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Atlantic
a day ago
- Health
- Atlantic
How the Glucose Monitor Became a MAHA Fixation
To hear some of them tell it, the companies selling continuous glucose monitors have stumbled upon a heretofore unknown quirk of human biology. Seemingly healthy people, many of these companies argue, have 'glucose imbalances' that need to be monitored and, with dietary vigilance, eradicated. Millions of people are going through life eating bananas, not knowing that their blood sugar is rising with every bite. This must be stopped. To this end, the companies market the continuous glucose monitor, or CGM, a quarter-size sensor that takes a near-constant measure of the glucose in the fluid between a person's cells. Once inserted into an arm, the sensor allows the wearer to monitor their blood-sugar levels on a phone app for $80 to $184 a month. Doing so allows you to 'see the impact of what you eat' (according to the start-up Lingo), to 'motivate behavior change and encourage healthier choices' (according to another called Levels), and to 'personalize your approach' to weight loss, because 'everyone's journey is different' (according to Nutrisense). The gadgets have been revolutionary for many people with diabetes—previously the main available device for measuring blood sugar required users to prick their fingers multiple times a day. Many insurers cover CGM prescriptions for diabetics; they can pick up the devices at the pharmacy just as they would blood-test strips. But when I asked a half dozen experts whether people who don't have diabetes should wear CGMs, I got a resounding 'Meh.' 'It's a free country. People can pay money for whatever they feel like doing,' David Nathan, a diabetes expert at Harvard, told me. 'But from a medical point of view, I am personally unconvinced that they lead to any health benefit.' Relying on a Harvard diabetes expert to give you diabetes advice, however, goes against the general ethos of the 'Make America Healthy Again' movement, many of whose members have been heavily promoting CGMs in recent months, including to people who don't have diabetes. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of Health and Human Services, talked them up in an April CBS interview as 'extraordinarily effective in helping people lose weight and avoid diabetes.' At his Senate confirmation hearing, before becoming Food and Drug Administration commissioner, Marty Makary said glucose monitors help people 'learn about what they're eating.' Casey Means, the wellness influencer whom President Donald Trump nominated for surgeon general, has said that more Americans should use CGMs too. (As it happens, she is a co-founder of Levels.) 'I believe CGM is the most powerful technology for generating the data and awareness to rectify our Bad Energy crisis in the Western world,' Means wrote in her best-selling book, Good Energy. (Bad Energy is her term for the metabolic dysfunction that she believes to be at the root of many chronic health problems.) The devices are emblematic of the self-reliance that characterizes the MAHA movement. 'The Casey Means's of the world,' Alan Levinovitz, a James Madison University religion professor who has studied alternative health, told me in an email, 'are using the rhetoric of naturalness as a way of telling people they can have complete control and expertise over their own health—which is the natural way to be healthy, rather than outsourcing that wisdom to top-down elites.' Indeed, one of the chapters of Good Energy is titled 'Trust Yourself, Not Your Doctor.' (Means did not respond to a request for comment.) CGMs appear to have trickled into MAHA world from the Joe Roganosphere, helped along by the fact that the devices, which in the past had been prescribed mainly to diabetics, were made available last year for purchase over the counter—that is, by anyone. Five years ago, Paul Saladino, a doctor who promotes an ' animal-based diet,' said on Rogan's podcast, 'This is the kind of stuff that really tells you about your metabolic health. There's no way to lie with a continuous glucose monitor.' Since then, CGMs have been endorsed on popular wellness podcasts such as Andrew Huberman's Huberman Lab and Dave Asprey's The Human Upgrade, and by pop-health doctors such as Peter Attia and Mark Hyman, the latter of whom called the CGM 'a gadget that has completely changed my life.' A wellness influencer known as the Glucose Goddess said that although they may not be for everyone, CGMs can be 'a pretty incredible tool to start to connect what you're eating with what's actually happening inside of your body,' and offers a guide to them on her website. Gwyneth Paltrow, the empress of Goop, was recently spotted wearing one. Sun Kim, a Stanford endocrinologist, told me that a few years ago, 'I was literally contacted by a start-up almost every month who wanted to incorporate a CGM' into their products. Of course, some CGM companies do specialize in people who have diabetes and need around-the-clock monitoring. But Kim and others I spoke with told me they suspect that, to boost sales, CGM manufacturers are trying to expand their potential-customer base beyond people living with diabetes to the merely sugar-curious. Jake Leach, the president of Dexcom, maker of the over-the-counter CGM Stelo, told me via email, 'Stelo was originally designed for people who have Type 2 diabetes not using insulin and those with prediabetes, however, given the broad accessibility of this device, we are encouraged to see people without diabetes interested in learning more about their glucose and metabolic health.' A spokesperson for Dexcom pointed out to me that most people with prediabetes are undiagnosed. Fred St. Goar, a cardiologist and clinical adviser for Lingo, told me in a statement that CGMs can be beneficial for nondiabetics because 'understanding your body's glucose is key to managing your metabolism, so you can live healthier and better.' Scant research exists on how many nondiabetic people are buying CGMs, but anecdotally, some providers told me that they are seeing an uptick. Nicola Guess, a University of Oxford dietician and researcher, said