• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Humalog versus Novorapid

EllieM

Moderator
Staff Member
Moderator
Messages
10,235
Location
New Zealand
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Dislikes
hypos and forum bugs
Any thoughts on this? Am going to be moving to a pump and apparently most of the diabetics at my clinic use novorapid. I've been a (reasonably) happy humalog user for over a decade. Any reason not to change? (I think they have one humalog user so I could stick with the humalog).

All I know is all the novosluggish comments so am slightly uneasy about the move.
 
Would they be willing to issue you a single pen of NovoRapid before you start on the pump so you can give it a try and see if it's much different than Humalog for you?
I'm assuming Fiasp or Lyumjev aren't available in NZ, otherwise it could be worth looking into those as well.
 
I think this is one of those examples of "we are all different"
I have read some people find Humalog faster. I tried it when I was having issues with Fiasp and found NovoRapid much faster.
As @Antje77 suggested, it is worth trying it out for you.
 
I am one of those people who liked novorapid better than humalog, so I can only say that it is a good insulin, but yes, we are all different
 
Yeeeeah.. I don’t get the “Novoslug” comments.
I can’t relate in the least. Neither do I regarding some needing extra units to pull errant bloods down from the 20s?

I can certainly understand wanting to ditch the Lantus & going pump, @EllieM .
 
I used Humalog and Lyumjev on MDI and tried out NovoRapid for a bit. I only stuck with Humalog and Lyumjev because I preferred the feel of the pens and it made sense to keep them in the same 'family' (Humalog and Lyumjev are both Eli Lilly insulins; NovoRapid is Novo Norodisk).

When I started my pumping earlier this year, I was told that Humalog was approved for 2 days in a pump reservoir, but NovoRapid was approved for 3 days (at least here in Germany). Since I had used NovoRapid before and didn't notice a big difference between it and Humalog, I switched to NovoRapid when I got my pump.

I haven't tried using other insulins in the pump so I can't give pros and cons, but can say I haven't had any issues at all with NovoRapid.

One thing I hadn't thought of until my diabetes educator suggested it at my pump training:
If you don't use much insulin, consider getting penfills instead of vials. I don't use much insulin (I fill a reservoir with 100u and it lasts me 3-3.5 days) so I fill my reservoirs from penfills instead of vials. The penfills double as my backup, plus since I keep the active penfill in the reusable pen, I can dial the pen to the exact units I want in the reservoir instead of eyeballing it in the syringe and I can easily see exactly how much I have left. ;-)
 
As far as I’m aware they work pretty much the same. I was on Humalog as a child but was moved to Novorapid just before my teens. I don’t remember during that time there being any significant differences. As I’ve gotten older though I suffered from the dreaded “Novoslug” my Novorapid just did not kick in quick enough and I was higher than I’d like to be after meals often. I’d inject sometimes 1h before meals and still get a bad rise so I was swapped to Lyumjev last year.
 
Thanks for all the replies, it sounds like it might be worth trying a vial of novorapid but if @Finnlee 's comment about time in reservoir applies in New Zealand, that is a powerful reason to change to novorapid as I use less than 50 units a day (bolus plus basal).
 
I’ve been using Humalog for many years both on MDI (with Lantus) and with my Medtronic pumps over the last 16 years.
With the pumps the Humalog has always lasted the recommended 3 days, but more recently 7 days in the new Medtronic Extended reservoirs.
It’s good to know you’re moving to a pump which for me is life changing.
 
Back
Top