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50 Things To Remember As a Type 1 Diabetic

Diabetes Yoyo

Diabetes Yoyo

Member
Messages
13
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
50 Things To Remember As a Type 1 Diabetic

I have been living with type 1 diabetes for over 15 years. In my experience it seems that when you are first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be many key points that you are given to assist you with the management of this illness. It can sometimes take years to figure out what works and what does not. I have collected the below points based on my experiences over the years. I am sharing these with you and hope that they may help you and others, who are struggling with type 1 diabetes. Please note that these are based on my personal experiences and should not be taken as medical advice. Always consult your physician before making any changes to your diabetes management plan.

  1. Get the correct needle size for your insulin pen and avoid long needles especially if you are thin i.e. use 8mm instead of 12 mm. Otherwise, the needle may reach your muscle and give you hypos.
  2. Eat evening snacks to avoid hypos at night, ideally no more than 20g carbs such as brown bread with cheese and butter
  3. Choose wholemeal instead of white, such as brown bread, rice etc.
  4. Exercise can reduce sugar levels even 10 hours later, so check your sugar levels later on at night.
  5. If you eat high carb/starch/sugary foods, you may want to inject 1 or 2 units more of short acting insulin than what your normal ratio is, as I found from my experience that my ratio is changing depending on the high carb/starch amount. Normally, my ratio is 1:10 but for a 90g carbs meal I would do 11 instead of 9. Of course, this is only once in a while with a special treat or luxury foods.
  6. Remember fruits are sugary, get your five-a-day predominantly from vegetables/salads
  7. Remember starch, sugar, fruit, vegetables, legumes, all contain carbs. If you want carb-free options eat meat, eggs and natural fat foods.
  8. Choose Low GI foods to avoid peaks in sugar levels
  9. Remember your short acting insulin peaks 2 hours after eating
  10. Men aged 50 or younger should get 38 grams of fiber a day. Women aged 50 or younger should get 25 grams of fiber a day.[1]
  11. If you are really hungry before bedtime and want to eat a meal, reduce your short acting insulin by 1 or 2 units from what your normal ratio is. For example, if you eat 40g carbs and your ratio is 1/10, rather than doing 4 units, do 3 units instead.
  12. I also found that if I eat up to 40 carbs per each meal I seem to have a good control over my sugar levels. However, if I eat 80/90g carbs it is a bit harder to control.
  13. Good maths and life-long learning = good blood sugar levels
  14. Do a 20/30 min exercise during the day. I found out that excessive exercise can give you erratic high sugar levels.
  15. Make an effort to go out even it is for 10/20 min. I know sometimes it is hard due to lack of energy but it is almost a continuous loop. The more you go out, the better you feel, the more you sit inside the more depressed you become.
  16. Eat plenty of vegetables and if you fancy fruit try to combine with your meals as a part of your carbs.
  17. Drink 7/8 glasses of water and plenty of green/ginger tea with lemon. I found that if you don’t drink enough liquids, it can give you high sugar levels
  18. Drink hot water with lemon, especially first thing in the morning. It gives you good skin and better controlled sugar levels.
  19. Think positive and avoid stress/stressful people as much as you can. Not always that easy, though.
  20. Get involved and help other diabetic people as much as you can. Help others who suffer, and share your experiences, do not avoid or hate this illness but arm yourself with knowledge and use it to make yourself better.
  21. Prioritise yourself and love yourself, as a diabetic I think it is easy to focus on the negatives at the cost of looking after yourself.
  22. If you fancy eating snacks, eat nuts or low carb food up to 20g carbs after 2 hours of eating
  23. Try to keep short acting insulin intervals to 5 hours, as otherwise it overlaps and can give you hypos
  24. Check with your doctor and try to reduce long acting insulin to once a day, as this gave me a better understanding of my sugar levels and a better control overall.
  25. Keep an eye on calories; make sure you take in sufficient calories. As a diabetic and with plenty of various diets information available it is hard to get the correct calorie intake.
  26. Avoid diabetic chocolates, as they have incredibly high carb levels. If you fancy chocolate try dark chocolate or other more natural products such as clotted cream and honey on a bread - one of my favourites!
  27. If your sugar levels are erratic don’t blame yourself, more than likely you are on a wrong drug dosage and your body is trying to stay alive adjusting your sugar levels with different hormones such as glycogen. So, make sure you get your long acting insulin and ratio correct. Even if it means checking your sugar levels regularly and going to the doctor’s often.
  28. Keep weekly targets
  29. Try to eat real food, with no additives and not much sugar and salt
  30. Eat some butter with your meals as oil seems to be slowing down the sugar absorption in the body and avoids peaking sugar levels
  31. If you try low carb diet, make sure you do not get sick, it can be hard to adjust insulin levels if you change your diet. Consult your doctor before going ahead regarding the insulin dosage, as it requires the dosages to go down significantly and can make you sick.
  32. Be aware that your ratio might change depending on sickness, periods, stress and even the time of the day
  33. When you make changes to your diet/insulin allow a couple of days for your body to adjust
  34. Try to keep a record of your calories, carbs and exercise in your diabetic notebook to give doctors/nurses a better idea when you go to visit them
  35. Try to check your sugar levels before meals and 1/2hours later to make sure short acting insulin is doing its job and your ratio is correct
  36. Check your sugar levels in the morning to make sure long acting insulin is doing its job
  37. Try to eat breakfast, I found out that when I eat breakfast my sugar levels are better controlled during the day
  38. Eat food every five hours and take your insulin, I found that giving your body regular food and insulin have a better impact on sugar levels.
  39. When cooking try to avoid boiling and instead steam and bake, or eat fresh/raw where possible
  40. Surround yourself with things/people you love and enjoy
  41. Walnuts, green tea and natural yogurt seem to be lowering sugar levels. You may want to try them out.
  42. As mentioned diabetic immune systems are not that good and you can get lots of colds or flu. For a blocked nose, mix luke warm water and salt an inhale through your nose. Wash your mouth with that as well, this can also help with bleeding teeth.
  43. You may want to keep a second blood glucose monitor as a backup for emergencies
  44. Take some food with you if you are going out for a walk
  45. Make sure you keep glucogen kit at home and show how to use it to the people living with you, just in case.
  46. Inject long acting insulin on top of the thighs, short acting insulin on your belly. Your legs apparently help the slow releasing of the insulin. Avoid injecting directly to the muscles. Always take the long acting insulin at the same time of the day. Air bubbles in the insulin pen can affect the insulin delivery, to avoid this prime the needle with 2 units before injecting.
  47. Eat a piece of bread instead of an apple for evening snacks. Bread seems to be going longer in the body than apple for example.
  48. If you get hypos don’t over eat, try to stick 20 g carb. After initially having, for example, a glass of milk to correct the hypo.
  49. Do not drink too much coffee or tea, but replace them with water, ginger tea and green tea as much as you can.
  50. Try to avoid day time snacks, but if you fancy try to stick to 10/20g or try carb free snacks.
Hope you have learnt something new and these pointers will help you when managing your or your loved one’s diabetes.

