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Lots of unexplained lows

jessie

jessie

Well-Known Member
Messages
275
Location
Gloucestershire
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi there,

Does anyone have any possible explanations for a sudden drop in glucose levels? I've struggled to keep my sugars up for the past 2 weeks or so, and nothing has changed in my routine. I'm thinking there must be a reason!

I keep having to eat biscuits between meals, which is terrible as you can imagine…

;)
 
Is there any pattern in your lows?

Do they happen at specific times relative to meals and injections.

What is your current insulin regime?

Pavlos
 
Hi Pavlos,

I'm on 11 units of Lantus every evening and 1:5 (insulin to carb) of Novorapid with meals. The lows seem to be an hour or so after meals, and sometimes I wake up low...
 
Have you changed your diet in anyway, or lost weight etc? When do you take your NovoRapid and what are you eating? What is your routine before bed? Lots of questions, but your low "pattern" seems to indicate that you are using more insulin than you need.
 
jessie said:
Hi Pavlos,

I'm on 11 units of Lantus every evening and 1:5 (insulin to carb) of Novorapid with meals. The lows seem to be an hour or so after meals, and sometimes I wake up low...
Click to expand...

To be honest I am only type 2 on oral medication and not on insulin so you are probably much better equipped to make an educated guess than I am.

I asked the questions about insulin to establish the facts for the benefit of anyone more qualified that could advise.

In my opinion, for what it is worth:

- fasting lows probably indicate need to reduce basal while
- post prandial lows probably indicate change in ratios.

I am not sure you should rush into changing your regime though until you are sure this new behavior is firmly established and not a temporary thing. It may also be worth getting your doctors advise before changing something, even if over the phone.

As to why this is happening could you be on honeymoon period or if you recently lost much weight you may have become less insulin resistant. I understand that insulin resistance is more typical of t2 rather than t1 but it can play a role in t1 as well.

Just my two pennies worth....

Good luck

Pavlos
 
Some people find the weather makes a difference in insulin needs, so if it's colder than normal, it's worth considering.
Perhaps also consider lowering your insulin dose as it must be horrid eating all those extra biscuits :p:D
 
I find the cold weather can be responsible as to what you are reporting. I had to reduce my basal and seems to of done the trick.
 
More than likely your basal insulin needs reduced if your going low all the time, start with some fasting basal checks, the following has some useful information, if your still going low after getting the basal dose right then you need to look at your insulin-to-carb ratio's:

http://www.salforddiabetescare.co.uk/index2.php?nav_id=1007
 
Many thanks for the replies. I take my NR just before eating. I have been eating slightly more carbs than usual, but nothing too crazy. I'm a bit hesitant to tweak in case everything suddenly goes back to 'normal' again…

Hadn't thought of cold weather having an effect, that's interesting!

x
 
Have your activity patterns changed at all, new job with more walking around etc?

That kind of thing can also have a signficant effect.
 
I would agree that its likely your basal rate is to high. After about 4 or 5 days in a row of morning lows, or too large of a drop between my night time and morning checks i usually adjust my basal.

Its not really a big deal, if you drop down to 10 you are only changing your dose by 0.042 units of lantus per hour, which is fairly small, so as long as you make small changes at a time your wont suddenly go high.

Then when you start seeing those readings getting high, go back up to your normal 11 and see if it fixes itself.

You shouldn't be afraid of adjusting, its better then have 3 weeks of lows - that could have only been 5 days of lows and 5 days of slighter highers...
 
Llinz04 said:
Giving too much insulin maybe? It may be that you need to change your ratios aswel
Click to expand...
Could be both are wrong, but if it's consistently low at the same part of the day and low pre-meal I'd start looking at the basal first.

If you are seing a more random pattern of the odd low here and there post meal, then I'd maybe look at carb counting and ratios, but until you get the basal right, it can be harder to spot these as well.
 
I'll agree with basal... this is a similar pattern to that which I had before getting the libre monitor.It allowed me to see that I was consistently low through the night.

If you reduce by a single unit and monitor for a few days before making any other changes you won't be doing any harm. I have found that once I got the basal right, I use slightly more rapid acting with meals...

If anything does 'return to normal' you can just edge the changes back to where they were.
 
Sounds like your basal is a bit too high, try reducing it by a unit or two and see if that has an effect :)
 
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