“It disgusts to the highest degree all the diabetics we know”, says Valerie. This mother and resident of Schaerbeek in the Brussels region contacted us via the orange Alert us button, because she says to herself “shocked” of a new practice observed on social networks. “Influencers stick glucose sensors to manage their weight by reducing their sugar consumption“, she explains. Problem, these sensors are intended for diabetics initially. Valérie is the mother of Angèle. A 14-year-old teenager affected by type 1 diabetes.
His pancreas no longer secretes insulin at all. The girl has been juggling since childhood between moments of hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia. “In hyperglycemia, we are very irritable. We are very thirsty. We need to eliminate sugar through the urine. As a result, we drink abnormally much”she summarizes.
To help her manage these delicate moments, Angèle administers an average of two injections a day. She can also rely on technology and a sensor placed on her arm.
These measures connected medical informs him throughout the day regarding his blood sugar level, his glucose level. A precious device that must be changed every two weeks. “This is 50- 60 euros per unit. It is refundable, but not completely”she says. Laurent Crenier is a diabetologist. He specifies : “Cis very important for them, because they will be able to adapt their insulin injection accordingly. These sensors have completely changed the quality of life of diabetics. They now manage to balance themselves better, to maintain excellent blood sugar averages, without too muchhypo or hyperglycemia.”
It really shocked me
Not long ago, it was while strolling on social networks that she found this tool in unexpected circumstances: “One day, I go on Instagram and I come across a story that denounces the merits of a gadget. It’s the sensor we use to assess our blood sugar“, she remarks. “It shocked me a lot.” She develops: “When we know the extent of our problems. That these devices are in great shortage, it is very difficult to swallow“, judges the teenager.
On the Instagram video, an influencer films the device on her arm. She explains that she is not at all diabetic but that she uses it to control her sugar level and by extension to control her weight curve. “She uses it as a slimming gadget. It’s not made for that. It’s hard enough to find them just to have fun with”, plague Angèle. His mother, Valérie, agrees: “Our children bite enough like that, so seeing influencers using it as a slimming gadget was unbearable.”
Trivialization of the disease?
Another consequence of the diversion of this sensor is the trivialization of the disease. For Pascale Robience, dietitian and professor at the Haute Ecole Condorcet, the behavior of the influencers singled out is simply dangerous: “We are going to drift. It is normal to have a drop in blood sugar following a long period of fasting or in the morning. The feeling of hunger is a sufficient clue to determine if you need energy or not. Stop using medical devices for healthy people.“
Same story for Laurent Crenier, president of the diabetes association: “The use of this sensor is not dangerous, even if there are cases of allergy with the sensors. But it is dangerous for people with diabetes. From the moment that an irrational craze would make these sensors be used for other things than diabetes, my fear is that people with diabetes will no longer have enough sensors.
It is estimated between 500,000 and 600,000 the number of diabetics in our country. At present, there is no risk of a shortage of sensors according to the companies that produce them.
