Hello and welcome to the Nutrition Diva Podcast. I'm your host, Monica Reinagle.

One of the big new trends in wellness is people using continuous glucose monitors or

CGMs as a tool for weight loss, athletic performance, or general health optimization, also known as biohacking.

These devices provide a continuous real-time read on your glucose levels,

and they were originally developed to help people with diabetes manage their blood sugar.

In fact, this is still the only purpose for which these medical devices have been approved by the FDA.

CGMs still require a prescription in the United States, but doctors do have the discretion

to prescribe drugs and devices off-label, that means for uses other than their FDA-approved ones. So companies that are now

marketing these devices to the general public generally have an affiliated

MD who supplies the necessary prescription.

So to use them, you insert a short filament.

It's not much wider than a human hair, just under the skin.

They're usually worn on the arm or the torso.

And this sensor then transmits glucose readings to a reader or an

app on your phone. These sensors themselves usually need to be replaced every two weeks.

I recently sat down with Dr. Gabe Smolars. He's a board

certified endocrinologist, also a specialist in obesity medicine, to chat

about CGM's and how they're currently being marketed and used.

You might remember Dr. Smolars from my episode on why weight loss is more difficult for some people

than others. We talked about how pharmaceutical weight loss drugs can play an important role sometimes in their treatment.

Dr. Smolars also serves as a senior medical director for Novo-Nore Disc,

that's a company that produces drugs to treat both diabetes and obesity.

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