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Type 1 2 types of insulin

sammy1998

Active Member
Messages
39
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I started taking insulin in October, 1 injection in the morning and then 1 injection in the evening (Levemir). I’ve now got to have 1 unit of Trurapi insulin in the morning with my breakfast. I usually have my Levemir between 7.30-7.50am and the Trurapi would be about 6.45am. I was supposed to start taking it a while ago, am I ok taking the 2 different types of insulin close together? I’ve been worried about it, that’s why I keep putting myself taking it (the Trurapi). I’ve been diabetic for about 12/13 years, diet to start with and then Metformin and about 2 years ago I also had to start Empagflozin. The consultant now wonders if I may be Type 1 so I’m on insulin and metformin. They said I am a mystery as the blood test results are coming back saying I could be Type 1 or 2, not a specific type. They also said I’m quite sensitive to insulin.
 
@sammy1998 it sounds as if you have been given some medication (two type of insulin) but no explanation about what they do beynd "reduces your bloood sugars". Maybe this works with a condition where ou just take two pills a dat and that's it but it is not the case with diabetes. I believe the best way to get the best out of insulin is to understand itr and a little biut about how your body works.

Trurapi insulin is a fast acting insulin and Levemir is a slow acting insulin.
It is very common for those of us with Type 1 diabetes (I see you have tagged this as Type 1 although you have type 2 .... maybe Type 1) to have these two types of insulin. They do not have any reaction with each other - you can take one immediately after the a=other without any impact.
You may have see reference to basal/bolus insulin regime.
Basal is the slow acting insulin. The purpose of this is to maintain a steady level in the absence of food. It works with the glucose that is constantly dripped from our liver throughout the day and night. If you google something like "Levemir profile" you should see a graph of the action/potency of the insulin. It is pretty flat.
Bolus is the fast acting insulin. The purpose of this is to work with the carbs that we eat during the day that would, otherwise, cause a spike. Trurapi is biosimilar to NovoRapid which is a very common fast acting insulin which I believe is no longer under patent. In other words, Trurapi should be the same but cheaper. If you look at the profile of Trurapi (or aspart which is the generic name for both Trurapi and NovoRapid) you will see it lasts for about 4 or 5 hours with a peak after about 30 minutes.
The two can be taken at the same time with no problem because they are doing different jobs.

I hope this long explanation puts your mind at rest about taking the two close together (or at the same time - I found it mentally easier to coincide the fast and slow acting insulins so my "insulin time" was once rather than twice).

The other thing I thought of if you are being considered to be Type 1, if you are based in the UK, is to ask for Libre. In my mind the label shouldn't matter as long as you get the right treatment. Unfortunately, the label seems to matter to those who determine what we are entitled to. So, I would advise to push for the Type 1 label because it comes with more tech such as Libre.
These are not perfect but they give you a view of the trend of your blood sugars 24/7 without having to prick your finger and get out graph paper every 5 minutes. You will then see those spikes I mentioned when you eat. Bear in mind everyone (including people without diabetes) will see a spike but with the right dose of fast acting insulin you can minimise the height and duration.

Sorry, I have waffled and strayed from your initial question. I hope it all makes sense.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi, thank you for your reply and you weren’t waffling on, you have put my mind at rest and will start taking it, I’ve been putting off taking it as I was worried it might make my blood sugar too low, there have been quite a few times that I have been woken in the night by my Libre alarm alerting me that it’s 4.1 or under, I don’t wake up naturally when this happens, only when my alarm wakes me. The diabetic team at the hospital gave me the Freestyle Libre when I started insulin as they are convinced than I am more likely to be type 1 and not type 2. I really have got to start taking the Trurapi as my blood sugar goes VERY high when I eat and takes ages to come down. I’m very active and have always stuck to a low carb diet.
 
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