I was having migraines and panic attack symptoms, especially during or after exercise. It was incredibly frustrating to be enjoying a run or a pickleball game, only to be forced to lie flat on my back until the symptoms pass. I wanted to see if glucose spikes had any correlation to these episodes.
I also wanted to be able to test different foods and see if they caused a blood sugar spike. I have read and heard on podcasts that different foods can perform completely differently from person to person. A potato might send my blood sugar through the roof, and be only a blip for someone else.
Choosing an Over-the-Counter CGM
At the time of this writing, I found only two non-Rx, over-the-counter CGMs. Pricing was about the same at $49 for one, or $89-99 for two monitors, which last roughly two weeks. I chose the Dexcom Stelo because I liked the monitoring and the app best. The app is free, tracks with a nice graph, and allows you to enter events such as meals and activity. The Freestyle Libre looked good too, but I’m happy with my choice. They shipped fast and the tracking is easy and intuitive.
Installation was painless and easy with the provided applicator. Once you’ve installed it onto your upper arm, it takes a few minutes for tracking to start.
The Data: Finding the Spikes
Almost immediately I was able to correlate the physically challenging episodes with glucose spikes, often above the recommended normal top end of 140 mg/dL. The range was erratic, and my periods of feeling low energy, brain-foggy, anxious, and even having tachycardia correlated with the upper peaks.
It’s funny, because before I got the CGM, I was expecting to find hypoglycemia as a cause, not hyperglycemia. I’ve also learned that there is such a thing as reactive hypoglycemia: If your blood sugar spikes, your body’s reaction in attempting to correct it may cause a subsequent dip.
There is also the exercise and stress factor. Intense exercise (like a hard game of pickleball) and stress cause the body to release adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones tell your liver to dump stored glycogen directly into your blood to give you energy to fight or flee. That means your blood sugar can spike during intense exercise even if you haven’t eaten a single carb.
Glucose Spikes Even On a Healthy Diet
Here is the crazy part: My diet was pretty impeccable by most standards. No alcohol, caffeine, refined sugar, or fried foods. My carbs came from sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, chickpea pasta, and chickpea pizza crust. But either my body needed a reset, or my makeup—being ADD, slim, and highly active, burning 1,000+ calories on an average day—required something more strenuous.
The Keto Reset
I tended to be on the low-carb side in general, eating a paleo diet with few processed carbs. One morning, I had not eaten any carbs up ’til noon, and I noticed that I was feeling great—good energy, mental focus, and mood. I started to research keto for normalizing blood sugar and regulating anxiety for ADD brains like mine, and found that this can be a successful strategy.
Having done keto years ago, I decided to run an experiment. I went back into ketosis to see if flattening my blood sugar would reduce my mood swings and stop the crashes.
As soon as I went keto, my blood sugar went from being in a dangerous, pre-diabetic range to consistently in the normal range, with much lower fluctuation. This evening out of my blood glucose range has led to more calm, mental focus, and consistent energy with fewer dips and peaks. That’s what I was going for, but I hadn’t expected that I would end up on keto.
The episodes are still a work in progress. There are other factors involved for me, mainly stress and anxiety, which I have written about in other posts. But eliminating the high end of the glucose spikes and putting myself consistently in a range of 70-99 mg/dL was a great start, and removed one thing from the equation.
Alternatives to Going Keto?
If keto is not your thing, I’d say just eat healthy, log your meals, and use the CGM to figure out what is spiking your blood sugar. Then manage your diet to get it into the range you want. It could be specific foods that need to be moderated or eliminated. It could be quantity. For example, I had a massive spike after eating a whole 9-inch chickpea crust pizza. After a two-hour workout, it didn’t seem like a big deal, but the CGM told a different story. It could also be timing—time of day, or the relationship between exercise and food intake timing.
Conclusion
I’m very grateful for how easy it was to get a CGM without a prescription, and to be able to monitor my blood glucose in real time to identify trends and patterns. For $49, you get real-time data on exactly how your body operates. It takes the guesswork out of your health, boosting your overall mental clarity and energy. I recommend it to anyone who wants to optimize their well-being.
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