Metabolic Health Matters: The evidence for continuous glucose monitoring outside of diabetes

Authors: Jon Paxman, Iseult Roche, Aaron Parkurst, Matt James, Michael Ilsemann

A significant proportion of chronic disease and premature mortality is linked to obesity, which continues to rise in most countries worldwide.

Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), long associated with diabetes care, could play a much wider role in improving metabolic health and preventing chronic disease.

Our analysis finds growing evidence that incorporating CGM within dietary and lifestyle change programmes can help people at risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease—particularly those living with obesity, metabolic syndrome or prediabetes—adopt healthier behaviours.

Near real-time feedback from CGM appears to help individuals better understand the impact of food, physical activity, sleep and stress on their glucose levels, motivating behaviour change more effectively than dietary and lifestyle education alone.

“This technology is giving people insight into how their everyday choices affect their health. The evidence, while mainly derived from short-term studies, suggests CGM has the potential to support meaningful behaviour change not only for people with diabetes, but also for the much larger group of people at risk of developing metabolic disease.”

Dr Iseult Roche, Director, 20/20health