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At Theia, providers often ask “Why should my patients monitor my blood glucose if they’re not diabetic?”
That’s a great question—glucose monitoring is often linked to conditions like diabetes, but its benefits extend well beyond. Blood sugar regulation is a key component of our metabolic health, even for those without diabetes or pre-diabetes. Tracking blood sugar provides valuable real-time insights into diet, nutrition, sleep, hormone regulation, and how our body reacts to various inputs. CGM tech allows providers and patients to use a data-driven approach to optimizing overall health.
Reactive Medicine Versus Proactive Medicine
Metabolic health exists on a spectrum—it’s not simply a matter of being ‘healthy’ or ‘unhealthy.’ This is especially evident in the gradual progression of diabetes, where small increases in glucose levels determine whether someone is classified as normal, prediabetic, or diabetic:
Fasting Glucose Levels:
• Normal: <140 mg/dL
• Prediabetes: 140–199 mg/dL
• Diabetes: >200 mg/dL
Despite this continuum, our healthcare system is largely designed to intervene only once a person reaches prediabetes or diabetes. By enabling everyone to monitor their blood sugar, we can gain valuable insights that would otherwise go unnoticed—empowering proactive, personalized health management.
You Can’t Predict Metabolic Health
Metabolic health isn’t just about weight or BMI. Many unseen factors—such as stress, autoimmune conditions, food sensitivities, nutrition, and sleep—play a crucial role. Without data-driven insights, it’s impossible to truly understand where we fall on the metabolic health spectrum.
Unfortunately, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Yet, our healthcare system is designed to intervene only when these issues escalate into medical problems, rather than enabling proactive management.
How can non-diabetics monitor glucose?
Hemoglobin A1C test
One common method of testing blood sugar is the hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) test, typically done at a doctor’s office through a blood draw. This test provides an average blood glucose level over the past three months and is primarily used to diagnose prediabetes and diabetes.
However, since most people only get routine blood work once or twice a year, this snapshot approach doesn’t offer a full picture of daily glucose fluctuations. If your HbA1C levels change over time, you may not have enough data to understand why—or how to address it effectively. Moreover, it doesn’t provide insights into which behaviors are driving these fluctuations, making it difficult to take proactive steps toward better metabolic health.
CGM
A continuous glucose monitor (CGM) is a small, wearable sensor that tracks glucose levels in real-time. The CGM used by Theia is easy to apply, completely painless, and lasts for 14 days, providing 336 hours of uninterrupted data about your body.
With a CGM, you gain instant insights into how your glucose responds to food, exercise, and lifestyle choices. Beyond real-time readings, you can also track long-term trends, including glucose fluctuations, fasting glucose, average glucose levels, and the time spent within the optimal range of 70–110 mg/dL—giving you the data you need to make informed decisions about your health.
Marketing CGMs to Non-Diabetics
At Theia, this is another common question we come across. As a provider, you may understand the value of this technology but how do we express this to our patients? Below are the main points we use to stress the importance of CGM usage for non-diabetics:
- Blood Sugar Regulation is Key to our Metabolic Health – Without measurable data, it’s impossible to know where we fall on the metabolic health spectrum. What we do know is that metabolic health is closely tied to a range of conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, obesity, inflammation, fatty liver disease, PCOS in women, and insulin resistance. The good news? With continuous monitoring and proactive lifestyle changes, it’s possible to take control of your health and reduce the risk of chronic conditions.
- Blood Sugar Regulation is Impacted by Everyday Decisions – Food intake, gut health, stress, sleep, toxins, caffeine and more. Wearing CGMs provides you and your patients with real-time feedback on how their body reacted to any input that we want to track correlated glucose responses.
- Review Results Collaboratively – At Theia, we believe that data is only meaningful when put into context. That’s why we exclusively partner with healthcare practices—ensuring that experts guide the interpretation and application of metabolic health. Letting patients know that you’ll be reviewing their data collaboratively provides reassurance and strengthens their confidence in your care plan.