Libre Users - Has your HbA1C results improved since using it?

[slip]

So if you've been using the Freestyle Libre for some time has there been a significant improvement in your HaA1c?
I'd love to hear stories of people going to their annual Diabetes check-up and the medical staff being astonished with the results and asking whats changed….?!
Basically is the Libre that life changing?

 

[brettsza]

I don't use it but it would be interesting to know what other people think who actually use it.
I don't think it will make an impact on a1c really as it will only show you what your readings are really and they depend on what you eat at the end of the day.
What I would like to know is if the average that libre tells you matches your a1c results at all or not.

 

[slip]

@brettsza I'm assuming if people are using the libre they are more aware of what thier glucose levels are and will quickly deal with any highs/lows and therefore have better control and hopefully better hba1c results, but yes I agree it would be good to see if the libres estimate of hba1c is close to the real thing.

 

[tim2000s]

As someone who's been using it since November, the four things it has done for me are:

1. Identifying issues with Lantus and moving to Levemir with ease.
2. Changing the timing of fast acting insulin shots to match food intake - from just before meals to 30 mins before meals and understanding how the "pizza effect" really works on me.
3. Allowing me to embark on dynamic diabetes management, identifying movement up or down quickly and taking corrective action to avoid very highs or very lows (most of the time).
4. Reducing my Hba1C from 7% to 5.8%. This was in line with the value that the device predicted (it predicted 6% but included a couple of sensors that were regularly high).

@slip, @brettsza I could have achieved the same with any CGM though, that's worth bearing in mind!

 

[slip]

thanks @tim2000s that is most helpful! and yes any CGM would offer the same if not better results - but at a much higher cost.....!

Anyone else care to share their findings?

 

[tim2000s]

thanks @tim2000s that is most helpful! and yes any CGM would offer the same if not better results - but at a much higher cost.....!

Anyone else care to share their findings?

Indeed. If you take a normal dexcom user, who gets two weeks out of a sensor, it would cost £4600-ish as opposed to £1290 from the Libre.

 

[Zebediah]

They say "Knowledge is power" and biofeedback with the libre has proved very powerful for me. I started using Libre in early december last year.....
Initially i tried to correctly dose my insulin for my breakfast porridge so that i didn't spike above 8. I couldn't do it! I tried more & more insulin, altering how far in advance i injected, and reducing the porridge until i decided i gave up. I realised i couldn't eat large amounts of carbs without my BG massively increasing.
When i was using a blood testing meter i would assume my sugars were ok because i often missed the spike. The libre enabled me to see that whatever i did the spike was always there - i just didn't realise. I even massively upped my injections amounts - this worked a bit, but gave me horrendous lows.
The Libre made me think about lowering my carb intake, and i started reading about it. My diabetic nurse was excellent and had planted the seed in my mind about looking up Low Carbing. I used the DietDoctor.com website, and finally realised i needed to change my diet.
Since Christmas i have been eating Low Carb High Fat - guided by the Libre and http://www.dietdoctor.com/ and more recently the excellent Dr Bernsteins "Diabetes Solution".
I have lost 2 stone and have more energy. My HBA1c was 7% and is now 5.4% (April)
The real shocker has come in the last week. see this thread that i recently posted http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/type-1-who-no-longer-needs-to-inject.80048/
I am still not injecting, and to be honest I dont fully understand why i am not needing insulin. Looking forward to seeing the Consultant next month... probably get told off

I firmly believe that any motivated diabetic that tries a Freestyle Libre will end up lowering their carb intake to allow their meds to help them cope better, and achieve lower and more stable blood sugars. I have had virtually no hypos since starting the low carb diet at Christmas.

Limitations of the libre:
its not perfect - some people complain of skin irritation (hasn't affected me)
at £50 per 2 weeks it hurts you in the wallet
Its not always accurate... sometimes it can be 1or 2 points out - needs checking with finger pricking.
A note on accuracy - put the sensor in fat if you can rather than muscle, it seems to be more accurate then.

 

[AndBreathe]

I don't use it but it would be interesting to know what other people think who actually use it.
I don't think it will make an impact on a1c really as it will only show you what your readings are really and they depend on what you eat at the end of the day.
What I would like to know is if the average that libre tells you matches your a1c results at all or not.

