Continuous Glucose Monitor for Better Health: 19

Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast. I'm really excited to share my guests with you today. I have Molly Downey with me who is from Nutrisense, and I won't tell you too much about Nutrisense right now because we will be talking about that at some point, but I have used their product for the last couple years and really appreciate what they do. So I thought I would, uh, just have a chat with them and share with you guys how you might be able to use their service. Um, but first I just want to get a little bit of Molly's background. She is, as you heard on her bio, um, a dietitian, and I just want to hear how you got interested in nutrition and, uh, then how you kind of got to where you are now.

Absolutely. I'm super happy to be here. And basically I am a registered dietitian and I always knew that I wanted to work in preventative health. I grew up playing sports and, you know, I was doing always physically active and I originally wanted to work kind of more in that field with athletes. Um, but I grew more into the preventative health, uh, area because I was, you know, personally experiencing more health issues, um, in my own life that I started, you know, monitoring my blood sugar levels. And I was able to gain a lot more knowledge about my own personal metabolism and how my body's working. And I just became fascinated by you know, monitoring blood sugar levels. And then it led me to finding Nutrisense. And it was perfect because we are able to work with our members and they, you know, if they sign up for our program, they're sent a continuous glucose monitor. And what this means is that they can continuously monitor their glucose for, um, 14 days at a time. And basically what you do is we place the sensor on the back of your arm, and then it'll continuously pick up on the data, and it'll enter into our app. And, um, then, then we work as a dietitian to help support our members in their data that we're seeing show up in the app and work towards any sort of nutrition-related or health-related goals that they're hoping to work on. But Again, I just found such great value in the continuous glucose monitor for my own self. So I just love the aspect of being able to utilize this technology for, uh, working with my members. And it adds so much personalization to how I am providing my recommendations to my members, because it's not just, you know, some of, you know, Who knows what it's, it's more individualized. And I can see exactly how someone is responding to a particular variable. So with, you know, you can see how you respond to different foods and exercise and sleep and stress. All of these different variables can play out in the glucose data. So when I can see that firsthand and identify these, these specific issues, then we can kind of work towards whatever we're seeing, you know, with whoever I'm working with and we can make modifications towards any sort of lifestyle, um, issues that we're seeing arise through their glucose data. Um, and you know, that's, that was so satisfying to me because we can actually, you know, see these specific triggers and then work towards anything that can, can help modify whatever we're seeing going on. So I was just purely fascinated by the technology and I love that we can use this every day to help, help our members. So.

Yeah, it's, it's very cool. And I, uh, just to back up a little bit so people have a little bit more background on this. So a lot of people listening to this podcast will at least have a passing familiarity with the idea of blood glucose and why we might want to monitor that. So, uh, for example, you know, people that have either type 1, which is typically a juvenile onset diabetes, or type 2, which is traditionally an adult onset diabetes, which is becoming more prevalent in juveniles now due to poor diet, unfortunately. Um, but you know, so everybody's kind of knows what diet Diabetes is a high blood sugar kind of condition. So people might be wondering, well, if I don't have diabetes and they think they don't, cause they've never done a continuous glucose monitor, but they might be surprised if they did. Um, but so for people that are kind of more in that normal blood sugar category, and those of you that aren't listening to the audio, I was just doing the air quotes because I think we are learning through continuous glucose monitors so much more about what normal might— sugars might look like in a healthy person, a person who does not have diabetes. So I was wondering if you could just backtrack with that a little bit and kind of explain what traditional blood glucose monitoring looks like. And a lot of us in the keto community are familiar with that. We poke our fingers, take our blood sugar, take our ketones. So we know, but a lot of like people kind of out there and outside of that sphere have no idea, number one, about just the old-fashioned blood glucose method, but much less about the continuous glucose monitor. So maybe if you could just back up a little bit and share about how we traditionally have looked at blood sugar and why we're starting to look at this as a marker of metabolic health outside of the diabetes world.

