What do the numbers mean?

A healthy person without diabetes has blood sugar levels that remain between 4.0 and 5.4 mmol/L when fasting and rise no higher than 7.8 mmol/L two hours after a meal. Basically, the line stays pretty straight.

For someone with type 1 diabetes, the line is a little more wavy. Why? Well, the autoimmune destruction of the pancreas means people with type 1 diabetes don’t produce insulin, the key hormone in blood sugar control, so we have to inject it instead. It’s difficult to replicate the fine control of the body, so while we can aim for perfect levels, our blood sugars inevitably go ‘out of range’ – both high and low. Some people manage to keep it pretty straight, but not all of the time. For others, it’s a constant roller-coaster.

How to use the panel above:

Why am I making my blood sugar levels public?

I think it’s just amazing that I can live stream my blood glucose levels! How incredible is this technology!?

Also, I think it’s a great educational tool for people to understand more about T1D and what we have to deal with every day.

Most of all though, I’m interested in the mindset and attitude of other people with T1D.

I’ve met some T1Ds who are too scared to play football, go for a run, or even eat out at a restaurant. Some are frightened of having a hypo while others are perfectionists who don’t want to ruin their perfect straight line.

I get the impression that some T1Ds think I must just be really good at controlling my levels. That to do what I do, I must be amazing. But the truth is that whilst on an expedition, my levels often look like the sea I’m kayaking on – massive peaks and troughs.

We do have to look after ourselves and cannot ignore T1D. That would result in long-term health complications.

It’s all about the balance between adapting your life to live with the condition and diabetes adapting to your life. You have to do what is sustainable. In my view, not exercising or eating out, be it for fear or perfectionism, is not sustainable. Weighing all my food, constantly monitoring my levels and eating low-carb isn’t sustainable either.

And for the perfectionists, the truth is that the health benefits of an HbA1C of 40 compared to 50 are negligible. You probably do more damage to your body eating that McDonalds burger or breathing in exhaust fumes. You definelty do more damage not going for that run. And maybe you would add a couple of years to your life, but is such a deprived life really worth living?

. I have lots of hypos at sea and my levels are often running high at sea.

I really advocate a patient-led approach to chronic health conditions like T1D. It just makes sense to l

think the NHS should support this and

So

I get the impression that some diabetics

I’ve met some people who won

it must be sustainable.

A lot of people with diabetes are ashamed of their badly controlled sugars and I’m trying to change this attitude.

Yes, my levels may be all over the place, so let’s see how I can improve that. Remember how difficult it is living with T1D. It’s a 24/7 job you can never quit. Accept that you’ve got this disease and therefore your levels won’t be perfect. Don’t let managing diabetes rule over your life, live as you’d like to and adapt as best you can.

How do I get live blood sugars?

How amazing is this technology! I wear a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) – a sensor with a hair-like filament beneath my skin that reads my blood sugar levels and sends them to my phone every 5 minutes. These are then sent to the Nightscout ‘cloud’.

Nightscout is an open-source, DIY project that allows real-time access to CGM data. It was originally developed by a group of tech-savvy parents of children with T1D to remotely monitor their children’s blood glucose data from their continuous glucose monitors. Progress in the medical industry can be painfully slow, but they weren’t waiting.

If you can see my blood sugars are dangerously high/low, should you worry?

No – I’ll be dealing with it! Also, CGM data is not always accurate and sometimes will not be representative of my true blood sugar levels. For instance, when my sensor is replaced every 10 days, the values always read high for at least 24 hours