Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: These diseases are avoidable. And having more information, while I was a little hesitant about it, I am now on board with having more information actually does, even if it's at the subconscious level I've noticed, actually does affect your decision making.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: Up until this point, you've had to have diabetes before you could get this information.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: That's the freedom that it brings if you're willing to take on the information. Monitoring our glucose for health has been quite a hot button item, trending everywhere right now. And today we have got some big news about the glucose monitoring world.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Welcome to the Duster Mud podcast. This is episode number 75. My name is Rich.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: And I'm Shelly.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: I spent 25 years in the United States Air Force, and when it got time to retire, we had gotten to the point in our lives that we were so interested and consumed with good food that we decided we're going to do it ourselves.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: That's right. And we have been doing it ourselves. We raise beef, lamb, pork, chicken, some eggs and milk here on our farm in southwest Missouri. But we're also interested in health at even a deeper level these days.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: And we have been talking about it. And on this podcast, we like to talk about food freedom and farming. And today it's going to be about food and how it affects our bodies and at the cellular level. How can we find out more information?
Well, what you got?
[00:01:46] Speaker B: So, this past spring, we did a podcast. And in the podcast, we were railing against the fact that in the United States, a continuous glucose monitor required a prescription, and in other countries, it does not. So we shared some data from our daughter, who is definitely a United States citizen serving in the United States Air Force, but stationed in England. And she was able to get a continuous glucose monitor for fitness reasons. And we shared some of her data.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: Whenever she did, we were like, wait, you got what?
[00:02:23] Speaker B: How'd you do that?
[00:02:24] Speaker A: How'd you do that? We can't get those. And so she's like, I just ordered it, and then Amazon delivered it. And we were blown away by the fact that she could have one of these things and quite intrigued by all of the whole concept. It really lit us on fire about it.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: Yeah. So the news is, today is Wednesday, the 28 August, 2024. And as of two days ago, Monday, the 26 August, 2024, the first continuous glucose monitor, although they call it wearable glucose biosensor, which is a continuous glucose monitor that is for use for health and fitness reasons only, not for the treatment of diabetes.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: Right.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: So it became available in the United States on Monday. On Monday without a prescription, you can now get it.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: It's called the Stello is the brand.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: S t e l o. Stello is what they have named their biosensor, glucose biosensor.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: It's very similar to the glucose, continuous glucose monitors that you can get with a prescription. If you happen to have diabetes and you have access to that. It is very similar. It uses the exact same technology they built upon that for folks to be able to monitor their glucose levels for health purposes.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: That's right. It pairs with a smartphone, and you're able to, I believe it's every 15 minutes, this sensor sends a message to your smartphone, and you're able to track throughout the day your glucose levels, your blood sugar levels.
Really, one of the big things I want to talk about today is, who cares why that's good. It's a big deal, and we made a big deal about it this past spring, but we didn't really talk about why. I was just upset that it wasn't available to me, but I didn't really talk about why I want.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: I was gonna say, did you even know at the time why you wanted it?
[00:04:29] Speaker B: I thought I did, yeah. But, you know, about a week and a half into a two week trial with my continuous glucose monitor, I think my mindset has shifted a little bit.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: Okay, so for those of you who may have just clicked on this video and don't know, a couple of weeks ago, we did a video and we put on continuous glucose monitors. Rich and I both did.
That was like, one week ago, a week and a half ago, and mine was.
I bumped it on the wall and it broke, so I had to take it off. So we've been watching. We typically eat exactly the same thing, and we have been watching what his blood sugar does when I know that's not accurate, and I have pricked my finger, but we've been watching what his does based on the food that we typically eat. And next week, we'll be revealing some more of that information.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: Yeah. So today really wanted to talk about the importance of glucose monitoring. Why does it matter to someone who doesn't have diabetes or prediabetes? Like, really, who cares?
[00:05:35] Speaker A: Why do I even care?