For sure. And I love that you brought that up too, because when most people are thinking of blood sugar or blood glucose, they're automatically, you know, thinking of diabetes, which is a metabolic disease known from, you know, having high blood sugar levels. So in the diabetic population, it's critical that they're monitoring their blood sugar levels to ensure that they're not going outside of threshold or they're, they're maintaining stability to some extent. So what we're doing at Nutrisense is we're putting a preventative lens on it. So you can learn so many things through your blood glucose data that's not just, um, you know, if you're in a disease state or not. It, you know, there are— if, if we're taking a primary example of, you know, how someone might respond to a carbohydrate. So if someone eats a banana, for example, everyone has a different response to, you know, different sorts of food. So I can eat a banana and have a high blood sugar response where you can eat the same exact meal at the same time and your blood sugar levels can be far more stabilized. So in this sense, um, you know, if I were testing my blood sugar levels and I saw a higher response from that banana, then I know that it's important to, um, you know, work on modifications to help regulate these responses so they're not occurring on a persistent basis. So the whole idea is that we want to avoid these large swings in blood sugar levels, um, and we want to ensure that they're not consistent threshold values. So again, we like to— there's different trends that we're looking at. One of the trends is our fasting levels. So these are when our levels are at baseline value. So optimally, we want to see these levels in the 70 to 90 range for a generally healthy person. And, um, I would say for the most part, like throughout the day, um, when there's not— when someone's not eating and there's not a lot of variability going on, most people, you know, in a generally healthy range can, can be about below, you know, 100. However, when we do eat something, it is normal to experience a blood sugar spike. So again, if I'm resorting back to that banana, um, the whole idea is if we do have a higher spike from that, um, we want to keep it below a particular threshold. And everyone has, you know, where we're at currently with research is we want to stay below 140 milligrams per deciliter, but I have a ton of people in the keto community that put their upper threshold at 120. So building towards, you know, building more research around this. But currently where we're at, we know that when we're reaching these levels beyond these, these certain thresholds, and we're just increasing the susceptibility to, um, you know, oxidative stress and cellular damage and inflammation. So we're— the longer that we're in these higher ranges, the more likely that we're having these adverse effects that are occurring. So if you do have a blood sugar spike, we want it to come back down in about a— and we don't want it to be sitting in those higher ranges for an extended period of time, because again, that's when those issues are going to arise. So, um, for, you know, a normal healthy individual, um, we're, we're essentially just detecting these glucose responses as like a yellow flag. So you're not necessarily in a disease state as of yet, but I, if someone, you know, I'm a perfect example, I do not respond well to carbohydrate. And if I were to consistently eat a high-carb diet, you know, if I were eating multiple high-carb meals a day, say 3 times a day, and my blood sugar was spiking out of range for, you know, multiple times each day, then this is when, you know, those are kind of like major hits on the body, which can over time progress into more of a disease state. So, um, again, for, for myself, as I was saying, I discovered a lot about my personal metabolism through monitoring blood sugar levels. And I was eating a very high-carb diet and I realized I do not tolerate carbs well at all. So that's when I moved over towards a low carb diet and I, um, saw some major improvements in some of the symptoms that I was having and my energy levels and, you know, watching the glucose data and, you know, monitoring it with the continuous glucose monitor, I could actually see those changes, um, you know, actually play out in the data and I could see that I was producing way more, um, uh, regulated glucose responses. And as you were, you were questioning as well with the— the people are testing out with a glucose meter and, um, the, how the continuous glucose monitor, um, differs from that. Like you said, it's like you're not consistently pricking your blood sugar. Um, it's picking up on your data in 15-minute increments. And essentially you have to like scan on your phone and it then— everything from the sensor will then be transmitted into the app. So then you can kind of see it displayed on a graph. So you see everything throughout the day. I think when you're like, you're missing out on a lot of, uh, important information. And I think one of the major trends is like overnight trends, for example. You're, you're, you're not going to be up in the middle of the night testing your blood sugar, you know, doing finger pricks. Maybe you are, but for the most part, it's, it's nice because you can wear the continuous glucose monitor, see, um, if, you know, any food or sleep or stress is impacting your levels overnight, because this is a major trend that we see. Um, so again, you're, you're getting a far more comprehensive idea of the, the trends that are occurring in your, in your blood sugar levels, um, that I think you would, you definitely are missing out on if you're just doing the finger pricks.

