To lose weight, influencers hijack blood glucose sensors dedicated to diabetics

On TikTok or Instagram, on the beach, at yoga or in the kitchen, more and more of them are promoting it: the glucose sensor allows them to “see their blood sugar in real time” and thus “understand which foods avoid”, assure these young women.

Their idol? Jessie Inchauspé, aka @glucosegoddess (Editor’s note, goddess of glucose) whose best-selling book “Glucose revolution” released last summer advocates controlling the effects of sugar to suffer them less… and lose weight. To better understand her metabolism, this trained biochemist equipped herself with a blood glucose sensor.

The blood glucose sensor, very trendy on TikTok

A device no bigger than a two-euro coin, the result of which can be read simply by passing a smartphone in front of the sensor. “Revolutionary” for diabetics, assures cardiologist Jean-François Thebaut, of the French Diabetic Federation, who recalls that before their arrival on the market in 2017, “we had to inject ourselves to monitor our blood sugar: painful, not discreet. ..”.

Unlike other measuring devices, the sensor also makes it possible to anticipate a crisis of hypo or hyperglycemia. “It has changed the lives of parents of diabetic children”, who until then “had to get up at night to check that their child was not hypoglycemic”adds Mr. Thebaut.

Over-the-counter, the most marketed sensor in France, the Freestyle Libre 2 from the Abbott laboratory, is only reimbursed for diabetics who have several insulin injections per day, but its indication should be extended to other diabetics.

The device immediately interested athletes, many on the networks to share their blood sugar curves, by superimposing them on their running course for example. So much so that Abbott has developed Supersapiens, an over-the-counter sensor dedicated to athletes.

“Very interesting for endurance sports where glycemic factors are important for performance”comments Nicolas Aubineau, sports nutritionist. “But these sensors are a cognitive constraint because it means additional parameters to monitor, for athletes who are already ultra-connected”.

“A ridiculous trend”

American dietitian Christine Byrne wonders about the very usefulness of sensors for non-diabetic people: “Your body is able to restrict blood sugar to a healthy level”. She advocates “balanced meals” rather than permanent blood sugar monitoring, which also depends on “your stress, your activities and your sleep“.

Dr. Aubineau warns: “It’s fatal, as soon as we set benchmarks with standards, we will zap everything that is next to it and focus on it, which can cause eating disorders”.

This is also the opinion of Karine Clément, obesity specialist at Inserm, who fears, in people not accompanied by a doctor, “a risk of over-interpretation or under-interpretation of the results “leading to” changes in eating behavior, for example, inappropriate“.

Bruno Maleine, of the National Order of Pharmacists, wonders about the relevance of “use off-label slimming devices or medications“, especially since this trend has generated “strong tensions on Freestyle“.”We had difficulty placing an order, although it has improved“.

Pharmacists had already noted a “misuse” with Ozempic, an injectable antidiabetic that non-diabetics try to obtain to lose weight. False prescriptions with the two products have also been seized, Professor Jean-Luc Faillie, in charge of pharmacovigilance for Ozempic, told AFP. Unlike Ozempic, blood glucose sensors are available over the counter, especially on the internet. But a false prescription allows you to be unduly reimbursed, and thus save a hundred euros per month…

A “health insurance fraud” that Abbott claims to condemn “without reservation”, and which the ANSM (medicines agency) has seized, indicating to AFP that it was conducting “investigations” on this subject . On Twitter, diabetic Internet users denounce a “ridiculous trend”: “If it was about pricking your fingertip six times a day, would they have done it? Stop creating problems for yourself that you don’t have.”