[00:05:36] Speaker B: You know, up until this point, with the prescription, these things have been running somewhere between two and $300 a month to try to get one for fitness reasons.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: And that's just really expensive, especially in the economy today, to be able to drop 200 and something dollars a month.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Right.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: When you're generally feel like you're generally healthy already, like, what's the point?
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Yeah. So we're honestly, we're gonna dive into that about what, what exactly we think we can gain out of this.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: Right. So they were expensive. What's their price point now?
[00:06:16] Speaker B: So, right now, Dexcom online, you can get a, like, one time use of. For $99, you get 30 days worth of monitoring. That's two sensors. Each sensor is good for 15 days. So for $99, you get a month's worth of monitoring. For $89, you can sign up for a subscription, a monthly subscription. Like, if it's recurring, you can sign up. So you save $10 if you get a subscription. Yeah.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: So $89, it went from 200 something down to 89. That's a huge price cut. And that might have put it a little more into reach for more people. Maybe not everyone still, but for more people may go, it's under $100. I can get some information for a little while and then move on with my life.
[00:07:04] Speaker B: Yeah, but, so that.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: Back to your why?
[00:07:07] Speaker B: Well, you know, the data we used to get, I brought my blood work. We went over that with you as well. On, in January, I brought in my blood work, glucose level 91.
So fasting, right? So, right, it's fasting glucose at the doctor's office. But now, in my mind, my glucose level is 91. Right? I mean, I tested it. That's what it was. It was 94 the year before, 91 this year. So, okay, that's. My glucose is, you know, not somewhere around 90.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: Right. Okay. So why would you want it continuous? What is this going to give us? Let's move on with the. The real why we would even consider why someone should even care with your glucose.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: For one thing, it provides, in our opinion, a window into your metabolic health. So there's. There's no way to really see, obviously, what's happening way down inside your cells.
A glucose monitor really does give you a picture of what's happening inside your body based on what you eat and what you do, what's going on in your daily life. How is that affecting the inside of your body?
[00:08:28] Speaker A: Do you have enough fuel? Is it the right fuel? Is it too much fuel? Is it good fuel? What, what. What we're putting in it and what we're doing with the fuel is just really, it gives you an.
A real look at what's going on in that department.
[00:08:47] Speaker B: Not just for diabetics. No, for everybody. It gives you a look at what's happening in your body. And a lot of times, like, had my fasting glucose been 145, 100, and 5200, 300, whatever. At that point, now it's like, oh, something must be wrong. We need to do something. But for years, it's been changing. If it's that high as a fasting glucose level, it's been changing for a long time. So, like, why would you care if you're not showing as a diabetic yet? Because way back there is when that starts.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: Yeah. It's a slow progression over the years, through life. It doesn't just happen like bacteria.
[00:09:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: It's a slow eking kind of thing.
[00:09:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
So it also, like, the kind of data that you get is basically immediately. So it's not like your annual blood work where mine, you know, 91, 94, whatever it is, like, the feedback that you're getting is real time within 15 minutes.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: Right. So it's going to give you a look into things like, if your blood glucose is running high, you might be coming into some insulin resistance. Right. So if you are coming into insulin resistance, insulin resistance is the.
Your body has had to deal with too much glucose over the years. Because we have a standard american diet, and we eat a lot of carbohydrates to include, you know, sugar, and processed, the ultra processed foods that we typically consume. And so as you can, you bombard your system with the glucose and continuously need insulin. Your cells get kind of tired of it, and they. They just don't let the insulin in anymore. And so now you got insulin running around in your system, and you become insulin resistant. It doesn't work correctly. And then we're eking up on type two diabetes with that.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: That's the end result.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: That would be the end result of. Of that. But if we know what our glucose is doing a little bit sooner, we can avoid the insulin resistance altogether.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: Yep. And type two diabetes isn't the only thing. Cardiovascular disease, metabolic dysfunction, like the insulin resistance, it can lead to other things also.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: And then there. So as we're becoming a little bit more insulin resistant and we continue to bombard our system with things, unaware of what's happening with our blood glucose.