Yeah. One of the things I noticed when I had it was because I would do some food experiments, since I was already fully keto for years by the time I got a continuous glucose monitor. So I also am interested in kinds of things like, because of what I talk about and write about for my work is, uh, okay, does this new keto quote unquote product actually react well in my body or does it kind kind of create the same kind of response that something that's real sugar might. Because sometimes I often just say to people with these keto treats, it's like, if there's one thing that you really love and say you're not diabetic, you're just doing this for general health, there's something that you really love, you know, it's going to spike your blood sugar, but you only have it every once every couple months or once on a special occasion. It might just be better to have the real thing because some of these keto treats that I've tested have almost as big a glucose response in your body as real sugar. So that's pretty useful information. And then the other thing I noticed, because I did do a fair amount of, uh, before I'd ever had one, if I would test things, I would do kind of the finger prick, uh, you know, before eating and then 2 hours, an hour in, and then 2 hours. And, you know, the theory is your blood sugar is supposed to come down within 2 hours, right? Well, what I was finding, some of the trends were if I'd eat a certain type of thing, I would have maybe not a huge blood sugar response, uh, high, but then maybe it like persisted throughout the day to be much higher than usual. And I would have missed that if the Fingerprint— because if I would have taken it at 2 hours and I thought, oh, mostly came down, it didn't really go up that much to start with, I would have missed that whole information. I think it's still kind of debatable at this point. Do we really know exactly what that means in healthier people? Maybe not, but we're getting there. That's part of what you guys are doing, right? It's gathering some of this data and noticing trends. Um, the other thing I think is interesting for people to note that, um, if they've never seen this before, they might not understand that it's totally normal. One time I was wearing a continuous glucose monitor when I was snowboarding and my blood sugar— and this is fasted, didn't, you know, I fasted, I normally do an intermittent fast every day. And, uh, my blood sugar was up to like 190, just, just from physical activity. But this is a pretty intense physical activity, right? Um, But again, that's like, because it's your body is demanding a lot of glucose in that those moments of high intensity. I don't really think of that as a problematic kind of glucose spike, but people tend to freak out when they start seeing some of this. So can you maybe, uh, speak to again, some of the trends that you're noticing? You were saying there's some middle of the night trends that you've been noticing in people. Any other interesting sorts of things that you guys are learning, uh, based on the data that you're seeing?

Yeah, definitely. I think you touched on a few great things there, and I'm going to backtrack to what you initially were talking about with the keto foods. You know, it's definitely a popular trend now, and you go into any grocery store and it's just labeled keto. Um, but that's why having the continuous glucose monitor in that sense is great because you're right. I see all the time that someone you know, tests out a keto food and their blood sugar is still spiking. So I agree with what you're saying. And the fact that if you're only having something like that every once in a while and you're, you're going to have a spike either way, it's, it would be better to know. It's like, might as well indulge in whatever it is that you want to have anyways. So if, yeah, strongly encouraged anyone who's interested in those keto treats to test them out, because it, the discrepancy is, is large and just truly depends on the person. So it's super interesting to see. And then also with the exercise thing that many people are confused with as well, but it's a very common trend to see a glucose response from, you know, a higher intensity exercise, typically with You know, like weight training, um, or any, any sort of strength training, I'll usually just see like a small budge in glucose. And, but with higher intensity cardio exercises, like what you were mentioning with the snowboarding, it is typical, like to see a higher response like that. And generally speaking, you know, I usually, uh, have the max threshold, like at like 160 to like 180, um, is pretty normal. Um, going beyond that range, then we can kind of work with like manipulations around your exercise to see if we can try to mitigate that response in any way. But, um, with exercise, it's not insulin mediated. So it's not, it's not harmful on the body. Um, it's actually, exercise is great for, glucose control. So you might notice if you're testing out a continuous glucose monitor, you do a higher intensity exercise like the snowboarding, for example. And afterwards you have, for most people have a significant improved insulin sensitivity at this time, meaning that they can tolerate carbohydrates far more effectively. So you might eat a higher carb meal. In that post-workout phase and are able to eat it without seeing as high of a glucose response. Whereas you could try, you know, another day and with not surrounding a workout and you might see a much higher glucose response. So I think that's one of my favorite tips to provide to someone who work carbohydrates into their daily routine. Um, but if they're having a higher spike from maybe, you know, not working, uh, with the carbohydrates around exercise, then that's just a great place to start. Um, cause it makes it, it can make the person feel more satisfied in the fact that like, oh, I'm not going to have a super high response from this because I know if I eat it after my workout, then my response is, is more regulated. So I think it can provide some ease, you know, peace of mind with, with that sort of aspect as well. Um, but yeah, definitely with the workouts, it's, it's a common trend to see. So if anyone does test out some sort of exercise, and it's, it's normal. Um, with the third, you know, exercise source is more like very moderate exercise, such as like if you're doing just like a slow elliptical or just going for a walk. Um, I strongly encourage this sort of activity following a meal or a higher glucose response, because it helps dispose of any excess glucose and allows for your levels to come back down to baseline value, uh, sooner rather than later. So, um, something that, you know, oh shoot, I might have a higher glucose response from this, being proactive and going for a walk afterwards is super, super helpful. And it's even a 10-minute walk, 10, 15-minute walk. Is super effective. So I, I mean, I utilize this tool all the time. Um, it, it, again, it helps to provide more peace of mind when you are wanting to have, you know, a, a particular food that you are anticipating a higher response from. So I think it's, it's nice in that sense. Um, and then, yeah, like what you were also mentioned with, uh, um, Evening meals, um, meal timing is a, a very, has a very strong component in glucose levels. So we find that if you eat a meal later on in the evening and it doesn't have to be carbohydrates, I find that eating, even for some people eating any sort of meal later on in the evening or like right before bed, um, this can promote higher glucose levels overnight as you're sleeping. So, um, again, everyone is so different in how they respond, but if you are one of those people who are experiencing higher levels from eating late at night, whether it's from a low-carb meal or just a meal in general or higher carbohydrates and working on some tweaks and manipulations around that specific meal, either moving it to earlier in the day, um, a specific amount of time before you know, actually falling asleep and going to bed, um, can help largely in reducing those overnight values. Um, so I think that's a trend that a lot of people will, will see. And again, like say you test out like a sweet potato at 9 o'clock at night and you have a higher glucose response, you know, you might think like, oh man, I like can never have this again. But that's definitely not the case. If I ever see this, then I would strongly encourage that person just try it. Earlier on in the day and see if they can have a more reasonable glucose response from that, because it totally depends on the time of day. Um, but I think that's a super interesting trend that we see all the time.

