alt Hacker NewsThe difference is that these only measure blood sugar, while the new system also measures ketones, of keto diet fame, which are leading indicators of a really dangerous situation called diabetic ketoacidosis. It's treatable with a hospitalized IV insulin drip, but can be avoided if you have some advance notice.
Replies
Diabetic ketoacidosis only happens in T1D, or when you have something extremely wrong going on metabolically (like failing organs, etc).
Normally it should never happen. It happens at ketones like ~10+ mmol, and it's ~impossible to go more than ~6 for a healthy human even eating 100% fat and fasting for a week+ and doing marathons or whatever all at the same time.
The keto diet, can actually help in T1D, by keeping blood sugar more stable overall, but you still need insulin, just less.
My mom had T1D onset in her 50s. (It's usually thought of as a children's disease.)
She figured it out because she recognized the symptoms of ketoacidosis. That sent her to the hospital, which has thankfully allowed her to outlive her pancreas.