Fasting in type 1 diabetes

[benedict]

For the T1's - can you fast safely? Providing you DON'T inject insulin, would you be alright? Hypo's usually happen when you inject too much insulin for what you've eaten, so if you're not eating at all, is it just a case of NOT injecting?

School me???

To answer a question from another thread from Patch.

People with type 1 can fast and sometimes it may be advisable to fast to enable us to work out our basal (background) insulin doses. I know this has been used by pregnant women to get their basal insulin right early on in pregnancy.

We do need to make sure we have our basal insulin in our system as the liver will release glycogen. We might even find that a little short term insulin may be needed depending on how active the liver is.

The bottom line is, when fasting we would need to test our blood glucose regularly to make sure we don't go either on the high or low side.

Hope this helps

Benedict

 

[Patch]

Hey, thanks - very interesting. I imagine it is the same/similar for T2's, where fasting can give you an accurate "baseline" for measuring against?

Fasting for Diabetes definitey needs further discussion. :thumbup:

 

[Sapphire85]

Patients with type1 diabetes can successfully fast provided they lower their insulin dosage and also fix to some guidelines regarding glucose monitoring and always listen top what body says.

 

[tigger]

It can be done but it's not easy. You need some background insulin to cover the glycogen. Also if you've had any hypos below 3 in the 3 days before it you are advised not to try. Have a look at this pgs 11-16 for more information http://www.friendswithdiabetes.org/file ... i57641.pdf