Oxidative stress starts happening.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: Yeah. The oxidative stress is really the bouncing that up, down, up, down, up, down that you get from the standard american diet, where you eat a high glycemic load food, a high glycemic index, however you want to. Like, there's all kinds of debates onto what's the way to measure the. The amount of sugar, basically, that you're putting in your body with the food. Bottom line is, if you're eating a standard american high carbohydrate diet, then your body, the blood sugar is going to go up and most likely it's going to go way up and like over 200.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: Well, if a glass of milk takes.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: You to 240, which it did, you.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: Can you imagine what a glass of milk and a couple of donuts does?
[00:12:33] Speaker B: Probably more than 240.
[00:12:34] Speaker A: I would think so.
[00:12:35] Speaker B: Right. And so then what happens is that spike up and then your body has to immediately give you insulin to bring that blood sugar down. So then you get, you go insulin and then wham, it crashes back down. But typically that crash after an event like that is followed by another spike back up because the, your cells weren't able to uptake all of the blood or all of the sugar out of your blood. And so you end up with this just spike up, spike down, spike up, spike down.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: So we were talking this morning and we were, as we were discussing how our body works and the up, down, up down, up down. The oxidative stress is basic wear and tear on our bodies. And an analogy is the, if you're driving a car, which we all do on the gas pedal, full gas, full brake, full gas, full brake constantly. And every time you rev it up, high rpms drop it down to nothing higher. First of all, that is a horrible car ride. You know, somebody who's gas pedal, brake pedal at the same time. But also that full gas, it's just wearing that engine. Right, and causing it to, well, we know, like probably particulates are happening in there, it's just tearing up the metal inside it, it's heating up the oil to high.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: So the same type of thing happens in our bodies. They call them free radicals, but it's basically just little things that happened as you're doing this spike up and down. And then those particles are things that cause inflammation, they can cause cancer. Like, it's not just, yeah, well, I eat some things and then I, my body deals with it and I need.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: To take a nap and, and it.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: Does, it does deal with it, but there are consequences of that constant up, down, up, down. And it's not just I'm woohoo. And then I'm tired and then woohoo. And then I'm tired. Right. Like, it's more than just the uncomfortable car ride, you're actually messing up the motor.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: So when you've got free radicals running around in your body now, you have created an environment for inflammation, cancer, more metabolic dysfunction, and the cells just don't know what to do with them.
[00:15:11] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:15:13] Speaker A: So we can mitigate these things though.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Well, the. So, so what what are the consequences? This. This is where you end in the chronic diseases.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: So the consequences of this constant up, down, up, down, the constant gas, break, gas, break. The constant free radicals floating around. Now you're into your chronic diseases, your type two diabetes, your heart disease, the metabolic disorders, cancers, Alzheimer's, dementia, all of these different diseases are manifesting themselves the way that their cells can manifest metabolic dysfunction, the way that their cells can manifest inflammation. So your brain cells can manifest this by Alzheimer's and dementia. Your heart cells manifest this by heart disease. Right. Like each of your cells are manifesting that baseline issue way down at the subcellular level. That's happening because this glucose, insulin, glucose, insulin. You're just banging right back and forth and the end result of that is disease.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
And it's largely avoidable.
These diseases are avoidable. And having more information, while I was a little hesitant about it, I am now on board with having more information actually does, even if it's at the subconscious level. I've noticed actually does affect your decision making because we knew when we were eating yogurt and nuts and putting some stevia and cinnamon and it was delicious. I mean, it's good for you. But we knew we were eating. Maybe things just weren't quite. It was making us hungry and we were wanting, we had a few more cravings or wanting a little bit more of it. And we knew that our bodies were responding to something.
And once we saw what was happening on the glucose monitors, it's like, well, all of a sudden you just start making these different decisions.
Well, do I really want that reaction? Well, no, I don't. Now that I know what the reaction is going to be, and it's not a knee jerk reaction, it's kind of subtle. I felt like, no, nevermind, I don't really want to do that at the cellular level. Now that I know what's happening, if I can avoid it, let's avoid it.
