Help Citing Sources

[olinmonsoon]

Good afternoon,

I am a Type 1 Diabetic who follows the Bernstein diet and I have recently asked to add Actrapid (lower peak, regular) as well as my Novorapid (higher peak, rapid) and Levemir (basal) insulins.

The diabetic specialist I deal with has advised they don’t want to prescribe three different insulins as this isn’t what they usually do.

Basically when I wake up I have to take a quick shot of Novorapid to battle the sharp rise in sugar levels associated with waking up.

Other than that the Novo is too fast acting to be taken with my diet and lifestyle and I would like to take the lower peaking actrapid which has a better time of action.

My question is if there is anyone in this forum who uses two short acting insulins like Novo and Actrapid and if they do could they provide me with their specialist’s name within the NHS so my specialist could contact them to discuss as currently they are simply refusing citing unknown risks.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Antje77]

My question is if there is anyone in this forum who uses two short acting insulins like Novo and Actrapid and if they do could they provide me with their specialist’s name within the NHS so my specialist could contact them to discuss as currently they are simply refusing citing unknown risks.

First, members are NOT allowed to share the name of their specialist on the open forum to protect their privacy.
So if anyone has advice on who to contact, please use the PM function.

I am a Type 1 Diabetic who follows the Bernstein diet and I have recently asked to add Actrapid (lower peak, regular) as well as my Novorapid (higher peak, rapid) and Levemir (basal) insulins.

Not a reply to your question but perhaps still helpful. I'm afraid we have very few (if any) members using two bolus insulins, and I only know of one member who uses 3 insulins, and that would be me. I use two basals though, and one bolus.
I don't know if you use Facebook but if so, you might be interested in this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/585860588599157
I believe they have multiple members using a quick acting insulin for corrections/foot on the floor and a somewhat slower one for the slower protein rise. I'm not sure if they have many members from the UK though, they seem to use mostly mg/dl. But they might be able to point out some literature you can show your endo to convince them.

The diabetic specialist I deal with has advised they don’t want to prescribe three different insulins as this isn’t what they usually do.

That's exactly what my endo said when I asked for Levemir to be added to my Tresiba!

Thankfully, she's a good humoured and curious doctor, and not adverse to some experimenting.
So when I asked "Why?", she started to reply, got stuck, laughed out loud and said "well, looks like I can't answer that one, you just go ahead and be careful, don't mix up your pens!".
Might be worth asking your endo to explain why they disagree too, you never know!

Good luck!

 

[EllieM]

I believe @MarkMunday used Lantus, Actrapid & Novorapid but he's in New Zealand and hasn't posted for about a year. So he may be an example of proof of concept...

There's also the Typeonegrit facebook group who follow Dr Bernstein. They might have some UK members?

 

[olinmonsoon]

Thanks for the replies. Will check out these Facebook groups and see if I can get anywhere!

 

[Seacrow]

At least one of the reasons for not prescribing two bolus insulins is that if you make a mistake and end up stacking the peaks you can create an extremely rapid hypo. Possibly too quick to react to, which means you end up with a hospital admission.

Have you thought of trying a pump? Your bolus injection can then be tailored as immediate, or over a length of time you set, or effectively a later lower peak. This has the benefit of also being able to change basal rates to account for different activity levels, and to reduce the early morning peak.