Abbott has announced that its Lingo continuous glucose monitor (CGM) is available to buy in the UK.
The glucose monitoring service has been in public preview in the UK for months, but is now available for anyone to buy.
The CGM comes as a single sensor (£89) or as a four-pack (£300), with users able to place it on their arm, pair it with the companion app, and monitor spikes and dips in their blood glucose.
Showing off Lingo as part of CES 2024 in Las Vegas, Abbott has suggested that the CGM can be used to help wearers develop healthier habits, with the app's customized coaching and personalized insights delving into ways to improve sleep, mood, focus, hunger, and energy.
As with most CGMs, Lingo sits onto the user's arm and is swapped out every two weeks. It's a semi-invasive sensor, that's stuck to the arm using an applicator that painlessly places a flexible needle under the skin.
It works by reading your blood glucose and challenging users to keep under a target Lingo Count score.
The idea is to eat fewer glucose-spiking foods and promote healthy habits, such as walking or exercising after meals.
The newly revamped app also features Challenges, to try and gameify the process and change behaviors.
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The self-dubbed 'biowearable' isn't being billed as a device for diabetics.
Instead, the company is drilling home what glucose monitors can do for the average Joe - just as it did during a Wired Health talk last year.
"Our mood, weight, energy levels, and ability to focus are all connected to our individual glucose levels, which rise and fall in response to the food we eat, hours of sleep, regular exercise, and even life’s daily stresses," says Lily Soutter, a nutritionist in Abbott’s Lingo business.
"Improving your metabolic health by tracking your glucose levels over a meaningful period of time can motivate you to implement changes to better manage those spikes and dips, ultimately benefiting your health and well-being."
It's worth pointing out that the Lingo isn't the only device of its kind, but this is still a significant launch, given that Abbott makes sensors that rival companies use.
We're currently testing Lingo, and will be live with a full review in the coming weeks.
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James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.