Yeah, that is interesting because I think it's definitely not as— I mean, I think people in the health space are kind of— I, for example, I would try to never eat past 6 PM. It doesn't always work out that way, but I do my best. But there are plenty of people who eat late every single night. And I do think, you know, not only the blood sugar, I think just having that digestive process happening when you're trying to go to sleep is not optimal for sleep. So, um, just a little side note there for people about your eating timing. It's not only for blood sugar, but it can be just for better sleep and stuff too. And of course they might— they're— I'm sure they're related in some way. Um, the other thing I wanted to ask you about, and I especially observed this in myself, is so you talked about a lot of the physical trends you're seeing, and I don't know how much data you really eat, or you would have to get, I guess, just a self-report maybe from people. And I'm just wondering if this is something that you hear, but I sort of, uh, my background is in psychology and I also focus a lot on changing habits. And so for me, the psychological part of having a continuous glucose monitor on was really interesting because even though I eat, you know, low carb all the time, I was, you know, testing some stuff during this time period. And what I observed about myself is I really, I feel like it gave a strong, uh, positive reinforcement for behavior modification because if I knew I had it on, like, I didn't want to, you know, go outside of my eating window because I didn't want to have another little bump on the monitor, or I didn't want to, uh, risk, you know, throwing the whole day's average off, or just silly little things. And it was just enough. Of a thing that I feel like it did have some behavior modification, um, qualities. So I'm just wondering if that's something that you hear from people also that use it. And even if they're not low carb already, maybe they start to see all these things on the monitor and it actually helps them change their behavior.

