Help Your Doctor Help You: Managing Glucose Levels After Meals
By Eliza Skoler
By Eliza Skoler
The program aims to educate healthcare professionals on two tools – the Dexcom G6 continuous glucose monitor and Lyumjev mealtime insulin – to help people with diabetes keep glucose levels in-range after eating
Eli Lilly and Dexcom announced a partnership that will help people with diabetes manage their glucose levels after meals. Using a Dexcom G6 continuous glucose monitor (CGM), healthcare professionals will measure a person’s glucose after eating (called postprandial glucose, or PPG). People who have glucose spikes may be able to benefit from Lyumjev, Lilly’s newest rapid-acting mealtime insulin, which can help lower glucose levels more quickly after meals.
The program will use the Dexcom G6 Pro CGM or the full-time Dexcom G6 CGM. The G6 Pro is a “professional” CGM, meaning that a healthcare professional gives it to someone for a ten-day session to better understand that person’s glucose levels. The G6 Pro can be worn in blinded or unblinded modes – the healthcare professional decides whether they’ll download all of the data at the end of the ten-day period (blinded mode) or whether the user can access their glucose levels in real time over the ten days (unblinded mode). Users and clinicians can then review and discuss the data through telehealth appointments. You can learn more about the Dexcom G6 Pro here – if you don’t yet use CGM, ask your healthcare team if you might be able to try a professional CGM.
Lyumjev is a rapid-acting insulin, meaning that it is absorbed quickly in the body and has a fast onset and offset. Compared to Humalog mealtime insulin, Lyumjev reduced hyperglycemia (blood glucose spikes) one hour and two hours after a meal in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Lyumjev can be taken at the beginning of a meal or 20 minutes into eating; however, it is still recommended that people take Lyumjev before the start of the meal whenever possible.
According to Lilly’s Dr. Daniel Pollom, “It’s motivating and empowering for people with diabetes to have real-time CGM data, particularly in monitoring post-meal glucose levels; without CGM, people can’t really know the effect of an evening meal.” CGM is a way for someone to understand whether a rapid-acting mealtime insulin might be right for them – by monitoring glucose data, a healthcare professional can evaluate whether Lyumjev is helpful for that person’s diabetes management. Lyumjev is offered at the same price as Humalog, and is also available for $35 per month for people who are uninsured or have commercial insurance.
Dexcom and Lilly hope that this partnership will allow healthcare professionals to combine diabetes technology with medicine to bring new treatment options to people with diabetes who will benefit. The two companies will create educational resources for healthcare professionals – from online learning to podcasts, and more – to help clinicians feel more confident creating data-based treatment strategies. The goal of this program is to allow healthcare teams to help people make informed decisions about their diabetes management, including considering new mealtime insulin options and measuring and increasing their time in range.
Do you have trouble keeping your glucose levels in-range after eating? If so, share this article with your healthcare team.