that '10 years ago, no, I never saw anyone without diabetes with a CGM. And now I see lots.' Mostly, she said, they're people who are already pretty healthy. In this sense, CGMs are an extension of the wearables craze: Once you have an Oura Ring and a fitness tracker, measuring your blood sugar can feel like the next logical step of the 'journey.' Should people who aren't diabetic wear one of these? Health fanatics who have $80 a month to burn and want to see how various foods affect their blood sugar are probably fine to wear a CGM, at least for a little while. Spoiler: The readout is probably just going to show that eating refined carbs—such as white bread, pasta, and sweets—at least temporarily raises blood sugar to some degree. Normal glucose patterns for nondiabetic people tend to vary quite a bit from meal to meal and day to day. Most nondiabetics' blood-sugar readings will typically fall within the 'normal' range of 70 to 140 milligrams per deciliter. But many healthy people will occasionally see spikes above 140, and scientists don't really know if that's a cause for concern. ('Great question' is a response I heard a lot when I asked.) In the studies he's worked on, Kevin D. Hall, a former National Institutes of Health nutrition scientist, has found that even in tightly controlled settings, people's blood-sugar levels respond very differently to the same meal when eaten on different occasions. Given all these natural deviations, a CGM may not be able to tell you anything especially useful about your health. And CGMs can be less accurate than other types of blood-sugar tests. In another study, Hall and his co-authors stuck two different brands of CGM on the same person, and at times, they provided two different blood-sugar readings. The conclusion, to Hall, was that more research is needed before CGMs can be recommended to nondiabetics. What's more, blood sugar depends on sleep, stress, and exercise levels, and whether any given meal includes protein or fat. If you notice a spike after eating a banana, the banana might not be the reason. It might be the four hours of sleep you got the previous night, because sleep deprivation can affect the hormones that influence blood sugar. As a result, Guess said, 'a CGM cannot tell you whether a single food is right for you'—though some CGM enthusiasts make this promise. (A CGM can help you 'learn your reaction to individual foods and meals,' Means has written.) For some people, tracking data does help nudge them toward healthier behaviors. If you get a clear readout from a CGM that your blood sugar has risen after you've eaten refined carbs, and it moves you to eat fewer refined carbs, that's not necessarily a bad thing. But researchers haven't found evidence yet that nondiabetic people eat better after wearing a CGM. And if you know how to read a CGM, you probably already know what a healthy diet looks like. You could just eat it. Anne Peters, a diabetes researcher at the University of Southern California, told me, 'You could just not wear it at all and tell yourself to eat more vegetables and a more plant-based diet and eat healthy, lean protein.' Many of the biohackers who talk up CGMs also promote a low-carb, protein-heavy diet that would include a T-bone more readily than a Triscuit. (Asprey, the man behind The Human Upgrade, recommends putting butter in coffee.) The potential downside of glucose monitoring is that people who are (perhaps needlessly) alarmed by their CGM data will swap out healthy carbs such as fruit and whole grains for foods that are less healthy—butter, for example, or bacon and red meat. Those foods don't make an impact on blood sugar, but they can affect other markers of health, such as cholesterol and body fat. Eat a stick of butter, and your CGM will probably show a flat, pleasant line. But your arteries may protest. I noticed these perverse incentives myself during my pregnancy, when I had gestational diabetes and wore a CGM to manage my blood sugar. A bowl of heart-healthy oatmeal would cause my blood-sugar reading to soar to an unacceptable 157, but a piece of cheesecake—with loads of fat balancing out the sugar—would keep it safely under my goal level of 135. At the time, I wanted to eat whatever kept my blood sugar low, for the sake of my baby. But few dieticians would advise healthy people to eat cheesecake instead of oatmeal every morning. Glucose, after all, is just a small part of the picture of human health. 'Waist circumference, blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, resting heart rate—they are much better measures of how healthy someone is than glucose,' Guess said. And watching a real-time readout of your blood glucose can become an obsession of sorts—not an entirely harmless one. 'Something being a waste of time is a net harm,' Guess told me. 'There is something unethical to me about filling people's heads with worries that never come to pass.' Many of the researchers I spoke with said that if you are concerned you might have diabetes or prediabetes, you could just get an A1c blood test at your annual physical. Like a CGM, it, too, measures blood sugar, but much more cheaply and without requiring you to wear a device all the time. And if it shows that you're at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, you could do what doctors have suggested doing for decades now: Eat a diet rich in vegetables and lean proteins, and get some exercise most days. ('Duh,' Nathan said.) One way for Kennedy and others in the Trump administration to find out if CGMs do all they say they do would be to fund studies on whether CGMs are helpful, and for whom. Quite the opposite is happening. Hall recently left Trump's NIH because he believed he was being censored when speaking about the results of studies that conflicted with Kennedy's views, and Nathan's diabetes-prevention study was recently frozen by the Trump administration. So far, the administration has ended or delayed nearly 2,500 NIH grants, including some related to researching blood glucose. If the Kennedy-led HHS department truly would like to make America healthy again, it could stop defunding the people studying Americans' health.
