The flash glucose monitoring system: and Gut bacteria helping regulate Blood Sugar?
Sources:dvm360, NIH
Though diabetes is common in canine and feline medicine, its management is often complicated. It requires veterinarians and pet owners to coordinate their efforts to provide diabetic care both in the hospital and the patient’s home.
The mainstay of treatment for feline and canine diabetes is insulin alongside dietary modification. The veterinarian usually performs in-hospital blood glucose curves to initiate insulin, and repeats them:
after the first dose of a new kind of insulin
at 7 to 14 days after an insulin dose change
at least every 3 months in a well-controlled animal with diabetes
This can burden both the owner and the animal with frequent veterinary visits, the cost associated with each visit, and costs and stress related to hospitalizing the pet for 10-12 hours each time. Cats (more often than dogs) may develop stress hyperglycemia in the hospital setting.
At-home portable blood glucose meters can alleviate some of this burden but come with their own challenges. Needing more than 1 puncture to obtain a blood drop, not obtaining sufficient blood volume from the puncture, needing assistance in restraining the pet, and the pet’s resistance to obtaining the blood sample are all common issues.
Continuous glucose monitoring systems (CGMS) differ from portable blood glucose meters in that they use a sensor applied to the surface of the body to measure interstitial glucose concentration.
However, capillary blood samples are still required to calibrate the device. The newest advancement in at-home blood glucose monitoring is the flash glucose monitoring system (FGMS), which similarly measures interstitial glucose levels through a sensor on the skin and can be worn for up to 14 days.
The most widely used device is the Freestyle Libre, which provides glucose levels every minute directly to the monitor or to a smart phone. These systems do not require capillary blood glucose samples for calibration.
Overall, FGMS show promising use in the at-home management and overall care of diabetic veterinary patients.
Probiotics and Diabetes
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6949658/
This review study came to this very interesting conclusion...
Several meta-analysis studies on results of clinical trials suggested that probiotic supplementation reduced the FPG, lipid profile, blood pressure, and other cardiovascular risk factors in T2D (Type 2 Diabetes) patients. The probiotic supplements effectively controlled the glycemic and inflammatory status of GDM (Pregnancy Induced Diabetes) patients.
Two of the most studied probiotic strains for Diabetes were Lactobacillus Acidophilus, and Bifidobacterium, along with several other strains being studied.
As far as doses, ensure a minimum of 100million CFU's per 10lbs daily.
Also ensure that it includes a prebiotic ( ie nutrients that support growth of these good bacteria!)
