Hey sorry for the questions but I'm not diabetic (but I have cousins who are) and I was just wondering how often do diabetics take insulin? Is it just when you eat, or do you take it before bed and stuff too? How do you know which insulin to use? Thank you and sorry if these are obvious questions!
(I am SO sorry if youโve been waiting on an answer for ages โ I never got a notification for this, so I have no idea when you sent this in, Nonny!)
Please donโt apologize โ these are definitely not obvious questions if youโre not a diabetic, and it was a lot for me to figure out when I was first diagnosed! Iโll do my best to explain it hopefully concisely for you.
There are quite a few kinds of insulin, but just to keep it simple, the most common ones I hear about (and the only ones Iโve ever used) are long-lasting/basal insulins (Levemir, Lantus, etc.) and fast-acting/bolus insulins (Iโve only ever used Humalog, but thereโs definitely others). All insulin is designed for the purpose of lowering your blood sugar. (So if someone says their blood sugar is low, the response is notย โshould you take insulin?โ itโsย โdo you have sugar to eat/drink?โ)
In a body with a functioning pancreas, your blood sugar rises after you eat, but there are other ways sugar can get into your blood stream. Your liver, for example, stores blood glucose and turns it into glycogen, so if your sugar ever starts getting low, it can turn the glycogen back into glucose to keep your numbers steady. (Glucagon kits activate that glycogen transition, from what I understand, to get your sugar back up quickly in case you pass out and canโt eat sugar.)
So, for diabetics who donโt use an insulin pump, theyโll use syringes to inject both a long-lasting and a fast-acting insulin throughout the day. When I used both, I would inject a decent dose of a long-lasting insulin once a day, and that insulin is meant to act as a constant throughout the day to keep your sugars from jumping up for whatever reason. Fast acting is what you take before you eat or anytime you need to correct. So, before I eat, I calculate how many carbs are in my meal and use my carb ratio to determine how much insulin should cover that. If for some reason, my blood sugar still spikes, I take more of the fast-acting insulin to get it down quickly as a correction. There are a LOT of reasons your blood sugar can spike other than after eating, which is why diabetics check their sugars even when theyโre not eating (and why CGMs are great).ย
If your cousins use an insulin pump like I do now, they arenโt using a long-lasting insulin. Insulin pumps use fast-acting insulin for both bolus AND basal. Throughout the day, small spurts of insulin are injected to act like the long-lasting insulin, and the amount given each hour can be customized to keep my levels as steady as possible. Then when I eat or need a correction, I inject more insulin as a bolus.
There are other insulins that are combinations of fast and long, but Iโve never used them, so I donโt feel comfortable explaining how they work. The same goes for the inhaled insulin that Iโve seen out there. I have no experience with either of those, but if any of my followers use or have used them, please feel free to add to this!
If you (or anyone else) ever have any questions like this in the future, please feel free to reach out! Iโm not an expert, but I can definitely give you my experiences and what Iโve learned so far!
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