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[1] http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/carbohydrates
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Get the correct needle size for your insulin pen and avoid long needles especially if you are thin i.e. use 8mm instead of 12 mm. Otherwise, the needle may reach your muscle and give you hypos.
Click to expand...
I believe 4mm is standard now.
Eat evening snacks to avoid hypos at night, ideally no more than 20g carbs such as brown bread with cheese and butter
Click to expand...
That's probably more applicable to older NPH insulin which had a significant peak during the night.
Check with your doctor and try to reduce long acting insulin to once a day, as this gave me a better understanding of my sugar levels and a better control overall.
Click to expand...
Doubtful - once a day may be easier, but all it comes down is how long the insulin lasts for you personally.
If you try low carb diet, make sure you do not get sick
Click to expand...
That would sorta require a reliable way to avoid getting sick.
 
4mm is the standard now. But you can still get 8 & 12mm as well. And as Alex said with basal insulin it is all down to how the basal works with that person. I started Lantus on a one a day, but it got changed to twice a day, in split doses. So that bit about basal once a day won't always work. And yes exercise can give you higher levels as the liver is dumping glucose into your system to cover the exercise, and I was told a few years ago by a dietician don't exercise with a blood sugar over 13, because of that exact reason.
 
paul-1976 said:
Is that the same as 'Four's the floor'? :jimlad:

I'm in the 3's often with no problems and I believe a few others are fine in the 3's too-was this 4 level plucked out of the air?
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I think 4 was picked cos it rhymes with floor to be honest. I'm fine in the 3's but obviously wouldn't drive. DAFNE class 3.5 or below as a hypo but if diet controlled, 3.5 is fine.


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paul-1976 said:
Is that the same as 'Four's the floor'? :jimlad:

I'm in the 3's often with no problems and I believe a few others are fine in the 3's too-was this 4 level plucked out of the air?
Click to expand...

I think it has a lot to do with the angle of descent. I don't really get symptoms until low 3s unless I'm plummeting from a high number, which doesn't happen much these days.
 
"Take some food with you if you are going out for a walk."

Now you sound like my mum... LOL Even now after being T1 for 37 years she wont let me leave a visit without a stack of Wholemeal sandwiches with acres of lettuce...

Milk is still a hypo comfort drink for me..!
 
Diabetes Yoyo said:
  • If you get hypos don’t over eat, try to stick 20 g carb. After initially having, for example, a glass of milk to correct the hypo.
Click to expand...


