Abbott Lingo Continuous Glucose Monitor Review: Easy and Clear

To apply the lingo, you unwrap it and place the carton in the dispenser. Clicking the dispenser on your arm, which sends filaments under your skin, stings only vaguely. It feels like flicking a finger. it is the way Less painful than pricking your finger with one the needle up to you bleeding Several times a day, and I was an idiot and should have done it earlier.

The sensor itself is fine. I don’t notice it most of the time, unless I change my clothes a lot and abandon, in which case I have to be careful. You can choose where to place the sensor; Most people choose their non-dominant arm. It’s water-resistant, so you can swim and shower with it and you won’t have to charge it.

Once my sensor was on, I opened the Lingo app, registered, and waved my phone next to it. Done! I was ready to start monitoring.

Sugar rush

If you’ve never monitored your blood glucose continuously, you’re probably in for a few surprises. Eating in a way that makes sense to a glucose monitor doesn’t always mean healthy, purposeful eating. For example, consider a typical lunch for me, which is homemade pureed carrot soup and whole wheat bread. Because carrots and bread are carbohydrates, it spikes my blood sugar to alarming levels. An ultra-processed protein peanut butter bar, however, barely moves my blood sugar, although one is not better than the other if you’re healthy.

If you lower your carb intake, you’ll reach ketosisWhen your body starts burning your body fat instead of your readily available blood glucose for energy, it’s because you have none. It’s different, and less dangerous, than having ketosis as a complication of diabetes, but I still hate it.

I launched Lingo during CES, where I made an alarming discovery—I was walking too much for the amount of food I was eating, and I was becoming hypoglycemic at night. I thought my sleep disturbances were just due to work, stress and being away from my family, but no, I was completely out.