Scottish Sun
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Millions of Brits unlock three new TV channels in huge ‘June update' for popular free telly service including ‘ITV Quiz'
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) MILLIONS of Brits are getting access to three news channels in a big June update of a major TV service. Freeview watchers can enjoy the new channels as the changes start to roll out. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 1 Some devices will return automatically, but others will need to be done manually Credit: Getty Starting from this week, viewers will be able to tune into the following channels. ITV Quiz, a fresh channel dedicated to quizzes, will be replacing the now defunct ITVBe. It will broadcast a range of quiz shows between 9am to 1am. This will include popular shows such as Tipping Point, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Lingo, Tenable, and Deal or No Deal. It can be found on Freeview Channel 28. OUTflix Proud, which will be on Hybrid Freeview Channel 288, will show LGBTQ+ original series from the OUTtv streaming platform. According to Cord Busters, Brad Danks, CEO of OUTtv, said the launch is "a major step forward in our mission to make LGBTQ+ stories more accessible to viewers around the world". Shopping channel Must Have Ideas, which is also available on Freesat and Sky, will soon make its way onto Freeview too. It will be found on Freeview Channel 96 when it starts broadcasting. Freeview watchers looking to enjoy the new channels should check to see if their TVs need to be retuned. Kay Burley joins This Morning in TV return after departure from Sky News Some devices will return automatically, but others will need to be done manually - so it's worth checking to see if your TV is one of them. Channel names and numbers will not be correct or up to date on a TV that has not been properly returned. But anyone looking to make sure their tech is up to date should also take note of the latest iPhone news. Apple fans across the world are due to get the free iOS 26 upgrade later this year, giving their iPhones bonus features at no extra cost. Phones as old as the iPhone 11 and iPhone SE (2nd gen) will be able to get iOS 26. But you won't if you've got an iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or iPhone XS Max. Anything older than that won't be eligible for the upgrade either.
The Irish Sun
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Millions of Brits unlock three new TV channels in huge ‘June update' for popular free telly service including ‘ITV Quiz'
MILLIONS of Brits are getting access to three news channels in a big June update of a major TV service. Freeview watchers can enjoy the new channels as the changes start to roll out. Advertisement 1 Some devices will return automatically, but others will need to be done manually Credit: Getty Starting from this week, ITV Quiz, a fresh channel dedicated to quizzes, will be replacing the now defunct ITVBe. It will broadcast a This will include popular shows such as Tipping Point, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire , Lingo, Tenable , and Deal or No Deal. Advertisement read more in tech It can OUTflix Proud, which will be on Hybrid Freeview Channel 288, will show LGBTQ+ original series from the OUTtv streaming platform. According to Cord Busters, Brad Danks, CEO of OUTtv, said the launch is "a major step forward in our mission to make LGBTQ+ stories more accessible to viewers around the world". Shopping channel Must Have Ideas, which is also available on Freesat and Sky , will soon make its way onto Freeview too. Advertisement Most read in Tech It will be found on Freeview Channel 96 when it starts broadcasting. Freeview watchers looking to enjoy the new channels should check to see if their TVs need to be retuned. Kay Burley joins This Morning in TV return after departure from Sky News Some devices will return automatically, but others will need to be done manually - so it's worth checking to see if your TV is one of them. Channel names and numbers will not be correct or up to date on a TV that has not been properly returned. Advertisement But anyone looking to news . Apple fans across the world are due to get the free iOS 26 upgrade later this year, giving their iPhones bonus features at no extra cost. Phones as old as the iPhone 11 and iPhone SE (2nd gen) will be able to get iOS 26. But you won't if you've got an iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or iPhone XS Max. Advertisement Anything older than that won't be eligible for the upgrade either.
