Freestyle Libre personal data analytics

If you or your child are using a 24/7 glucose monitoring system, you know that glucose levels are sometimes hard to control. Insulin use, exercise and different types of meals may lead to unexpected highs and lows, that you want to avoid. Other factors like stress, time of day and hormonal changes, are also notorious for the affecting blood glucose levels. Because there are so many variables that influence your blood glucose, it can be complicated to determine their impact. If you:

• have sometimes trouble controlling your glucose levels,
• want more insight in how your glucose levels are affected by your food, exercise and insulin use,

contact us. We will provide you with a thorough analysis of your personal glucose data and present our findings in a comprehensible report, that you can also use to discuss optimizing your glucose management with your treating physician.

For the standard report, your insulin and carbohydrate profile is calculated based on one month of recordings. Especially for recently diagnosed Libre users, we offer the Honeymoon Package.

What is in the report?

Insulin impact is an important part of your report. The insulin used at meals is also called (fast-acting) bolus insulin. It is also used to lower high glucose in general. Examples include NovoRapid, Humalog, Fiasp, and Apidra.

One of the most urgent questions of insulin users is: how much insulin can I take without getting a hypo? When you use bolus insulin to lower high glucose, you want use the right amount to avoid dangerous glucose dips.

In your report you will find how far and how fast your glucose falls in the hours after using bolus insulin. The average fall is a good rule of thumb to work with, but bolus insulin impact is known to vary in many patients: one unit today may not have the same effect as one unit tomorrow. Not knowing the maximum amount your glucose may fall per unit of bolus insulin can lead to life-threatening situations when the impact is stronger than expected.

One of the key figures in your report is the maximum amount of units your glucose has been lowered per unit of insulin: this is the amount you can safely use when you don’t want to risk a hypo.

How much insulin for how many grams of carbohydrate?

The data you enter into your Freestyle Libre reader are used to calculate how much insulin you need at meals. It is often difficult to calculate this yourself, because of influencing factors such as exercise, time of day, hormone fluctuations, etc. Your report shows how much insulin you need for your meal and how to time it.

Daily cycle

Many diabetics know from experience that they need more bolus insulin for meals in the morning than in the evening, for the same amount of carbohydrates. Your personal stats on the insulin/carbohydates ratios specify the optimal amount of insulin for different parts of the day.

Physical activity
Some forms of exercise lower blood sugar levels, requiring much less bolus insulin than when resting. Other sports are more likely to increase blood sugar. This can have dangerous effects when glucose levels rise or fall much faster than expected during exercise.
The graph below is an example the impact on glucose levels of walking in combination with a meal and bolus insulin. The physical activity analytics will enable you to achieve a better coordination between nutrition, exercise and insulin use.

Summary tables

Medical professionals treating patients with blood sugar problems often ask the patient to bring a three day diary of carbohydrates, insulin and glucose measurements. These tables are included in the monthly report, color-coded to easily identify when glucose control goes very well, and which moments are more challenging. In all reports, the glucose measurements are presented in mmol/l or mg/dl as desired.

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