Meeting regularly with Dr. Jonathon Bannwarth is important for patient Alan Meister to help keep his health in check.
Alan has type 2 diabetes, which means his body has difficulty controlling its blood sugars.
“Type 2 diabetes, which we often see in adulthood, is where patients develop a resistance to the insulin that they do produce, usually from blood sugars running high for so long that their bodies had to rev up extra insulin production and their bodies become less sensitive to the insulin it does produce," said Bannwarth, an Avera family practice physician.
To help keep track of his blood sugar levels, Alan was recently recommended to use a continuous glucose monitor, or CGM, which is a piece of wearable technology that tracks glucose levels.
Using Continuous Glucose Monitors
“Oftentimes patients will wear a sensor on their arm and then in real time they can check what their blood sugars are by holding the monitor over the sensor and it will tell them what their blood sugars are at that time,” said Bannwarth.
“This gives you a reading continuously and has really made a big difference for me in knowing what I need to do to adjust accordingly,” Meister said.
This device is another option for patients to use to manage their diabetes.
“Historically, we’ve had our traditional blood sugar monitors where patients would have to prick their finger to test their blood to see what their blood sugars are, which gives us a snapshot of what their blood sugar is at that time, but we are a little bit limited as to seeing what their blood sugars are doing over the day,” said Bannwarth.
Meister says the CGM has made it much easier for him to check his blood glucose. Plus, with the help from the team at Avera, he’s learned what foods can do moderate his blood sugars.
Monitoring Food Choices for Better Blood Sugars
“If my blood sugar is running high then I eat something that’s a protein because once the protein gets into the system, it has a tendency to counteract with the carbohydrate, or the sugar and helps bring it down pretty quick,” said Meister. “They help make things easier to understand, which in all the years that I’ve had problems with my sugars, nobody ever really sat down and explained it to me — what foods do what and how long it takes for that to get into your system and how your system reacts to it.”
“As part of our treatment of diabetes in our patients we are starting to work in more of a multidisciplinary team as well,” said Bannwarth. “We will get our pharmacist involved and then she will adjust insulin doses, and then we have a diabetic educator, this is usually a nurse who works directly with the patient and educates them on the disease process in even more depth and then a dietitian that works with the patient's diet.”
And that has helped Meister see improvement in his health.
“What a difference in just a little over a month,” said Meister.
“I think lately Alan has seen a lot of really good success with the continuous glucose monitoring. That has been a motivator for him and other patients, to be able to watch what is their diet doing to their blood sugars in real time, and that reflects in his numbers,” said Bannwarth.
If your care team recommends use of a continuous glucose monitor, this device is available at many Avera Home Medical Equipment and Avera retail pharmacy locations.
