Hello,
May is already upon us. A very Happy Mother’s Day to all the amazing moms out there who fill our lives with so much happiness.
We at Perfora had an interesting April. You can read a quick summary of it here.
In today’s newsletter, I have an update about a health gadget I have been currently toying with. I am in general excited about new technology that is going to revolutionise the way we manage our preventive healthcare in the future and was super keen to try this out for myself.
It’s a CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) sensor that I have had on my shoulder for the last 10 days and with the help of a smart app it gives me way too much data about my food, metabolism and sleep. I am no fitness guru or athlete that I needed this but at a general level a better understanding of one’s metabolism can help out with day to day productivity and beating lethargy.
This is how it works - the sensor attaches to the interstitial tissue and measures glucose levels on a continuous basis. These glucose levels are shown as numbers on your mobile phone. So in real time you get a sense of how your glucose levels behave after a meal, after a workout, after a drink or after a good night’s sleep. Of course glucose levels tend to show variation after 15-20 mins of such activities.
Now this has been extensively used to help people with diabetes manage their lifestyles and also in some cases reverse it. So this might sound stupid for a normal person like me, however the insights are helping me change certain consumption & lifestyle habits which nudge me towards maintaining a higher metabolic rate. Has this helped me feel more efficient and productive already ? Maybe, it is still a little early for me to decide on that but these are some of the things I learnt about myself -
Food - In general my breakfasts were quite sorted but my typical lunch (3 Rotis, sabzi and Daal) was giving me a massive spike (see the line chart below). Not to say that these foods are bad but lunch in general is a time post which I immediately sit down back to work and that makes it hard for my body to metabolise it. No wonder I am reaching out for a coffee 20 mins after lunch to beat the yawns and heaviness that starts kicking in. So now I get a smaller portion or at times try more fibrous foods like quinoa or more veggies. Starting my lunch with a small salad of cucumber, tomatoes and onions helps keep the glucose in solid check.
Exercise - I was confident that my workouts were fairly strenuous and I was putting in a hard effort. Now this is not a compulsion but most intense, good workouts will give you a small spike in glucose if you are optimally charged. I barely saw a spike once in the last 7 days so that was some reality check. Now I eat just a few nuts in the morning and am trying to level up :p
Sleep - I used to think that with all the work stress my sleep would be suffering a bit. Glucose levels is just one of the metrics but I have been glad to see my levels being in prime shape during my sleep (See graph below). I guess sleeping before 12 does do wonders for sleep and well I am probably not as stressed as I think (which is great, need to get my awake self to get over himself)
In addition to these there are a lot of other nudges around fueling up, glucose crash, glucose spike etc. that it throws up and honestly it can feel a little overwhelming and stupid at times. But yeah trying to make whatever little good I can out of this.
Now circling back, amongst all this we get a lot of contentment from what we are building at Perfora. No matter how good your food gets, if your oral health is not sorted there will always be those bad elements sticking around inside your mouth ready to play party poopers.
Along with all these advancements we are so happy to play our small part by nudging, guiding and encouraging people to invest in good oral health because that’s like the gatekeeper of everything and we ought to value it accordingly.
Please write back if any of you have tried this or want to know more about it. I have been at the center of a lot of jokes this past week in the office so I am happy to hear if you want to throw some of those too my way :)
In other news, we have a new launch coming very very soon. Beyond excited about introducing this to all of you. Stay Tuned !
Cheers,
Tushar