40 posts
One fasting glucose of 100 sits at the edge of a threshold that was drawn by committee, and a single draw carries more measurement noise than most people expect. Here is how to read the number, what to measure next, and how to analyze the data yourself.
Why fasting glucose is often the first value to drift upward, how to tell a real dawn rise from a sensor artifact, and how to analyze your own overnight CGM traces.
A technical answer to what biomarker testing at home can and cannot deliver: which analytes survive a mail-in kit, what dried blood spots and point-of-care sensors are good for, and how to build a longitudinal series you can analyze yourself.
How to read a non-fasting (random) plasma glucose number, which pre-analytical and physiological factors move it, and what to measure next if you want a real answer about glucose handling.
A high fasting glucose usually reflects overnight hepatic glucose output and the pre-waking hormone surge. How to check it in your own CGM export.
The thresholds that define a high glucose value, why a CGM reading and a lab draw disagree, and how to analyze your own glucose export instead of reacting to single numbers.
Current out-of-pocket prices for continuous glucose monitors, the cost per day of usable data, and what the data looks like when you export it yourself.
A fasting glucose of 86 mg/dL sits in the middle of the normal range and is not low. The more useful question is how much your fasting glucose moves from day to day, which one draw cannot answer.
A technical guide to prescription-free continuous glucose monitors in the US — Stelo, Lingo, Libre Rio — with real accuracy numbers, cost per month, interference modes, and how to get the raw data out.
Fasting glucose above post-meal glucose is a common and mostly explainable pattern: overnight hepatic glucose output, dawn hormones, sensor and meter measurement error, and meal composition. Here is how to tell them apart with CGM data and lab numbers.
85 mg/dL fasting sits comfortably inside the normal range. The more useful question is how much your own fasting glucose varies day to day, which a single venous draw cannot answer and CGM can.
A fasting glucose of 93 mg/dL sits comfortably in the normal range. The more useful question is what the rest of your glucose curve looks like, and how to measure it yourself.
A practical guide to continuous glucose monitoring for prediabetes: which device to use, how long to wear it, and which metrics to compute.
89 mg/dL is a normal glucose value, but a single number carries less information than most people assume. Here is how to read it given measurement error, and what to compute from a CGM trace instead.
6 mmol/L is 108 mg/dL, and an A1C of 6.0% is a different number entirely. Here is how to tell which one you have, why a single reading carries little information, and how to get a real answer from CGM and lab data.
A fasting glucose of 99 mg/dL is one number from one morning. Here is how to compute your own morning baseline from CGM data, what the dispersion means, and where the measurement itself is the limiting factor.
A functional biomarker measures how well a system is working — a ratio, a rate, or a response to a challenge — rather than a single resting concentration. Here is how to build them from CGM, blood panels, proteomics, and RNA-seq, and where they break.
What fasting, post-meal, and 24-hour continuous glucose numbers look like in people without diabetes, what the reference data say, and how to analyze your own CGM export.
What CGM error looks like in the data: interstitial lag, compression artifacts, sensor-to-sensor bias, and a protocol for measuring your own sensor's accuracy against fingersticks using the raw exports.
What a CGM measures, which over-the-counter sensor to buy and how to export the raw data as CSV. Covers the metrics and failure modes that matter.
What post-meal glucose looks like in people without diabetes, where the 140 and 180 mg/dL thresholds come from, and a protocol for extracting real numbers from your own CGM export.
A working setup for longitudinal biomarker tracking. Covers a schema that survives lab changes, reference change values and trend fitting.
A1c and glucose disagree when either your glucose sampling is unrepresentative or your red cell biology and hemoglobin assay distort the glycation measurement. Here is how to separate the two with CGM data, a CBC, an assay method check, and a look at your genome.
A practical guide to wearing a continuous glucose monitor around training: sensor placement, interstitial lag, exporting raw CSV data, the metrics worth computing, and the artifacts that will fool you.
Standard continuous glucose monitors measure glucose only. Abbott's Libre Duo 10 Day adds a beta-hydroxybutyrate electrode on the same filament. Here is what each sensor measures, what the data looks like, and how to analyze it.
A continuous glucose monitor measures how you eat. It does not cause fat loss. What the data supports, and how to run your own meal experiments.
A practical account of continuous glucose monitor insertion, comfort, accuracy limits, and how to work with the exported data if you are not diabetic and want a metabolic baseline.
Overnight glucose normally falls to its lowest point of the day a few hours after sleep onset. This page explains what a normal nocturnal curve looks like, how to analyze your own CGM data for real low events, and how to recognize the compression artifacts that mimic them.
Why a post-meal glucose reading in the 80s is usually a healthy result, why you can feel shaky at that number anyway, and how to tell a real reading from sensor noise using your own CGM and lab data.
A practical guide to wearing a CGM without diabetes. Covers which sensors to buy, how accurate they are and what a normal glucose curve looks like.
What a post-meal glucose of 83, 87, or 94 mg/dL means, why the timing of the reading matters more than the number, and how to measure your own postprandial response properly with CGM and blood work.
A fasting glucose of 106 mg/dL places you just inside the prediabetes range by ADA criteria, but a single number carries more measurement noise than most people assume. Here is how to interpret it, what to measure next, and how to read your own CGM data.
What continuous glucose monitoring shows about post-meal glucose in people without diabetes: typical peak height, time to peak, return to baseline, and how to measure your own response properly rather than reacting to one alarming number.
A practical guide to choosing a continuous glucose monitor as a non-diabetic athlete, getting the raw data out, and analyzing it without over-reading sensor noise.
A working method for turning a raw Libre or Dexcom export into an ambulatory glucose profile, per-meal response curves, and metrics you can defend — including what the numbers can and cannot tell you.
What the post-meal glucose numbers are for people without diabetes, where the thresholds come from, and how to compute peak, time-to-peak, and incremental AUC from your own CGM export.
In the US, FreeStyle Libre 2 and 3 still require a prescription; Libre Rio, Dexcom Stelo, and Abbott Lingo do not. What each one costs, how they differ, and how to get the raw glucose data out.
A postprandial reading of 97 mg/dL is a normal, unremarkable value in a person without diabetes. Here is what the number tells you, what it does not, and how to read postprandial glucose properly from CGM or fingerstick data.
A CGM measures the output of your glucose system. It does not measure the input. What a sensor can and cannot tell you about insulin sensitivity.
Over-the-counter continuous glucose monitors are now sold directly to adults in the US. Which one to buy, what their accuracy numbers mean, how to export the data, and what to compute once you have it.