Brettsza, I think you would probably be astonished what the Libre actually illustrates, and I think it could have been really useful when you have been carb experimenting. Of course, as well as "peaks and troughs" (that's in "" because I don't really have peaks), you also see an illustration of how fat prolongs the digestive process and thereby softens the curve. And, of course we get crystal clear views of overnight levels and any DP, as the sensor records the levels every c15minutes, whether awake, asleep, active or sedentary. There's no hiding, and no sneaky nibbles. It's all there in the data!

I have learned that milk is a bit more "interesting" for me than I had previously thought, and from today I have given up milk for a week or so, to see if my hypothesis is actually true. I doubt I'll actually forsake milk for good, as my HbA1c is pretty fine, with in included, and also we have fewer food choices when we're in the tropics, so giving up milk might give me some nutritional challenges, as a by-product.

 

[brettsza]

Brettsza, I think you would probably be astonished what the Libre actually illustrates, and I think it could have been really useful when you have been carb experimenting. Of course, as well as "peaks and troughs" (that's in "" because I don't really have peaks), you also see an illustration of how fat prolongs the digestive process and thereby softens the curve. And, of course we get crystal clear views of overnight levels and any DP, as the sensor records the levels every c15minutes, whether awake, asleep, active or sedentary. There's no hiding, and no sneaky nibbles. It's all there in the data!

I have learned that milk is a bit more "interesting" for me than I had previously thought, and from today I have given up milk for a week or so, to see if my hypothesis is actually true. I doubt I'll actually forsake milk for good, as my HbA1c is pretty fine, with in included, and also we have fewer food choices when we're in the tropics, so giving up milk might give me some nutritional challenges, as a by-product.

That's interesting.
As much as I would like to buy it, I find it a bit expensive for me to afford at this point but I definitely plan to buy this as some point of time as my figures what I see on meter (now I use 2 as my dear DN gave me one which was shocking as I am t2 on no meds now) do not really stack up against the a1c i get so I am definitely missing my peaks somewhere.
For this reason I am now doing 30 mins and 1 hour readings more than 2 hour readings as I am normally low 5's after two hours. I know some food peak late but my diet is pretty much same, salad with meat or just meat or eggs or cheese or nuts. When I varied my diet when coming off nd I did do a lot of tests ranging from 30 minutes to 3 hours. But all those tests again did not stack right with my a1c.

But what you say is right, I think CGM helps as it tells you what is really spiking you.

Could you please help me with one thing, I am so sure I saw somewhere you posted a link to a1c machine you bought to test at home, are you still using it and do you find that accurate, and could you please share the link again, I tried a lot to look around on the forum and I think if I am not wrong and mistaken I saw a post that was from you. I am sorry if it was not from you.

 

[AndBreathe]

That's interesting.
As much as I would like to buy it, I find it a bit expensive for me to afford at this point but I definitely plan to buy this as some point of time as my figures what I see on meter (now I use 2 as my dear DN gave me one which was shocking as I am t2 on no meds now) do not really stack up against the a1c i get so I am definitely missing my peaks somewhere.
For this reason I am now doing 30 mins and 1 hour readings more than 2 hour readings as I am normally low 5's after two hours. I know some food peak late but my diet is pretty much same, salad with meat or just meat or eggs or cheese or nuts. When I varied my diet when coming off nd I did do a lot of tests ranging from 30 minutes to 3 hours. But all those tests again did not stack right with my a1c.

But what you say is right, I think CGM helps as it tells you what is really spiking you.

Could you please help me with one thing, I am so sure I saw somewhere you posted a link to a1c machine you bought to test at home, are you still using it and do you find that accurate, and could you please share the link again, I tried a lot to look around on the forum and I think if I am not wrong and mistaken I saw a post that was from you. I am sorry if it was not from you.

The Libre, not only highlights foods that spike you, but tracks you whatever you're doing. For example, this morning, I have had a couple of stressful hours (my life is generally pretty stress-free, so I do appreciate I am extremely fortunate), and the Libre tracked the impact of the stress. I clearly see my liver dumps, and can, without reference to my food records, identify when I have eaten a lot of fat. When I have a lot of fat, I pretty much flat line, until towards bedtime, then it drops away.

