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Mystery

WhitbyJet

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,597
Hello everyone, I am trying to help someone, not computer savvy.

The problem is, female type 2 diabetic for 16yrs, initially prescribed Metformin, last she learnt about counting carbs and was prescribed Insulatard, twice daily, Metformin was withdrawn due to renal problems.
She seemed to float along just fine with carefully controlled diet and injected 35 units Insulatard twice a day, morning and evening. Never experienced a hypo, however 3 weeks ago she experienced hypos during the night, around 3pm. Her DN advised to inject less on the evening, she followed advice, however she started to hypo during the day, not eating different, not using more insulin, less actually as she is afraid of these hypo attacks.
At the same time as this started she felt as if she had a cold coming along, it never manifested itself just slighly bunged up nose and ears popping, she is left with ears ringing, she has been back and forth to the doctors and DN, all her blood tests, etc are fine, so is her BP, kidney function and medics are beginning to wonder if she is nothing but a hypochondriac.
So what we would like to know, does anyone know if insulin can suddenly cause hypos bearing in mind that neither diet nor injected amounts have changed for over a year?
Can insulin cause this stuffy head and ringing in the ears symptoms, she says its almost as if it is an allergty to insulin. She has been off her food now for 2 weeks and only needed to inject once a day, she now thinks that she is feeling better sas the day goes on, as the insulin becomes less in her body and worse once she injects?
She discussed this theory with her DN on Friday who just dismissed the idea, its not possible to be allergic or have side to insulin and even less so after injecting for over a year?
However in the patient leaflet is says for example that insulin can make neuropathy symptoms worth, so that would be a side effect wouldnt it?

Thank you for reading, hoping for answers/advice.
 
Hyperinsulinemia and Inner Ear Disorders ... hyperinsulinaemia is a condition in which there are excess levels of circulating insulin in the blood ... below is a link to an article that may be of some help to you:-

http://www.tinnitusformula.com/infocent ... r_met.aspx
 
Hi WJ :D
Insulin levels ,due to needs constantly change, they are never static, well not for long anyway. And this is not due to any outside influences sometimes, all Hormones effect insulin, production, sensitivity. So sometimes we get thrown a curve ball on insulin that we just can't seem to work out within our usuall routine...we are not privy to all the hormone changes and stages our body goes through which will have a knock on effect on our control.
Insulin does and can stack up in our system and we may coast along thinking all is fine and dandy ,then wallop we have a spate of Hypos...again we have not changed our routine or deviated from our diet. we just have to try and counteract this deviant rough spot till it passes..the same goes for higher spells.

But yes ,there are well documented allergic reactions to insulins and also some insulins just don't agree with some people, as you know Lantus did not with me. Maybe if things carry on in this manner for her and it is not just a little rough patch, which we all get from time to time on insulin ,then she could see about a change in insulins, or maybe regime even.

hope things settle for her :D
 
Thank you both for your replies, I have passed these on. Might be that she has caught a virus thats dragging along.
I am more concerned about the whooshing heartbeat noises in her ears, I searched the net for that and frightened myself half to death. Ah well if things dont improve back to the docs she goes I think.

Thank you again.
 
Whitby Jet
It can't be easy for your friend if she has insulin resistance and can't take the medication to aid this because of her Kidney's ,I feel for her it can't be easy. Depending how long she has been on insulin therapy she may be getting a bit of the "honeymoon" period where the insulin has given her pancreas a little rest and now her pancreas is kicking out some more insulin of it's own now. It happens in Type 1 when you are first put onto insulin before all the islet cells die off. She will probably still produce some insulin with being Type 2 so her pancreas could be having a spurt which could account for the Hypo's.

I really hope things settle for her because Hypo's ,especially nighttime ones are really quiet frightening, tell her to set her alarm and check often in the night to see what is happening and maybe drop her night time one back by quiet a bit just to be on the safe side until she feels on more of an even keel...better to be safe than sorry.
 
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