Yeah, absolutely. And I can totally resonate just because I feel the exact same way when I'm wearing a continuous glucose monitor. It does have a large accountability, um, aspect to it. You said like, you may, you know, it might be late at night and you're craving ice cream or something, but there is that psychological component where you're like, okay, well, I know if I eat this, I'm going to see a higher glucose response and I just don't want to see it. So I think it's super encouraging in that sense. Where it's, you're trying to promote behavior change and develop new habits and actually seeing that biofeedback in the data show up right in front of your, your face is strongly encouraging to actually start making changes there. So I think that's one of the greatest tools that, you know, the, or the greatest You know, things that the continuous glucose monitor can help with. It's not just like, sure, people come on for so many different reasons. They just want to experiment, or some people want to lose weight. Um, you know, and even if I were working with, you know, as a dietitian and I'm working with someone and not using the continuous glucose monitor, it's just like, what are we working towards? We're always working towards habit change. And, you know, you can be told to do something, or you can know the right thing to do, but it doesn't mean you're always going to do it. So, That's why I love this so much as a tool for that, because it's so powerful in encouraging that behavior change. So, um, yeah. And we also in the app, we have like habit trackers. So we, we're not always just the— as a dietitian, we do everything, um, you know, nutrition related, but we can work on other things as well. Like reducing stress, or if we're seeing higher overnight values, like what you said, there definitely is correlation with sleep and glucose. So it is bidirectional in the fact that if you're having a poor sleep, you might see higher glucose levels because your sleep was disrupted and you were waking up all throughout the night. Also, you know, it can be the opposite. Have high blood sugar levels from maybe something that you ate late at night that's activating your nervous system. And you're— because your levels were high due to the food, then you had a disrupted sleep from that. So you can see this play out in, in the data. Um, and you know, as I was referring to with, uh, stress, I think it's a super impactful, you know, component to all this, um, especially if you're, you know, if you're interested in all the psychological stresses, is something that can, you know, promote so many different disease states. So if we, if I see in someone's data that they're largely impacted by stress, it's just like, that's working on meditation and mindfulness or anything that's going to relieve that stress is just as important as your diet and your exercise. Because if your mind's not in it, then how is anything else going to, you know, play out? And if it is a persistent thing, like if you have stress every single day during your job, then, um, you know, working towards management techniques there is, is so important. And you— I do have people, it's just like, it's so obvious, it's like stress is really— has an impact on them. So that's to me, you know, as I'm trying to help them. And I think for them as well, it's like they might know that stress is something that continues, you know, to follow them like throughout their daily routine, but they might not have that motivation to actually make changes. So again, when they see it in the data, they're like, okay, this wasn't like— could have been an issue, but now I'm actually seeing that it is. I should probably get more serious about my mindfulness or anything to kind of, uh, relieve stress throughout the day. So there's so many interesting components of that.

Yeah, for sure. And I think that beyond— and so, as we mentioned, you know, diabetics have used the continuous glucose monitor for years and they typically are working with a doctor who can, you know, help them interpret data. What I think is really about interesting in, in using this with, uh, more healthier, or a population outside of diabetes. I'm not going to say healthier because actually 88% of Americans are not metabolically healthy, which is a crazy statistic. Um, so when I say healthy, I mean people outside of diabetes, basically. So the fact that you guys have taken this data and you've made it more digestible through the app. So not only does the app give you certain amounts of feedback, and during the time that I was using it, and I've had like a year in between uses and stuff, I would see that you're adding new things to the app. You're adding new insights that you could use. Uh, but I think the thing that is really unique about what you're doing is that you have people on staff such as yourself, registered dietitians that actually are there to give feedback from a real person, not just an app. And it's integrated in the app. Like you could, like, I could message you in the app, I think with, with that stuff. But, uh, can you speak maybe a little bit to that side of it? Because I think that that's really this, the distinction of just, you know, having and wearing a glucose monitor and remembering to scan it is is one thing, but knowing what insight to take from that data is sometimes a different thing if you're not a total like geek about this stuff, like we are. So maybe if you could share, you know, how you work with people within the app and how the company works in that area, I think it's very, very interesting.

Yeah. And I agree. And I think that having the dietitian support is a very significant component to actually, again, like what we were saying, like developing sustainable habits and fully understanding what's going on with your blood sugar levels. So again, like we, some people are more knowledgeable in what blood sugar is and metabolism and how everything is regulated in the body, but a lot of people don't have this, this knowledge. So And we don't expect everyone to fully understand this glucose data. That's why we have the glucose experts on the other side. We've seen so much information now at this point, like we've seen so many different nuances and we've worked with people all across the board, um, with keto or carnivore or extended fasting, um, all these different types of individuals. So we can provide insight based off of what we've seen based off of the evidence that we know and the research that we currently have. And I'll say that if someone's like just curious about this and they're just testing something out and they, you know, eat something, they have a higher glucose response from it. That doesn't mean that you can never eat that food again. There are ways to kind of work around modifying, you know, what you're doing around that, that specific meal that can help you promote a more regulated response. So what I was saying earlier, like, You know, what if you eat something, you have a high response from it next time? Like, what if you try it out and you go for a walk afterwards, or you eat your protein first, let it digest a little bit, and then eat the carbohydrate, um, or eating it after a higher intensity workout, you might be able to tolerate it better. So, you know, I think it's nice having the dietitian support in that aspect because it's like, we're here to You know, provide a more open-minded, uh, comprehensive approach where we can provide tips and solutions. So they don't have to feel like, cause I mean, I mean, the glucose data can be overwhelming for, for people. It's like, there's a lot to learn. And it's a huge learning curve. And we acknowledge this when first 2 weeks, we could just be, you know, going back and forth, trying to understand like what these responses even mean.