Anyway, onto your question. Yes, I have some home testing HbA1c kits. They are just a modified finger prick test, using a different "reader", and from the supplier I use, BHR, offer packs of 10 or 20 tests, here: http://www.bhr.co.uk/professional/product/a1c-now/

These are the cheapest I found when I was looking, and this batch have an expiry date of the end of September 2016, so you do need to be mindful of getting through the tests, if buying in bulk (and not sharing with anyone else). There are other suppliers, and even some offering kits with fewer tests, but those become more expensive, per test, as the reader/meter expires at the same date as the test kit (strip equivalent), so there's nothing to be gained by considering retaining the reader/meter. The reader/meter and kit/strips must be from the same manufacturer batch. This particular supplier doesn't carry massive stocks of these things, so that they retain decent expiry dates, and when I made my last order (I've only ordered twice from them), they had to order them from the US, and stated they'd be with them within 48 hours. Quashing my cynicism, they absolutely were!

Finally on that, the kit/tests need to be refrigerated, and come packed with a freezer pack in the box, so if you are going to have a batch, please ensure someone can receive the box, and store it appropriately, or have it sent to your workplace, if you can refrigerate it. Last time, I just went and picked them up, as the supplier is quite close to me, and quite coincidentally, I was going to be passing anyway.

Sorry if that's too much information, but I realised some of these things along the way.

 

[tim2000s]

The Libre, not only highlights foods that spike you, but tracks you whatever you're doing. For example, this morning, I have had a couple of stressful hours (my life is generally pretty stress-free, so I do appreciate I am extremely fortunate), and the Libre tracked the impact of the stress. I clearly see my liver dumps, and can, without reference to my food records, identify when I have eaten a lot of fat. When I have a lot of fat, I pretty much flat line, until towards bedtime, then it drops away.

This also highlights the benefits of using it when exercising.- you can see when liver dumps happen and how your body responds. It's very useful!

 

[AndBreathe]

This also highlights the benefits of using it when exercising.- you can see when liver dumps happen and how your body responds. It's very useful!

Agreed.

I can also tell when I get dehydrated, but then, I have always been sensitive to my hydration levels, in so many ways.

 

[Indy51]

@brettsza Have you thought of asking for a fructosamine test instead of the A1c? If there is anything unusual about your red blood cells, it can affect the accuracy of the A1c, so the fructosamine test may give you a different picture:

http://chriskresser.com/why-hemoglobin-a1c-is-not-a-reliable-marker/
https://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/fructosamine/tab/test

 

[misswhiplash]

It is the best thing that I have ever purchased and has changed my "diabetes life" immensely. My a1c was down last time it was tested after only a few months of libre-ing and I fully anticipate it being lower again when I get checked in October. Basically - all the things that @tim2000s said - the benefits are huge and I've learned loads about how food/insulin/activity work for me.

 

[mattjmitchell]

I've only had my Libre for four weeks, so it's too early to tell yet. I can say, though, that it's helped me identify things like a dawn phenomenon spike, and the timings relationships between food, insulin and blood glucose. I'm already starting to "flatten out" my blood sugar control a bit, which is nice

I had an HbA1c test when I'd just got the meter, so will look at repeating in a couple of months to find out!

 

[Gary61]

I am at present in the latter stage of a research proramme using a CGM made by a company called Senseonics. I to have found it an invaluable experience for everything that's been mentioned previously. I consider myself a reasonably well controlled diabetic, but using this device has shown me how erratic I am behind the scenes and how on occasion my blood sugars do the most unexplained things which even I can't get my head around. It has also made me aware that I live in two modes of being quite sedentary to extremely active and how differently the change in my metabolism affects the way I control my B.S.'s. I will really miss this device when I finish the study

 

[BeccyB]

My HbA1c dropped by 2% points using the Libre. I'm waiting for the next result. ..

 

[misswhiplash]

New HbA1c last week was 42/6% - definitely an improvement (and on top of a few bad days in the previous week, too). Still room to get better, though - me and my Libre will keep working on it

 

[asyarlk]

I've been using the libre since May. Mainly on my arm but most recently on my stomach. The predicted HBA1C on the libre was almost spot on, whereas my blood meter showed a lot higher. Libre -5.3% and blood 6.2%. My actual score was 5.4%. I was concerned about the accuracy of the libre but now it's come in line with my last hba1c I do not worry so much. I find it very useful when I'm out and about or when I'm out with new company as nobody ever notices it! Also when I can't wash my fingers!

 

[LucySW]

My Libre has certainly improved my blood sugar control, but my HbA1c is out of whack with my mean BG anf with my Libre-predicted A1c. It's always higher than my mean BG would predict.

I take that to mean I'm just a darn ole high glycator.