thirst and lantus

Hey I don't use lantus but instead I'm on levemir and I get awful dry lips and mouth


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galaretka6 said:

recently i have reduced my dose of lantus from 25to 18. iam experiencing terrible.thirst during the night. I wonder maybe i dont have enough lantus in my.system? Does anyone had.situation like that?

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What meter reading are you getting during the night when you are thirsty?

If suggest testing once or twice through the night for a few nights so you can see what's happening

galaretka6 said:

recently i have reduced my dose of lantus from 25to 18. iam experiencing terrible.thirst during the night. I wonder maybe i dont have enough lantus in my.system? Does anyone had.situation like that?

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7 units is a lot of insulin to drop in one go, increased bg leads to thirst as the kidneys need to flush out the extra glucose into your urine and hence why we need to pee a lot also, I'd do some bg checks throughout the night (as others have suggested) to see if you've lowered your basal by too much.

galaretka6 said:

i didnt reduce it in one go.it was over 4-5 days

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It's still a lot over such a short space of time, the fact that you don't check your bg during the night does point to your bg being too high with the symptoms that you describe, as far as I know lantus itself doesn't cause thirst but you can check the patient information that comes with the insulin for possible side-effects.

May I ask why you would reduce the quantity of Lantus that you take? Lantus is like a 24hour insulin implant and the insulin uptake is near a flat line. In other words you absorb it fairly evenly throughout the day. The purpose of Lantus is to provide you with the basic requirement of insulin. That is the amount you need for your body to function throught out the day in a resting state and without eating food. In other words, the minimum insulin that you reqire daily for your body to function. You take Rapid acting insulin first and foremost to tell your cells that you have food that they need to absorb so that you have energy available for your daily activity. This is the PRIME functioon of insulin. The secondary function is that it lowers blood sugar levels. It does that by instructing the cells to absorb blood sugar.

I would suggest, In consulation with your Doctor, you raise your Lantus level and reduce the amount of rapid acting insulin with each meal. You will need to test before each meal and adjust the insulin intake accordingly. You may also need to snack between meals until you get the whole thing settled. The amount of Lantus you take should be approximately half the amount of Rapid acting that you take.

Lantus should be adjusted by 2 units at a time to monitor blood sugar levels and determine if it the correct dose. When adjusting your lantus check your levels before meals, if its high then lantus needs increased, if its low before all meals lantus needs decreased! However if you are trying to lower your humalog levels by eating better you will need to monitor blood levels closely and play about with insulin levels. Have you done the DAFNE course? Hope you get the readings you want.