What are people’s experiences of Tylenol/Panodol on the Dexcom G5 sensors? Does this drug cause sensor problems?
I have had conflicting advice from health professionals.
Dexcom G5 Mobile Continuous Glucose Monitoring System User Guide
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/dexcompdf/LBL013445-G5-Mobile-CGM-System-UG-US.pdf
Taking medications with acetaminophen while wearing the Dexcom G5 may inaccurately raise the glucose readings generated by the Dexcom G5. The level of inaccuracy depends on the amount of acetaminophen active in your body and is different for each person. Do not rely on continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) data produced by the Dexcom G5 if you have recently taken acetaminophen.
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Direct Evidence of Acetaminophen Interference with Subcutaneous Glucose Sensing in Humans: A Pilot Study
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4717519/
Conclusions: This is the first direct measurement of ISF concentrations of putative CGM interferences with simultaneous measurements of CGM performance in the presence of the interferences. The observed interference with glucose measurements in the tested CGM devices coincided temporally with appearance of acetaminophen in the ISF. The method applied here can be used to determine the susceptibility of current and future CGM systems to interference from acetaminophen or other exogenous pharmacologic agents.
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The recently approved Dexcom G6 system uses a new sensor.
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Dexcom G6 Continuous Glucose Monitoring System User Guide
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/dexcompdf/G6-CGM-Users-Guide.pdf
In previous generations of Dexcom CGM systems (G4/G5), acetaminophen could affect your sensor readings, making them look higher than they really were.
However, with the G6, you can take a standard or maximum acetaminophen dose of 1 gram (1,000mg) every 6 hours and still use the G6 readings to make treatment decisions.
Taking higher than the maximum dose of acetaminophen (e.g. > 1 gram every 6 hours in adults) may affect the G6 readings and make them look higher than they really are.
Thank you for this info. Appreciated.
The G6 still isn’t available in Australia. Waiting…Waiting…
Nor in the US.
The (current) launch date for the Dexcom G6 is June 4, 2018.
Ok Thanks.
I’ve since cut out all Tylenol.
Much more accurate readings.
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I have been avoiding acetaminophen since I have had false high readings on the G4 before when I didn’t know about the effects, but it was probably close to a max dose. I just recently have been taking percocet due to surgery and it has 325mg acetaminophen per dose. Taking 1 every 8 hours didn’t seem to cause much change in readings at all on both an old sensor and a new one (other than the typical inaccurate reading when starting a new sensor).