Why are top athletes using diabetes tech in pursuit of medals?
June 10 (Reuters) -Some Olympic athletes are using a new tool they hope will boost their medal chances this summer: tiny monitors that attach to the skin to track blood glucose levels.
The market for continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), developed to help diabetes patients fine-tune their insulin shots, is already worth billions of dollars per year.
Manufacturers are eyeing further growth in the sport and wellness sector, where top athletes could be trend-setters.
WHAT ARE CGMs?
CGMs are coin-size skin patches with a wireless link to a smartphone. With the help of an applicator needle, a tiny sensor filament is pierced into the upper arm to measure glucose between cells just underneath the skin. The adhesive patch holds the sensor in place for up to two weeks.
Current models have become smaller and more precise and no longer need separate receiver hardware.
HOW ARE ATHLETES USING CGMs?
Some top athletes and their support staff use CGMs to assess calorie intake and workout intensity. The benefit during races lasting less than about three hours is seen as limited.
Retired Australian swimmer and Olympic gold medallist Chelsea Hodges says CGMs helped her remedy bouts of extreme exhaustion during longer training sessions. Minute-by-minute monitoring showed she was prone to sagging blood glucose levels.
Dutch marathoner Abdi Nageeye won silver at the Tokyo Olympics. Seeking an "effortless run", Nageeye is using CGMs to improve sleeping and eating patterns so that he expends a minimum of energy during training.
Swedish steeplechaser Emil Blomberg, another Tokyo Olympian seeking to qualify for Paris, said he used CGMs to prevent overtraining. The devices also helped him work out that he needs to eat more during longer training sessions.
IS USE OF CGMs FAIR?
Cycling's world governing body UCI in 2021 banned the non-medical use of CGMs during races "to ensure the respect of individual qualities, the spirit of competition, and fairness" but other major sports have not followed suit.
Some athletes say the cost of CGMs - Abbott's ABT.N Lingo device, available in Britain, costs 120-150 pounds ($152-190) per month - can be prohibitive without a sponsorship deal.
Sports nutrition researchers say benefits have so far been anecdotal, with no clear evidence CGMs give a competitive edge.
WHAT IS THE SCIENCE BEHIND CGMs IN SPORTS?
Understanding how glucose tracking can inform an athlete's calorie intake and training schedule is still in its infancy.
Using up more energy in training than calories available from food, for example, can over time compromise bone strength, the immune system and fertility. However, it has not yet been fully established how CGMs can help avoid that.
Among some surprise research findings, elite marathoners have remarkably high blood glucose levels during races, likely boosted by stress hormones. Many endurance athletes have extremely low glucose levels during pre-dawn sleep but it's not clear whether that is detrimental.
Researchers told Reuters that most of their CGM advisory work for athletes without diabetes is for now based on anecdotal observations rather than validated findings.
WHAT CGMs ARE AVAILABLE FOR NON-DIABETICS?
Companies like Levels, Nutrisense and Signos offer apps and programmes for non-diabetics to use in combination with diabetes devices made by Dexcom DXCM.O or Abbott. The programme providers are not directly associated with the manufacturers.
Abbott in 2020 launched the CGM Libre Sense Glucose Sport Biosensor for athletes without diabetes in a number of European countries. It was exclusively available via a collaboration with app developer Supersapiens, but that company shut in February.
CEO Phil Southerland told Sports Business Journal that a capital increase had fallen flat and he would seek to relaunch with a U.S. focus. He did not respond to requests for comment.
Abbott in January launched a CGM with a coaching app in Britain, branded Lingo, for "overall health and wellbeing". The group is next looking to launch in the U.S..
($1 = 0.7863 pounds)
Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Catherine Evans
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
