I was watching this excellent interview with the great Dr. Tommy Wood about how to avoid cognitive decline and blood sugar was a huge part of the discussion. I’ve often heard dementia referred to as "Type III diabetes” due to the implications blood sugar has on brain health and yet many people don’t know a thing about their glucose levels. Going to the doctor once a year for an annual physical tells you slightly more than nothing. Your a1c isn’t a useless marker, but it’s far from perfect. A better strategy would be to do a two week CGM trial from a company like Nutrisense. A CGM, or continuous glucose monitor, allows you to see what your blood sugar is doing 24/7.
I’ve done a few Nutrisense trials over the years and I like it a lot. You just get the app, sync it to the CGM and log what/when you eat (broadly, no exact measurements). I also add workouts (strength training is a fantastic way to control blood sugar, as is cardio) so I can see the effect of, say, a heavy deadlift session on my blood sugar. On that note, muscle is a huge glucose sink, so the more muscle mass you have, the better your blood sugar. More on strength training later.
Nutrisense is cool (this is not a sponsored post, I swear) because you interact with their fantastic staff over the app and they are great at providing useful, actionable steps based on your data. Given that something like 40% of the country is either pre-diabetic or diabetic, and given the myriad complications that come from poor metabolic health (you’d be surprised how many endurance athletes are pre-diabetic), a simple two week CGM trial is a great (and affordable) way to take a massive part of your health into your own hands.
Hello fellow BARPODder. Nice Substack.
I was really considering getting into Levels after hearing a doctor does about it on Bari Weiss’ podcast. Alas, though I was excited to check on the price of it on Black Friday... it was way more than I can afford (over $100, can’t recall the exact price, every 2 weeks).
I’ll have to look into what you are talking about here. Maybe it’s more affordable?