Care Program Overview
Welcome to Glooko’s “Type 2 Diabetes: Newly Diagnosed” care program. Your care team assigned this care program to you so that you can have easy access to educational resources relating to Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) and best practices for using Glooko to help with managing Type 2 Diabetes.
Let's learn about:
- How to use Glooko
- What is Type 2 Diabetes?
- How often should I check my blood sugars?
- How do I analyze what my blood sugars mean?
- Should I keep track of my food and medications?
- Does exercise impact blood sugars?
- Have Questions or Need Help?
- Educational resources
How to use Glooko
Glooko is a digital health solution that helps people with diabetes centralize their diabetes data, gain insights from their data, and share their data with their care team. Your care team already uses Glooko to help provide you diabetes care and is inviting you to use Glooko at home.
Below is a quick start checklist on how Glooko can be used for managing Type 2 Diabetes. Glooko has lots of functionality - this is just a start!
- Sync your blood glucose meter with Glooko. Learn how by clicking ‘Sync’ and then ‘New Device’ within the Glooko mobile app or use this online guide.
- Set up a reminder to sync your blood glucose meter to Glooko by setting up a custom reminder. We recommend at least once per week.
- Use Glooko’s food logging feature to log what you eat on a daily basis. If you can’t do this daily, set up a reminder to do so 3 days a week so that your clinician can understand how your diet impacts your diabetes. How to log food.
- Connect your activity data from Apple Health, Fitbit or other apps. Learn how.
- Review your data weekly on the Glooko app or Glooko website. Share your data with your care team using the Glooko PDF report function if you need clinical advice. Learn how.
What is Type 2 Diabetes?
Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) occurs when a person’s body no longer responds well to the insulin produced by their pancreas. For a person living with Type 2 diabetes, their pancreas continues to create insulin but this naturally produced insulin is not adequately effective in helping the body use the sugar in the bloodstream as fuel. This is different than in Type 1 diabetes, where the pancreas doesn’t have the ability to create enough insulin (ADA reference).
Although T2D is the most common type of diabetes, every person’s journey is unique. Some people with Type 2 may be able to control their blood sugar levels with increased exercise and changes to dietary habits, while others may also require medication or insulin.
How often should I check my blood sugars?
Checking your blood sugar is a very important component of managing diabetes. Checking your blood sugar can help you make food, exercise, and medication decisions. During your appointments, your historical blood sugar readings will help you and your care team see patterns in your blood sugars over time, which is critical for helping you understand whether your diet, exercise regimen, and insulin and/or other medicines are working or need adjustment.
You should work with your care team to determine how often and when you should check your blood sugar. In general, checking your blood sugar often can help you understand how to manage your diabetes.
Glooko Pro Tip: Use Glooko’s reminders feature to receive reminders on your phone for when to check your blood sugar. Reminders Guide. You can set reminders in Glooko to ensure you check according to your unique schedule.
How do I analyze what my blood sugars mean?
Understanding your blood sugars over time can help you and your care team optimize your diabetes management. Common patterns that are calculated using blood sugar readings are Average Blood Glucose, Percentage of Readings that are high (hyperglycemia) or low (hypoglycemia), and Percentage of Readings that are within your target glucose range.
Glooko Pro Tip: You can download your blood sugar readings to Glooko and Glooko will present key patterns that can help you and your care team understand your diabetes. To learn how to download your data to Glooko, click ‘Sync’ and then ‘New Device’ within the Glooko mobile app or use this online guide.
Should I keep track of my food and medications?
One of the most important parts of managing type 2 diabetes is a healthy diet. There’s not one magic diet for diabetes, but tracking your meals and snacks can help you find the right balance of foods that help you manage your blood sugar and also taste great. Talk with your care team about a plan that’s right for you.
You may or may not need medication and/or insulin to manage your diabetes. Your care team will help you understand how insulin and/or other medicines and why they are important. Your medicines may also change over time. Keeping track of oral medication or insulin doses can help you and your care team determine the next step in reaching your diabetes management goals.
Glooko Pro Tip: The Glooko mobile app allows you to track your food by using voice-enabled food add, barcode scanning or by manually entering the data. In addition, the mobile app includes a list of common diabetes medications that makes it easy to track your treatment.
Does exercise impact blood sugars?
Together with a healthy diet, regular exercise can help your body become more sensitive to insulin so you can more easily manage your blood sugar and feel better. Work with your care team to set your exercise goals.
Glooko Pro Tip: You can sync your activity to Glooko from Apple Health, Fitbit or other apps. This information will be combined with your blood sugar readings and can help you see how activity impacts your diabetes. Learn how.
Have Questions or Need Help?
Contact your care team if you have questions about:
- Your blood sugar numbers -- for example, if they are low or consistently high
- If you aren’t feeling well
- If you aren’t sure how to take your medicine
- What you should eat
- How often you should exercise
Visit Glooko’s Help Center or Contact Glooko by emailing support@glooko.com if you have questions about:
- How to sync your diabetes device
- Errors syncing your diabetes device(s)
- Questions about how to use Glooko to track food, exercise, medication, or notes
- Issues with your Glooko reminders
Educational resources
- American Diabetes Association (ADA): Type 2 Diabetes
- Association of Diabetes Care & Education Specialists (ADCES): Resources for People Living with Diabetes
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