today's video is about understanding the differences and similarities between the freestyle
library 14 day and freestyle libra 2 cgm systems that is a common question that i get all the time
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now how do they really work that's another question i get a lot right well it is basically
a reader it reads it's a sensor it's census right so we call them a freestyle library cgm system
simple now the little sensor that goes right at the back of your upper arm and it detects
the glucose levels not in your blood it detects it in something called institutional fluid which
is a fluid found between your cells immediately under your skin so there's nothing deep going
there nothing too invasive you just have to simply scan the sensor with the freestyle reader or your
smartphone if your smartphone works with libre which we'll talk about in a second now without
the need for frequent finger sticks that is the beauty of the freestyle brace sensor systems
and because it does it for you continuously however however you still need to think that and
they're not perfect you still have to sometimes use finger sticks to make certain decisions if it
says to you check your blood sugar on that reader follow that make sure you check your blood sugar
because it may not be always accurate especially if your symptoms do not match the readings or when
you suspect the readings are not accurate for one or the other reason or if you feel like hey
you feel really high but your meter doesn't say so or if you feel too low but your meter doesn't
say so you need to check your blood sugar okay now before we talk about differences let's talk about
the similarities between the freestyle library 14 day and freestyle library 2. now they have a lot
of things in common because they are made by the same manufacturer now that makes sense right now
following a list of characteristics are basically they're both continuous glucose monitoring systems
right you know there will be no calibration no finger sticks required in most cases
uh glucose levels are checked by the minute up to 1440 times every day you know that's basically the
most you can get in any cgm the sensors are fairly thin and small and each one is around basically
a quarter size so they're not too big and when compared to other brands they actually have the
thinnest sensors in the market right now now the sensors low profile keeps them from interfering
with your daily activities but i still see some patients knocking them off from with the towel or
by the doors or whatever it happens now sensors can be used up to 14 days for both
and if it doesn't last you 14 days you just have to call the company and say mine to the last send
the sensors back and they'll send you a new one okay they are fairly accurate but having said
that you need to remember this fact they will not always match your fingers to glucose readings that
is a totally different thing so that's not apples apples that is because the cgm's actually measure
the sugar in your intestinal fluid instead of your blood this means that the readings may be up to
20 minutes behind and they could be inaccurate if you have just eaten for example or just exercised
and your blood sugars are rapidly changing tissue levels will be significantly behind than the blood
levels so you just have to keep that in mind now cgms are still super cool and valuable
tool for monitoring the trends like where you're going right so it may be 100 right now but are
you going to be 115 in 30 minutes or are you going to be 15 30 minutes it helps with making decisions
for your diabetes management although it may not be that accurate you know when it comes to telling
you what your blood sugars will be now sensors as we said they're typically on the upper back some
people use different body parts but they're more accurate on the back of the arm they're fairly
resistant to the water so some people do swimming you know of course in the shower and exercise
they're fairly resistant and some people actually will use extra adhesive either on top of their
sensor or sometimes they will use it on their skin first and then apply the sensor and then they will
apply another adhesive yes you can keep it there if you want to keep it there now i know it's
frustrating when they fall off and you lose them it's like losing money but like i said there are
these things you can do they're available online you can just buy freestyle libra adhesives or
whatever there's something called tegaderm there's so many adhesives out there that you can use there
are some of them are medical grade and so forth yes you can keep your sensor in place so that's
not an excuse to not to use them another thing you need to remember that the glucose changes
are represented by trend arrows which can be used to avoid low and high blood sugars now direction
of the arrows are very important because they show you how quickly your glucose is actually changing
the trend arrows can be a super helpful way to avoid the low blood sugar and high blood sugar
as we just discussed now if you see that your glucose is trending downwards for example right
you can take steps like half an hour before it actually goes low so that is an advantage for you
now similarly if you see like you ate a pizza or something and your blood sugar is already 200 if
the arrows are all showing up you know that you're gonna be 300 before you know it so you better do
something either take a medicine or run or do something just to get the numbers down right it
will keep you informed and showing your trends is the most important thing with these monitors and
it helps a lot of people to keep their blood sugar in a healthy range now if you want to know more
about how to deal with it you know you can watch my other video that i talk about it in detail or
you can actually go to the manual and then figure it out yourself as well let's talk about the
differences between the libra 2 and the 14 days that's the reason for the video but i want to give
you a information ahead of time for you to prepare for this now for the time being freestyle library
14 and freestyle libra too unfortunately they do not work with insulin pumps so if you're looking
for an insulin pump integration yeah freestyle libre 14 or freestyle libra 2 is not going to be
your best friend at least for now they're coming up with a freestyle libra 3 that may be an option
right now they're working with omnipot as far as i know but libra 2 is a little different than
free celebrate 14 when it comes to alarms libra 2 has the alarms and 14 day does not have that
you don't have to scan it you know to get the alarm this alarm is optional though
some people will be like not happy about the alarms because they wake up in the middle of the
night and so forth but you can adjust the alarms when to get the alarms and you get the alarms or
not you can turn it off turn it on whatever you want to do with the alarms that is only available
in freestyle library 2 and it's not available in freestyle library 14 day which is the older system
now another thing that you need to know freestyle libra system has a higher level of accuracy over a
14-day period although some patients may not agree with that but that's what the company says now
freestyle libre can only be the regular one the 14 day is only indicated for adults 18 and over
but frieza libra 2 is also suitable for children age 4 and up now freestyle libra 2 had done
a study and they were able to show that they had one third fewer alarms than the competitor
brand in children now they also have something called libre link app which allows the users to
scan their sensor with their smartphone and is not necessarily available for every freestyle libra 2
user because some android phones and stuff like that some some people's phones may not necessarily
work with freestyle library too so if you really want to use your phone with your freestyle library
make sure you check on their website if your phone is one of those that will be able to use the
sensor you can use your phone as a reader you need to check that before you jump onto that now if
you don't have a smartphone or your phone is that old phone that's not going to work with freestyle
library 2 then you may want to go for freestyle libra 14 day if your phone is a smartphone but
it's not compatible then you may want to go for freestyle libre 14 day if you really want to use
your cell phone for that purpose well that's all pretty much for the differences between freestyle
library 14 day and freestyle libra 2 remember to subscribe to the channel and remember to subscribe
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