels on a roller coaster. “Blood glucose monitoring systems are a really great mirror to understand how you’re metabolizing the food that you’re eating,” Dr. Berzin says.
I could have stopped monitoring my blood sugar postpartum—in the vast majority of cases, including mine, gestational diabetes goes away after childbirth—but I started using a CGM hoping the data would show me how to eat for better energy levels. (“It’s a tool that prompts behavioral change,” Dr. Berzin says.) I also know that patients who get gestational diabetes are at a higher risk of developing prediabetes and type 2 diabetes down the road, so a CGM helps me periodically check in.
A prescription-grade continuous glucose monitor can be incredibly useful for diabetes management. It won’t eliminate the need for a traditional glucose monitor—you may still need to do the occasional finger stick—but it can offer real-time glucose data that can be shared directly with the health care providers managing your diabetes care.
Finger-stick blood-glucose meters vs. continuous glucose monitors
To use a traditional blood-glucose meter, you prick your finger using a lancet and carefully touch a drop of blood to a special test strip that’s inserted into the device, which analyzes it and gives a readout. This method gives you an accurate snapshot of your blood-glucose levels measured straight from the source.
CGMs are small, noninvasive, wearable devices often worn on the upper arm. As the name implies, they continuously measure the glucose levels—this time in your interstitial fluid, the fluid between cells. A CGM reading can be slightly less accurate than a finger-stick reading, but it provides an ongoing picture of your metabolic response to food, exercise, sleep, and stress.
The best glucose monitors
Everyone’s experience of managing their metabolic health is different—there’s a lot of room for personal preference in determining the best blood-glucose monitoring system for you.
