LIVING
T
here's simply no end to
what you can measure
about yourself these
days. From your height,
your weight to your
percentage body fat, BMI, heart rate,
blood glucose, waist to hip measurement
and blood pressure. In many ways
diabetes is an unusual health condition
as so much to do with diabetes control is
quantified numerically. Depending on your
aptitude for maths, this is either a bore,
a chore or a distinct challenge. You can
even quantify the time you spend doing
it (doing blood tests, counting carbs,
doing exercise, handing high or low blood
sugars).
Alone amongst long-term medical
conditions people with diabetes have an
array of tools with which to measure and
deliver our own control. From blood test
meters and CGM sensors (to measure
blood glucose) to and insulin pumps and
pens (to deliver medication). With many
of the tools it is now also possible to
download the data collected. With the
two streams - diagnosis (blood testing)
and delivery (medication) - diabetics have
plenty of data and therefore a greater
opportunity for analysis of your data than
virtually any other health condition.
Knowledge is power
Quantified Self is a website run and
visited by people who are interested in
tracking things and analysing them. You
might ask yourself, do I really want all
this knowledge? Many people who visit
the Quantified Self website do so out of
choice, but as diabetics, would we be
interested in quantifying ourselves if we
didn't have to do it anyway? Even the
fact that we can do it does not necessarily
mean that we want to. We may blood test,
but do we download data to analyse?
Still, the trend of self-tracking is
definitely on the up, and as a community
we're in great shape to make the most
of all our lovely self-monitoring diabetes
data.
American Kevin Kelly, founding
executive editor of Wired magazine, and
who also hosts his local Quantified Self
meet ups in the California Bay area, was
an early commentator on all the kinds of
things that people monitor now. Usually
these are sports-based and food-based,
they were also often diet-related but are
now increasingly health-related.
These days, thanks to the dawn of
the Smartphone phenomenon, many
apps and trackers are being used for
weight management. When it comes
to weight-loss, you're more likely to be
doing this on your own, out of choice,
than as part of any medical intervention.
There are still simple approaches that
can be used. You can go down a very
un-technological route, one based purely
on volume alone, that of fist-size volume -
where you never eat more than a fist full of
food, or no portion larger than the size of
your clenched fist. Though that may seem
unscientific, it's still a form of quantifying
what you're doing.
Making moves
Ultimately, the Quantified Self is all about
measurements, but it can also be used
to track effectiveness and identify bestpractice techniques
(what's working well
for most people in the same boat). You
can log anything - how stressed you feel
you are, or how long each day you spend
sitting down. Taking it further, you can now
get to know yourself on a genetic level, if
you wish to. A very real way to meet the
ancestors is to sign up to something like
X23 and me, a site which suggest that
the more you know about your DNA, the
more you know about yourself.
A simple pedometer can track how
many paces you take in a day, a statistic
from which you can assess if you need
to move more. Other examples are Fitbit
and Jawbone work similarly. Several apps
just use your smartphone to track your
whereabouts and behaviours. Moves is
an app available from Apple's iTunes store
which tracks if you are moving enough
just by your carrying your phone in your
pocket or bag. It can even tell if you are
at the gym (though not if you're using
any of the equipment unless it's still in
your pocket or worn about your person.
Doubtless the Apple Watch will give such
data, if requested to do so by it's wearer,
as that should stay in place on your wrist
no matter where you are.
Withings is a company that has a
smart-looking watch that doubles as a
movement analyser. The company has
blood pressure monitors as well, and
also wi-fi enabled smart body analyser
scales. These can log data via your home
wi-fi so you can actually visualise various
health-related information (like heart rate
or percentage body fat) over a year so you
track and assess variations.