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Lantus duration of coverage?

Gemmablower

Gemmablower

Well-Known Member
Messages
178
Location
solihull
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
How long is lantus ment to cover you for is it the full 24 hours and how many of you agree?

Also from the point of injecting lantus how long do you think it takes to take effect, immediately like 1hr after or much slower than that? Do you think it peaks after a certain time?
Xx
 
And when reducing basal is it quicker to take effect than when increasing it? As it can take five days to a week for the increase dose and take effect but what about when reducing it?
 
Gemmablower said:
How long is lantus ment to cover you for is it the full 24 hours and how many of you agree?

Also from the point of injecting lantus how long do you think it takes to take effect, immediately like 1hr after or much slower than that? Do you think it peaks after a certain time?
Xx
Click to expand...
The marketing bumph for all long acting insulins would have you believe that it covers you for 24 hours, however in practice it is dependent on the dose size.

The study that was undertaken in 2007 showed that there is a difference between length of action after one day compared to one week: http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/30/5/1261.

I always found that I suffered late in the day rises from Lantus as it used to last about 18 hours so switched to a double dose. I had other issues with it though, so now use Levemir instead.

I'm not sure how long it takes to have an effect when it acts as it is supposed to. When it doesn't it can have an effect in less than 90 mins.
 
Thanks @tim2000s do you mean if you hit muscle it can act fast like rapid insulins after 90mins? Can levemir do this also?
Thanks for advice just trying to get a bit more knowledge on lantus to understand it well. X
 
Gemmablower said:
Thanks @tim2000s do you mean if you hit muscle it can act fast like rapid insulins after 90mins? Can levemir do this also?
Thanks for advise just trying to get a bit more knowledge on lantus to understand it well. X
Click to expand...
Gemma, that's right, there's a topic on it here. Basically what Lantus does is crystallize to form the reservoir when it hits subcutaneous fat, because it is slightly acidic. If it misses the fat it doesn't form the reservoir and you end up having taken probably what's more like "Regular" than fast acting. What I also found is that, whether it is due to the amount of time I've had T1 or the pharmacokinetics of the insulin, I used to get very irregular absorption.

Levemir is designed differently and due to the design breaks down differently in the body. I've seen none of the problems that I had with Lantus and it provides much more consistent absorption.
 
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