There was some other information that we have recently come upon, and we were a little bit mystified by the glucose responses to activities. And they'll often say after a meal, get up and go and exercise, and it can bring, bring it down.
It wasn't making a whole lot of sense because we're watching your glucose levels and they're going up on activity.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: Physical activity.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: Physical activity, like out work the cows, work the pigs. Right. And we're seeing these, these pretty good spikes. And on the monitor it calls it a hyperglycemic response. But you haven't eaten anything. And what's really going on, and how can I control that? And what's really. Well, there's more information at the sub cellular metabolic pathway level.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: Yeah. So the. When you need energy due to physical activity, your body will provide energy by releasing glucose. And then there's a protein called glut four that will allow your muscle cells to intake that glucose without insulin being present. So your muscles are active, your body says, here's some energy, but four says, give it to me. And so your muscle cells can then take in that glucose, so your body fuels it and receives that fuel, all without insulin. So at the end of the day, that was really what I was the most concerned with, the continuous glucose monitor was, what's happening with insulin? This is a way. Because they don't have a continuous insulin monitor, this is a way to sort of know what's going on with your insulin levels. And so when my blood sugar would go up due to activity, I'm like, man, this would tell me that I need to just be a stationary, you know, in order to keep my insulin levels low. I can't even get up and move. Well, it's actually the opposite of that, right? Like, by getting up and moving, you're activating your muscles. It activates this glut four response, and the muscles are able to take glucose into the cells without the use of or without the introduction of insulin. And it's like, oh, man, now that makes sense. I got it now. Yeah. So now when I see on my continuous glucose monitor activity, like, we were moving a calf this morning, and, man, my. My blood sugar went up to, like, 160 or something, and it's like, fast. It fasted. Yeah, I hadn't eaten yet. Fasted. And I'm like, yeah, dude, I needed some energy.
[00:20:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:38] Speaker B: And then you watch it, and it just slowly goes back down as. As my body is absorbed, absorbing it into the muscles. It did not do this. Wham.
Which is what you get when you have an insulin, you know, a shot of insulin. So my body fueled, and then it slowly worked its way right back down.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: Which is so cool.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: Really cool.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: Like, that's really cool.
Learning that took us from this.
What is happening to. Oh, I get it. And number one, I need more activity. Sure. Number two, I appreciate what my body is doing, and maybe I need more information.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: You know, as far as, like, monitoring is concerned.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: Well, yeah, you know, maybe, yeah.
Some people, I think, might be hesitant I was to even put it on. Like, I don't want to know.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: Because, well, inherently, a lot of us do know that the bagel isn't probably good for us.
I don't really want to know what it's doing.
I don't really want to know what the scales say.
I don't want to face the reality of what the american diet is really doing.
But we don't know what they're putting in our food. We don't know what the american diet is really doing. This is the first glimpse in the past few years that the citizens, a human being, can just take a continuous glimpse into what we're eating, what we're really, what are we really doing before we get sick? Yeah, right.
[00:22:32] Speaker B: Like, up until this point, you've had to have diabetes before you could get this information.
[00:22:39] Speaker A: That's the freedom that it brings. If you're willing to take on the information, if you're willing to say, let's look at it, if you're willing to say, you know what, I'm willing to put the thing on and eat my normal, my normal diet and just see what happens, and it may open our eyes and reveal to us what's really going on. And we may be able to prevent a, you know, 14 different medications that most Americans are on and 27 different specialists that Americans see annually.
We might be able to curb that with a little bit of information about what's going on in our own bodies.
That's big. That's a big deal.
[00:23:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:38] Speaker A: And while he has been wearing one for a week and a half, and I've done some blood pricks and wore one for about five days, it's. I am to the point where I would encourage a person, if the finances allow it, and you're not eligible through your insurance, because you don't. You're not, you don't have type two diabetes, if you can, at all.
[00:24:03] Speaker B: The health savings accounts, there's some info on the Dexcom website. So Dexcom G seven, or Dexcom Stello they call it, is the one that's available right now, the freestyle libre. There's a couple of those that should be coming available soon, but through the Dexcom website, there's info in there that talks about the health savings accounts, the hsas, and something else. Like, if you're in those types of things, there may be a way to use that money in order to pay for it.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: So things are changing. Yeah, and they're changing for the better department.