So.

You know, it does take time to fully resonate with everything, and, uh, there's so many small nuances that can occur in someone's data. So we're just here to support, let you know what, you know, what we've seen and what works, and we can kind of go from there. And I do agree that, you know, you definitely need that support to help you through all this. And especially as I feel like Starting out, we had a lot of our members were like biohackers, and we still have a ton of biohackers. But as more people are becoming more familiar with this technology, like, we're going to keep getting in more and more people who are just interested in health in general, and they might not have that background of, you know, all the metabolic processes and what's going on. So again, that's why I think it's so— such an integral portion to like have that dietitian support.

So Yeah, I think that's again one of the unique things that you guys do that I think makes it really a useful service. And you mentioned something there that made me think of a conversation that's been happening recently. I think I heard Kara talk about it a little bit, so I'm sure you've heard this as well, but there's some— I don't know if uproar is probably too strong of a word— there's a bit of discussion in the medical community about why people outside of the diabetic community should even use these. And it's almost that they're against it in some way. Uh, and I just, again, with, you know, only 12% of people being truly metabolically healthy, I would think that any data that we can get on our own bodies that help us improve our habits, that help us, you know, make changes to make us healthier, I cannot understand why somebody would be against that. But, uh, you know, since you're more in-depth in that whole world and conversation, do you— have you gotten any insight into why there's this little bit of pushback about possibly using these? Is it because somebody's actually making a little money off of this now, or what are your thoughts around why they would push back on that?

Yeah, and it is— I don't understand either because, you know, definitely on our end, we've, we've watched the growth of this company and we've worked with so many, seen such significant feedback from them. So we have their testimonials and improvements. And if, if we can help anyone along their health journey, I don't see why that is something that would be negative, right? That's a positive. And of course, sure, if you are diabetic or especially if you're type 1, Um, blood sugar monitoring is a large component of controlling, you know, the disease. Um, but I don't see why taking a preventative look at things is, is not helpful, especially like if we look at someone who's pre-diabetic, for example, like if they go to their doctor and their A1c is higher or it's trending higher and their fasting is trending higher, I've had so many people come to me and they're like, my doctor didn't really say to do anything about it. Um, you know, lifestyle modifications, changing, manipulating the diet a little bit, encouraging exercise. Um, I've seen the A1C drop like significantly and it doesn't take that long. Like you can start trending backwards. Um, you know, I have so many people come in around like 5.6 A1C, which is just about, you know, entering into that, uh, you know, you're in that pre-diabetic diabetic state, but that's that stage where you can actually, you know, reverse it and you can prevent yourself from actually entering into that state where you have to be on consistent medication. So I don't, you know, helping someone in that aspect is so— in it play out like over and over again. So I, you know, I'm— there's all— everyone's always, you know, someone's gonna get upset about something or who knows, there's always something. But, you know, I look at it from the aspect of everyone's different in if our goal and our mission as a company is just to help people gain their greatest health potential. If we can make anyone reach that in any sort of way, then that's a win for us. Um, and I, I personally was, um, you know, I didn't, you know, I wasn't in a diabetic state, but I was someone who was experiencing higher blood sugar levels and I didn't feel good. And I later discovered that I had PCOS, so polycystic ovarian syndrome. And I discovered it through a large reason for finding this out was I started measuring my blood sugar levels. Like, this doesn't make sense that these are out of range. Um, you know, I always thought I was very healthy. I, you know, worked out consistently throughout my life and yada, yada, yada. So it was, that was confusing to me. And, you know, from a doctor's standpoint, if I went and got like my A1C tested or just like my fasting, and I did, they were normal, but my glucose responses and how I responded to specific carbs was not normal. I was having very high responses for someone who was my age and you know, where I'm at and through identifying that small, you know, modifications that made me feel significantly better. So Again, I'm not in a, in a, you know, full-blown diabetic disease state, but there was nuances in my glucose data that I was able to identify, make adjustments to, and now I feel a lot better. So, you know, it's, it's, I think there's always going to be backlash, but there, there's so many people that we can help through, you know, monitoring our blood sugar levels. I think it's a great aspect.

