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smart watch blood metre

S

scott chegg

Newbie
Messages
1
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
hi any one bought one of those smart watch blood metres about £35 seen on tiktok any good ? accurate?
so before i splash the cash any thoughts?
 
Previous discussions have suggested that you'd be as well just burning your cash.
 
My feeling is that if the likes of Apple and Samsung haven’t perfected the tech yet then none of these cheap versions will be of any use
 
KennyA said:
There have been at least two other people recently asking the same question as you. Same answer - con.
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I did look for some 30 minutes before posting but couldn't see anything specific I saw a lot of threads about Dexcom and the like,
 
Stupot1962 said:
I did look for some 30 minutes before posting but couldn't see anything specific I saw a lot of threads about Dexcom and the like,
Click to expand...
There are many vendors offering a similar watch for £18 or less, so do not pay £35. you can get a toy watch for less. And they are toys - the blurb I have seen shows the target audience as being children.

The technology either measures skin colour or sweat and purports to measure glucose levels. This technology has not yet been successful, and one poster on the forum found tht the results from their wqtch was 50% out compared to a fingerprick test. You will note thst the sales spiel for these watches make no claims for accuracy or refer to any standards such as the ISO that genuine glucometers need to meet. I also doubt if they are CE marked, which is why they are being sold in post Brexit Britain.
 
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scott chegg said:
hi any one bought one of those smart watch blood metres about £35 seen on tiktok any good ? accurate?
so before i splash the cash any thoughts?
Click to expand...
I assume you mean blood pressure? There are machines that use a light to measure (ie no pressure cuff) and they are universally rubbish. There is a Huawei watch that uses a cuff but the results aren't particularly accurate either. Just buy a decent cuff - I like the Omron BT Evolv - sends the results straight to your smartphone app.
 
Oldvatr said:
There are many vendors offering a similar watch for £18 or less, so do not pay £35. you can get a toy watch for less. And they are toys - the blurb I have seen shows the target audience as being children.

The technology either measures skin colour or sweat and purports to measure glucose levels. This technology has not yet been successful, and one poster on the forum found tht the results from their wqtch was 50% out compared to a fingerprick test. You will note thst the sales spiel for these watches make no claims for accuracy or refer to any standards such as the ISO that genuine glocometers need to meet. I also doubt if they are CE marked, which is why they are being sold in post Brexit Britain.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your thoughts and opinions, I thought I would ask those with more experience than myself. My personal situation is that whilst diagnosed as T2 a few years back all the Hb1ac came back as normal and there were only occasional spikes which saw me being classed at T2 and put on various medications by my GP.
However 7 weeks ago I was involved in a major Road Traffic Accident which according to the police from dashcam footage saw me slowly drift across a single carriageway trunk road across and have a head on collision with another car both us doing 50mph, this necessitated both myself and the driver of the other car to be air lifted to Major Trauma centres in Birmingham with life threatening injuries, my own being 12 broken ribs, punctured lung, broken collarbone, broken wrist and smashed my femur in 22 pieces.
The police opinion being I had some sort of medical incident. On the morning of the accident around an hour before my glucose reading was 4.7 so this was thought to be a significant reason as the Diabetic nurse brought me a leaflet saying that if below 5.0 I should not be driving, this was the first time I had ever been told about this figure.
Given the incident, I am keen to find a way to monitor my blood sugars more regularly and though I won't be driving for at least a year whilst I recover I would like to think there is a way I would have an early warning of a sugar low, especially given I was only diagnosed as T2 because I had some readings of between 8 and 10, whilst in Hospital they were regularly monitoring my sugar levels and whilst there I did have some quite dramatic swings from as low as 3.9 upto 17.5 but apparently after a major trauma this is deemed normal. But now I am home I am keen to find some way of regular monitoring hence my interest in these devices but as it seems they are so unreliable especially given the detailed info from Oldvatr I will for now just keep on with the Finger prick testing which obviously only gives me a reading at the moment in time until such time as the techies come up with something more proven and reliable.
 
There are Continuous Glucose Monitors available that will do what you are wanting with reasonable acccuracy (not quite as good as the fingerprick) and they provide graphic display and low level warnings. The Abbot Libre meter is quite popular on this site, but these meters are not cheap to run. They are also not very accurate for sub 5.0 readings so again the fingerprick and DVLA match the closest. I do not think a court of law would be impressed by the smartwatch.
 
Hi @Stupot1962
Some information for you:
1. Hypos - which is what you seem to have experienced are very unusual in Type 2 diabetics unless they ar taking medication such as Insulin or Gliclazide.
2. Most people have 'hypo awareness' and so can tell when their BG is getting too low (some even get false hypos after returning to normal levels after running high for a long time.
3. There's a handy saying about 4 being the Floor but needing 5 to drive. The point being that a hypo whilst driving is extra dangerous so T1 diabetics need a cushion because their BG is driven down by their longer acting Insulin.

In general T2's (and non-diabetics can regularly go below 4 but only for a short time because their liver detects this and starts pumping out glucose into the blood stream. It may be (theoretically possible that your Metformin is inhibiting this natural response from your liver in such low BG situation.

In your position I would talk to my GP about which type of Diabetes you actually have and the best medication(s) for you, or whether intensive lifestyle changes would be better.
 
If you read the small print for these smart watches which test blood sugars (yes @goozer321 there are some which suggest they report BG), they will say somewhere "no suitable for medical use" or something similar.
The reviews seems to indicate they are of limited use or people with diabetes. By limited use, I mean they tell the time.

Your profile says that you treat your type 2 diabetes with oral medication and you mentioned that you tested your blood sugars. Do you take something like Glycazide (sp?)? This can cause hypos which may be why you have a blood glucose meter.
Unfortunately, people with type 2 are rarely prescribed CGMs like Libre but given your recent experience, it may be worth asking your DSN if you can get them on prescription. They do require a phone (or separate reader) but the readings are accepted by the DVLA (with caveats).
 
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