Irish Independent
5 days ago
- Business
- Irish Independent
Pat Phelan's Limbo to seek deal with Abbott after legal action launched
Abbott's Ireland-based Lingo Sensing Technology initiated the London action against Vitals in View companies based in Ireland, the UK and the United States. Vitals in View are the firms behind the Limbo business. The dispute relates to trademarks and alleged passing-off, according to court filings. 'Limbo has recently experienced massive international growth, and we have a deal agreed with Abbott/Lingo to amicably resolve and address any issues, that works for all parties,' Limbo chief executive and co-founder Rurik Bradbury told the Irish Independent. 'We'll announce more details of our plans and success in international expansion in the coming weeks,' he added. He said he expects the legal action to be struck out pending a resolution to the spat. Customers who sign up for the Limbo weight loss plan wear a continuous glucose monitor that's linked to an app on their phone. It's designed to assist customers with dietary changes that will help them to shed weight. It expects those using its system to lose between 3kg and 5kg in a month. It charges €199 a month for the system, or the equivalent of €149 a month or €99 a month if consumers purchase a six-month and 12-month plan respectively. Limbo started as VIV (Vitals in View) and later changed its name to Limbo in 2022. Headquartered in New York, Limbo has a research centre in Cork. Last year, Abbott launched what it said was the first ever consumer-focused 'biowearable' Lingo product. 'Lingo tracks glucose spikes and dips in real time and provides personalised insights and customised coaching, helping people implement healthier habits and pursue better sleep, mood, focus, energy and fewer unpredictable cravings,' it said. ADVERTISEMENT Abbott added that its scientists had spent more than two decades researching continuous glucose monitors. A spokesman for Abbott did not respond to requests for comment regarding the litigation against Mr Phelan's firms. Co-founded by Mr Phelan, Limbo's other co-founder is Tony Martin, a physiologist and coach. In 2022, the company raised an initial €6m in funding in a round led by Hoxton Ventures. The fundraising was also backed by US ex-basketball star Shaquille O'Neal, Irish rugby player Jamie Heaslip and former Apple senior executive Rory Sexton. This year, the company has embarked on a $12m fundraising round and anticipates having $80m in annual sales by 2027.
The Irish Sun
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Sky and Virgin viewers warned of three new channel changes hitting TV screens TOMORROW
SKY AND Virgin have issued an urgent warning to viewers about major changes coming to their channels. The 2 Three channels are being cut from Sky TV Credit: Getty 2 The huge changes will come into effect tomorrow Credit: Getty Sky have announced that the first of the three channels undergoing a major change is Sky Fantasy (Satellite 306/850 - Sky Glass/Stream 306). The channel will be reverted back to Sky Family (SD/HD) after a temporary change. The second major change will affect Sky Hits HD (Satellite 303 - Sky Glass/Stream 303) which will be temporarily renamed SkyOriginalsHD. Finally, Sky Superheroes (Satellite 302 - Sky Glass/Stream 302) will be renamed Sky5*MoviesHD. Read More on TV news Sky's channel overhauls will come into effect on June 16. The broadcaster regularly updates its channel listing depending on the season, with special festival channels appearing around However, Eurosports has vanished, with much of its content merging with TNT sports. Most read in Tech The dedicated children's channel Pop Max and fan favourite Sky History +1 have both also left our screens. Fans were shocked when Discover new features on Sky TV that make it even easier to find favourite shows Shows like ITVBe will be replaced with a dedicated game show channel named ITV Quiz. Fans can expect to see all of their favourite quiz shows, including Tipping Point, Lingo, Wheel of Fortune, More channel closures 'inevitable' An industry expert told The Sun that more channel closures are likely in 2025 and beyond. "This is inevitable, more broadcasters will cull broadcast/linear TV channels as viewers are flocking to streaming services," Paolo Pescatore from PP Foresight said. "The big TV switch off is around the corner, with all programming set to be delivered via the internet. "Viewers are now spoilt for choice with how and where they watch the TV shows they love across a range of connected devices. "To respond, broadcasters need to be prepared and work more closely with telecom providers to ensure a seamless experience for users." Image credit: Getty
