Sun allergy caused by Novorapid?

Really unlikely if you've used novorapid previously. An allergy to meds would generally felt immediately and ongoing.

More likely to be an allergy to bedding? Different food ingredients etc

PaulinaB said:

Hi everyone

A bit of a random question... We've been spending last week on holidays, basically sitting in the sun and in the pool. For the past few days I started getting an annoying rash which seems to get much worse after sun exposure and better after night.
The rash appeared after our 2-3 day out here, coincidentally this is also when I put our low carb diet on hold and started taking big amounts of Novorapid daily to cover for carb intake.
So for the first 2-3 days I've been taking no more than 5 units of Novo daily, and later shot up to 30-40 units per day and the rash showed up.

I never had much allergies before and never a sun allergy and I used to spend summers in hot places a lot when I was a kid, so this is new to me. I read some preservatives used in medicines and cause sun allergies so I was wondering whether anyone heard of Novorapid causing it?

I got a mild allergy medication in a local pharmacy but it doesn't seem to be doing much
"Fortunately" we are leaving tomorrow so I hope it will get better. But if it is in fact Novo causing this, I'd be keen on discussing other options with my doc...

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What does the rash look like, and where is it? (I have a theory.)

Interesting. I have terrible problems when out in the sun - as you descrive a rash and itchiness and small bumps under my skin. I've sought medical advice and also been tested for sun sensitivity but nothing helped/showed up. Never thought it could be the novo rapid causing an allergy but you could be on to something. Sorry I couldn't help with the problem though.

Hubby just reminded me I was on a drug... Can't remember the name of it though... A tablet that warned me to stay out of the sun. That caused huge itching and rashes just in the sun...

Looks to me like a prickly heat rash @PaulinaB.

PaulinaB said:

It's located on most parts of my body that were out in the sun. Neck, hands, belly, even small patch on one leg. It seems worst on the parts that spend more times in the sun - hands and neck.
It's much more red than it looks in the photo. Especially on places that were already red from the sun - couldn't get a good pic of those, as it looked like red on red in the camera.
Itched like crazy. It's better now after spending a few hours inside, away from the sun.
View attachment 14155

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As I thought, that looks like prickly heat to me, and is an allergy; usually to the sunshine. I'm assuming it can be pretty itchy, but feel sensitive if you scratch it?

I used to get this terribly, and to the extent that I used to start taking a long acting antihistamine tablet as I boarded my outward flight, so that it wouldn't come up; or if it did, it was much reduced. A few years ago, curiously as I was spending longer and longer periods in the sun, it just stopped happening.

If it is itching, and you know you can take them, antihistamines will damp it down pretty quickly, both in terms of the rash and the itchy feelings. Sometime like calamine lotion (Yes, a great look in the sun!) help with the itching if it gets bad. Of course, the real solution is not to go out in the sun.

All of this was well before I was ever diagnosed diabetic, so I would guess this isn't related; but my hypothesis could be wrong on all fronts!

If I recall correctly, I vaguely recall, some antihistamines include diabetes in their list of warnings or complications, so if you do decide to give them a go, please read the literature and form your opinion accordingly.

I hope it clears up for you.

PaulinaB said:

Hehe, so a sun allergy caused by... Sun? it's quite possible, I'm just surprised as i never had one - if anything just a nasty sun burn. And to help that. I was using 30SPF sunscreen this time. So maybe the sunscreen helped with the sun burn but it allowed me to get too much sun and that caused the rash?

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Possible, the easiest solution is to keep out of the sun

donnellysdogs said:

Hubby just reminded me I was on a drug... Can't remember the name of it though... A tablet that warned me to stay out of the sun. That caused huge itching and rashes just in the sun...

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Could have been Doxycycline (antibiotic)

Probably something like gabapentins or similar...went thru a spate of being prescribed this sort of drug....
A long while a go now...

There are lots of drugs with the potential for extra photsensitivity. As Robert suggests, some antibiotics, and certainly steroids.

I have had the same reaction this past week and same symptoms. Only thing different this summer from last summer is insulin - novo rapid and levemir. Figured it is just my body adjusting and being more sensitive than normal.

justbe said:

Right now, I'm blaming my type 1 diabetes on milk & soy proteins (very similar proteins, which also have a lot in common with the proteins in the islet cells that make insulin). Milk proteins have been implicated in about one third of diabetes cases, and I didn't stop drinking milk until (long) after I also developed solar urticaria. So it could be that continued milk consumption screws up your immune system more and more, perhaps?

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I'm not so sure about milk. It's something that I've never really liked and therefore never consumed in large quantities, so I don't believe it's strongly linked to T1. Who knows though!

justbe said:

Interesting. It does sound like solar urticaria, also known as prickly heat (which I find a derogatory / over-simplifying name for such a disfiguring, debilitating disease). Supposedly, that's caused by an "allergy to sunlight", which (evolutionarily speaking) sounds ridiculous to me.

I suspect there is another explanation, and novorapid use WOULD coincide with the appearance of this condition for me. Correlation is not causation, of course. But I'm always a little suspicious of novorapid because it's never really lived up to the marketing hype for me: it always takes longer to do its work than its published insulin profile suggests, for instance. That just makes me wonder whether the manufacturers really value serving diabetics more than profiting from having the "best" insulin.

However, urticaria IS an immune disorder, so maybe it simply comes around as a result of type 1 diabetes, or from the same CAUSE as type 1 diabetes.

Right now, I'm blaming my type 1 diabetes on milk & soy proteins (very similar proteins, which also have a lot in common with the proteins in the islet cells that make insulin). Milk proteins have been implicated in about one third of diabetes cases, and I didn't stop drinking milk until (long) after I also developed solar urticaria. So it could be that continued milk consumption screws up your immune system more and more, perhaps?

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I'm sorry, but I don't quite go with some of the quantum leap you appear to make, but That doesn't make either of us definitively correct.

But, in my simplistic mind, this may be quite easy to pin down. At the highest level three things changed around the timing of this rash appearing:
- increased exposure of the OP's skin to sunlight. I would further note that the OP looks to be very fair skinned, so actually sitting in the heat and sun would be quite a change. More of a change than for someone like me who spends protracted periods in sunnier climes.
- the OP has been eating a carbier diet, on holiday
- Insulin use increased, as a result of the higher carb consumption

Those don't include a reaction to whatever sunscreens PaulinaB is using. She states the rash is definitely more evident on the areas in the sun most, which could suggest those areas would have sunscreen applied.

So, on return from holiday, it seems the exposure to strong, bright sunlight is likely to decrease. If the OP continued with her "holiday diet" for a couple of weeks, and see what happens to the rash. If having continued with the diet, and therefore increased insulin doses, the rash goes, that could be a decent indicator.

If it doesn't, then a process of food elimination, to take out the "holiday carbs", in a controlled way could help identify either a trigger foodstuff, or a reaction to the insulin, over a trigger/threshold dose.

In my simple world, I'd be inclined to treat the rash now, with antihistamines, in order to make my life more comfortable and to get maximum benefit from my holiday. Sometimes we look too hard when things are simple.

PaulinaB, I hope you can get some relief and enjoy the rest of your holiday.