[00:24:41] Speaker B: For me, $100 to get a month's worth of data is, man, that's good. If you could save up and spend $100 and have an entire month's worth of data. What that would allow you to do is you get a week, week and a half baseline, and then from there, just eat. Just do life like normal. And then from there, it gives you two and a half to three weeks to adjust things and say, if I eat the salad first or if I eat a fatty meal before I have my raw milk, can things change based on the order that I eat them?
Spoiler alert. The answer is yes. Your blood sugar, like, your body's reaction to what you eat, changes based on the order in which you eat the foods. So, not just the food, but the order in which you eat it. Can I control a spike from a meal by getting up and walking? The answer is yes. How much do you have to walk for your body to control your. Right. So, like, for $100, you can get one month's worth, an entire month's worth of data. You know, $89. Now you're in a subscription, and you just have this data available to you? Always. We're not affiliated with these guys.
I could care less about the company other than I think it's really cool that we now have this information available. And having done it for a couple of weeks now, I say, well, well worth the money that we put into it just to have the data.
[00:26:28] Speaker A: Absolutely. And I think since I didn't get to do the whole thing, I'll be getting one.
I'm just telling you, I'm pretty sure that I'm. That I'm there. I'm excited about that.
[00:26:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
So, I. I don't know. I think great news.
[00:26:47] Speaker A: Why?
[00:26:47] Speaker B: I get it, man. You get a whole lot of data, and with that data, you can make decisions that really do matter for your health, for your life.
You are able to see what's going on inside your body in a way that you have never been able to do before. Even the difference between the data that I have with the CGM and the data that you are getting by pricking your finger, there is a significant difference in those two things, because if you miss a spike, you don't see how high it went. Like, if you're not testing at exactly the moment and how long, you don't.
[00:27:28] Speaker A: Know how, when's the exact moment, right.
[00:27:30] Speaker B: When is that moment? How low does it go? Because typically, following a spike, there's a big dip.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:36] Speaker B: And we don't know. Right?
[00:27:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:38] Speaker B: So, like, the data available really, really.
[00:27:41] Speaker A: Is good data, and it really does change your. Your. How you think about it and your. Your cognition over the subject, because we're eating, and he goes, wow. I really had a spike with my, you know, raw milk or whatever it was. And I'm like, gosh, I didn't.
I'm not wearing a continuous glucose monitor. Mine didn't spike, y'all.
[00:28:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:07] Speaker A: I don't know. So there's that, too, you know, so I think that no knowing how my brain went from all of the information and making different decisions and kind of dialing in my life to taking it off and, you know, like, out of sight, out of mind kind of thing, the awareness really can impact our health.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: I think end of the day is a good thing. We railed against it in the spring, and we're happy to talk about it now in August and say, really, really good thing.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: If you're new to this space and you're wondering why we're talking about this, we've recently been very inspired by a book called Good energy by Casey and Callie Means. And please put a link or something to that book again in the description because that book, I think, is really having a lot of impact on the world, honestly.
[00:29:14] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:29:15] Speaker B: And glucose revolution by Jesse in shops.
[00:29:19] Speaker A: Yes. This one is another really good one because we've got choices to make. We're all really, really sick, and we can change it.
[00:29:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:28] Speaker A: And we're getting the tools to do so.
[00:29:29] Speaker B: Right.
[00:29:30] Speaker A: Thank you guys for hanging out with us again today. Next video is going to be on Sunday, and that's going to be us finalizing our little continuous glucose monitor experiment.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: You know, out brief debrief however you want to look at it. Fighter pilot debrief. And we'll. We'll chat with you about.
[00:29:51] Speaker A: About that. Give you some of our overall thoughts, maybe some of our daily habits and what we typically eat and what we saw during that. We'll compile all of that of information and give that to you guys on Sunday.
Okay? Until next time. Bye.
