Can the Pixel Watch 5 Really Track Blood Sugar? Here’s the Truth

Your watch can track insulin resistance. Google has announced a remarkable new feature for the Pixel Watch 5. It can identify trends in insulin resistance without drawing any blood. But does that mean the Pixel Watch can actually measure your blood sugar? The answer to that question is no. And that distinction is extremely important. In this video, I’ll explain what the Pixel Watch 5 actually measures, how Google can estimate insulin resistance without a blood test, how this differs from a glucose monitor, and whether this could be useful, particularly for seniors. Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are. I’m Ron Brown with Tech for Senior. I’m a retired physician and spent most of my life looking after sick people. A lot of these people had diabetes. So, the idea of a watch measuring your blood sugar has been a dream for many years. In fact, the rumors were plentiful up to 5 years ago that Apple was going to come out with a blood sugar measuring device on their watches. In fact, I think he even did a video that said it was probably coming out in the next year. Well, was I ever wrong. And we just don’t have a watch that is going to measure your blood sugar. So, what is this new feature on the Pixel 5 watch? Let’s have a look at that. So, let’s look at what is insulin resistance. After we eat carbohydrates, glucose enters the bloodstream. The pancreas produces insulin which acts somewhat like a key helping glucose move from the bloodstream into the cells. With insulin resistance, the cells don’t respond as well to insulin. The pancreas compensates by producing more insulin. For quite a while, someone’s glucose level may still appear relatively normal. Eventually, however, insulin resistance can continue to worsen metabolic health and type 2 diabetes. So, what the Pixel Watch 5 does not do is measure your blood sugar. The Pixel 5 watch does not measure your blood glucose. It cannot tell you that your glucose is 7.2. 2 mill moles per liter. There is no needle under the watch. There is no glucose sensor penetrating the skin. And this feature does not replace a finger stick glucose meter, a freestyle Libra or a Dexcom or another continuous glucose monitor. Google specifically describes insulin resistant trends as a general wellness feature, not a diabetes screening or diagnostic tool, and says it does not provide real time clinical readings. So, what is the watch measuring? This is where things get interesting. The Pixel Watch already has sensors that continually collect physiologic information like your heart rate, your temperature, your oxygen level, and your sleep tracking. Google’s Health Guardian system uses information gathered over multiple weeks and applies AI based health models to look for patterns associated with changes in metabolic health. In other words, is your diabetes changing? Google says these health foundation models were trained using very large quantities of optedin wearable sensor sensor data and validated against clinical measurements. So what does that all mean? So they took a lot of people, they took a lot of data, they tried to figure out if that information could predict when your diabetes is getting worse and they did. They found a correlation. So the sensors that we have on the watch they’ve been there for some time they’ve now able to take that information those the basic data that we’ve been getting pulse sleep oxygen levels and heart rate and they can look at that and they can use it to predict and it’s the important part here is to predict how your diabetes is doing rather than giving an instantaneous glucose close reading. Google measures the information as an insulin resistant trend. It’s important. This is a trend and it’s only going to occur over a period of time. So, it’s not instant. Think of it as the difference between taking your temperature today versus watching a trend develop over several weeks. Let’s call it a metabolic trend. That’s a good catchy word. So, let me give you an example. Let’s look at weather forecasting. A weather station doesn’t have a sensor called tomorrow’s rain sensor. Instead, it measures things like temperature, pressure, humidity, and wind. The software then combines these signals and estimate what is the likeliness of it raining the next day. The Pixel Watch is doing something conceptually similar but with metabolic health. So it’s predicting how your diabetes is doing based on a set of data that it’s collected off the watch. So what will you actually see? This is different from a traditional glucose monitor. You won’t look at your watch after eating a piece of cake and see your glucose spike. Instead, Health Guardian is designed around longerterm wellness trends, including monthly summaries. And Google lists insulin resistance alongside blood pressure and sleep breathing trend summaries. You might therefore learn that your metabolic trend has shifted over time rather than receive a minuteby-minute measurement. Again, we’re looking at the long-term trends of what your how your diabetes is doing. That could lead someone to think something seems to be changing. Perhaps I should talk to my doctor. A physician could then decide whether conventional testing is appropriate, for example, using a fasting blood sugar or hemoglobin A1C. Why would this be particularly useful for seniors? Many health problems don’t announce themselves with symptoms. Wearables have gradually moved from counting your steps to monitoring heart rate, sleep, oxygen saturation, doing an ECG, fitness, and now longer term metabolic trends. The potential value isn’t necessarily diagnosis. It is awareness. If your watch notices a meaningful trend developing over weeks or months, it might encourage you to discuss this with your health care provider earlier than you otherwise would. All right, there are three big limitations. Number one, it isn’t a glucose monitor. You aren’t getting blood sugar readings. Number two, it isn’t a diabetes test. Google specifically says insulin resistant trends is not a pre-screener for diabetes and should not be used to diagnose a medical condition. Item three, don’t change your medicine based on it. Google says the information should not be used to adjust medication or treatment plans. That is especially important for anyone already being treated for diabetes. So, in conclusion, can the Pixel Watch 5 measure your blood sugar? No. But can it potentially detect changes associated with insulin resistance before you could otherwise notice them? That’s what Google is attempting to do. And that ultimately may be the more interesting story. We’ve gone from watches that tell us time to watches that count our steps to watches that may notice subtle changes in our health before we do. Would you trust your watch to warn you about changes in your metabolic health? Let me know in the comments. And if you’re interested in technology designed to help seniors, subscribe to Tech for Senior. I’m Ron Brown. Hope you enjoyed this video. Will toxin.