So yeah, that's one of the reasons I really wanted to chat with you guys, because I am a strong proponent, you know, the more that you know about yourself, the more that you're likely to be able to change that, especially if you know there's some reason. And like for you, you said you, you had normal blood sugar levels. If you hadn't gone down this road, you might not have discovered you weren't feeling well because you didn't know you had PCOS, because you certainly don't You know, there is this sort of this phenotype that people think of when they think of PCOS, and to me, you don't really fit that. And so a doctor probably would have never identified it. So I just think it's, it's really interesting to me that there would be any backlash. But then again, you know, we're talking about, you know, some people's livelihoods depend on people staying sick, and so maybe they, maybe they have some vested interest in their own side of the thing.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Definitely. And yeah, I just think you have to be— you have to take the lead in, in your health. And I think individualized metrics such as the continuous glucose monitor, and there's so many other devices out there that are evolving. It's like, again, I think this is the future of health and the person being able to consistently monitor these different variables, you know, within their body and making the decisions based off of, you know, what's going on. Um, and yeah, it's, there's, there's so much to it. And I, I, I, I just love all the wearables because again, just like people are curious about their health and there are so many gaps when you go into your doctor. And like you said, like I was going in and out of the doctor for years and no one could help me figure out you know, what was going on. It took like 2 years to finally get a diagnosis of something that I knew was wrong the whole time, right? Because I didn't— like you were saying, I didn't fit into that category of, you know, what someone with PCOS, you know, might be identified as. So again, it's just frustrating. And anyone who's struggled along, you know, their health journey answers. It's just like the glucose data is, it's, it's not going to, it's not going to solve all of your problems. It's just one small piece of the puzzle that can provide valuable insight. And even if you could, like, that's a win for, for me, right? Like it's, it's, it's hard to perfect anything and our bodies are so, um, You know, they're, they're always changing. So it's just like, we're, we're learning as we go and picking up on trends that we're seeing. And I think, you know, glucose is just kind of the first step in all that.

So yeah, love it. Well, I— so everybody obviously knows now that you work at Nutrisense. If people want to connect with you personally online outside of nutrisense.io, which by the way, I should mention, I mean, this will be in the show notes, but I do because I love this company and because I have used their product before, I do have a discount code for them. So if you're interested in trying it, that'll be in the show notes. It's HNG20 when you go to checkout. Um, but because you're so involved in the health space anyway, and have had your own personal health journey, if people want to connect with you online or have any questions about the service or any of that sort of stuff, where are your best places to find you?

Um, I, you can, our Instagram is Nutrisense.io. So you can look us up, uh, there. My personal Instagram is not— I don't really focus it towards like health, um, but strongly encourage you to follow Nutrisense. Uh, we post a lot of content and, you know, different specific, uh, responses that people have had or just general health tips and recipes. So I think it's a great follow for sure. Um, our our website is nutrisense.io as well. You can look us up and look at the different various programs that we have to offer. Um, again, like the whole way it's set up is if you do sign up for our program and you then— you're then going to be sent a continuous glucose monitor and you can apply it on your arm. And once you apply it, um, then You will, you know, be in contact with your dietitian who will help you along the journey and just help you identify anything that's going on, help explain the glucose data to you and work towards any goals that you are wanting to work on. Um, but yeah, just checking out our website, checking out our Instagram. Um, we have a ton of podcasts and, you know, a lot of content. We have a, we have a blog with, with you know, a lot of great information on there too, about blood sugar and anything that you're interested in. So I strongly encourage everyone to check.

Okay. Well, perfect. Well, thank you so much again for your time and for sharing all of your wonderful expertise. And, um, to everyone out there, we'll see you again on next week's episode. So be sure to go visit and learn more about your blood sugar. So thank you again. It's great.