How much does fast acting insulin bring sugars down?

diva19871987

Well-Known Member
Messages
74
Hi, I have recently bought myself a iphone app which calculates insulin rates. Almost like the dafne approch but a lot easier. It asks for current blood suages and carb amounts then caculates how much insulin is needed also tell me howm much of my insulin is still working. I have input my data with the target blood sugars i would like but am having a bit of truble calculating how much 1 unit brings sugar levels down. I have put 1 unit brings down 1.0 glucose but not quite sure if this is correct. I am on novo rapid which take 5 times a day. I want to know how long novorapid works for people and what rate it works at, at the moment I am saying 50% works in the first hour then 30% works for the second hour then 20% for the last hour. Does this sound correct, and on average how much per10g of carbs does it bring down blood sugar. Also I am taking 30 units of slow acting twice daily. I am of normal weight and size. I do understand everyone is different but would just like some guide line info from other type 1 diabetics. Thanks
 

nmr1991

Well-Known Member
Messages
212
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
The way I calculate my insulin I calculated that:

1 unit of NovoRapid will lower my blood sugar by 2
20 grams of carbohydrates will need 1 unit as 40g will need 2 units.

This is the method I follow, but it may be different from other insulin types.
 

Riri

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,174
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Dislikes
The conservative party, people who are cruel to animals and aggressive people
Again - all different as you point out, My pump is set at 1 unit of insulin bringng my BS down by 3 and my fast acting insulin (novo rapid) lasting 4 hours. These were the rates agreed with my DSN and they seem to work ok (I think my fast acting wears out at 3 hrs but rather than risk hypos if I have to do a correction I'm sticking with this for now).
I have 3 ratios of carbs to insulin - breakfast 1 unit to 8.5 grams of carbs, lunchtime 1 unit to 9.7 and supper 1 unit to 13g carbs.
 

AMBrennan

Well-Known Member
Messages
826
There's 2 things here - bolus for food (typically 0.5-4u per 10g carbs - tweak until 2h post-meal is close enough to pre-meal readings) and correction (effect of 1u on its own).
The latter is apparently, for unknown reasons, estimated by the "rule of 100": 1u of fast-acting insulin will lower your BG by 100 / ( typical total basal + fast acting), and this is what the app is asking. Empirically, I need 3x the estimated dose so I wouldn't trust that rule completely.
 

iHs

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,595
Best way for people using injections (bolus/basal) is to use 100 Rule Correction Factor. The 100 Rule is featured on the BDEC carb counting website and is also mentioned in more detail on other sites. All you do is add up your average Total Daily Dose insulin TDD (bolus plus basal) that gives you some good in range bg levels throughout the day, and then divide the number into 100 to get a correction factor. Such as 50u TDD divided into 100 gives a correction factor of 1u will lower bg by 2mmol. Just aim to a sensible target bg level to correct to and then add that to the amount of insulin used as the carb ratio. Saves using guesswork............