Thanks for all the useful tips! :)

But I have to say, because I made this mistake for years, you should NOT use milk to correct a hypo. You need to use fruit juice or lucozade (or other forms of glucose like glucotabs etc) as the fat in the milk delays the action of the sugar and takes much longer to raise your blood sugar level. It was a sad day when I learned I shouldn't be using chocolate to treat hypos! :(
 
It was the same for me picklebean and I feel your pain about chocolate :(, if I feel in the 2.5-3.0 range I use 50mls of lucozade in low 2's I use 100mls as if 2.5 or 2.6 100mls sends me high.
 
picklebean said:
Thanks for all the useful tips! :)

But I have to say, because I made this mistake for years, you should NOT use milk to correct a hypo. You need to use fruit juice or lucozade (or other forms of glucose like glucotabs etc) as the fat in the milk delays the action of the sugar and takes much longer to raise your blood sugar level. It was a sad day when I learned I shouldn't be using chocolate to treat hypos! :(
Click to expand...

Personally, if i have the time to come up slow. I'll take the milk with a bit of chocolate digestive!

I only ever feel i need a fast hit at night when i wake from from a hypo..

We're all different.. I actually quite enjoy a hypo & have never passed out in 37 years of being diabetic...
 
Jaylee said:
Personally, if i have the time to come up slow. I'll take the milk with a bit of chocolate digestive!
I only ever feel i need a fast hit at night when i wake from from a hypo..
We're all different.. I actually quite enjoy a hypo & have never passed out in 37 years of being diabetic...
Click to expand...

I personally have spent most of my 21 years as a type1 diabetic taking the 'wrong' things to treat a hypo and I'm still here. I was just stating the recommended treatment for hypo. I find the recommended treatment hard to do - I'd rather stuff my face until I start feeling better. But I've recently learned about over-treating hypos and rebounding with high sugar levels etc and the hypo rules do seem to work and prevent rebounding (20g fast acting carbs, ie fruit juice/lucozade and re-test until you're over 4mmol then 20g longer-acting carbs, like biscuits only once you're over 4mmol.)

As long as you're happy with what you're doing and you're getting good enough results then that's all fine! :happy:
 
picklebean said:
I personally have spent most of my 21 years as a type1 diabetic taking the 'wrong' things to treat a hypo and I'm still here. I was just stating the recommended treatment for hypo. I find the recommended treatment hard to do - I'd rather stuff my face until I start feeling better. But I've recently learned about over-treating hypos and rebounding with high sugar levels etc and the hypo rules do seem to work and prevent rebounding (20g fast acting carbs, ie fruit juice/lucozade and re-test until you're over 4mmol then 20g longer-acting carbs, like biscuits only once you're over 4mmol.)

As long as you're happy with what you're doing and you're getting good enough results then that's all fine! :happy:
Click to expand...

Yep, it pretty much ties in with what I learnt in the dark ages... The art of restraint regarding the garbage then eat something half decent...
Even if I am making a wholemeal or rye bread sandwich at 3am.... :cool:
 
Something I didn't know until recently is that fruit juice isn't ideal for correcting a hypo quickly because fructose is much slower to enter the bloodstream than glucose. Same with any fizzy drink based on high fructose syrup (yuk). So a pure glucose drink like Lucozade (not Sport!) would act faster than any fruit juice or fructose based drink.

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I make sure my hypo treatment is something I don't like - 2 swigs of lucozade and 1 oat biscuit. This means no one in the house (other half) are tempted to scarf it and I don't stuff my face.
Give me a tub of Ben and jerries during a hypo and I would eat the carton and spoon as well.
Also minimum carbs when eating normally not hypo.
TEST, TEST, TEST and use the results to change either diet or dose.
And keep in mind this is much better than the alternative.
And another one - ignore the food police.
Ooh and another one - the doctors and nurses may know about diabetes but they don't know about your diabetes so I feel I gad to take responsibility and ask questions rather than just trust.
And I'm spent.


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Learn something every time I read a string on here! Many thanks to all of you who posted!
 
Thanks for the list - I've a couple of counters that I think may be slightly different to your original list.

Diabetes Yoyo said:
Eat evening snacks to avoid hypos at night, ideally no more than 20g carbs such as brown bread with cheese and butter
Click to expand...
As someone else posted - a necessity on the older NPH insulins, but no longer needed on Glargine, Degludec and Determir.

Diabetes Yoyo said:
Remember your short acting insulin peaks 2 hours after eating
Click to expand...
Not strictly true - seems to peak at different times for different people. Mine is 1-1.5hrs.

Diabetes Yoyo said:
Check with your doctor and try to reduce long acting insulin to once a day, as this gave me a better understanding of my sugar levels and a better control overall.
Click to expand...
I'm afraid that I fundamentally disagree with this one. By splitting into two, each with a 12 hour duration, I get a much better level of control. It really is a case of each to their own on this aspect as there are members who do three shots of basal a day.
 
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