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Time of Hypos

A

andrewpickford81

Member
Messages
5
I keep having hypos in the afternoon, about 3/4pm. I am aware that hypos generally can come at this point due to the natural dip of your sugars.

I have recently upped my lantus insulin to 28 units, but am trying to control my carbs by limiting my insulin intake to 50 units per day in total (bolus and basal). So far my sugars seem in better control. Morning blood sugars equal night time, and therefore I'm happy. I do keep having hypos in the afternoon. I.e. I have dinner at approx 12pm, sugars are back to normal following insulin by about 2pm, and then usually dip around 3-4pm.

If i eat exactly the same meal at breakfast then lunch (say 9am or 12.15pm) then I have to take more insulin for the breakfast meal as opposed to the lunchtime meal. Im assuming this is because of the dawn phenomenon.

Is this a case of me simply needing to eat at this point? Or is it actually coming down further because I am taking too much insulin??

How do I determine this? I.e. if it means I take less insulin at lunch time to avoid the hypo, then surely my blood sugars will stay high for those 4 hours and then revert back down.

Confusedly
A

http://controllingmydiabetes.blogspot.com/
 
Hi Andrew,

Some people manage ok on a single daily shot of Lantus, however, many find it
has a far more even and predictable action if it's injected in a split dose AM/PM.
Adjusting the AM/PM ratio can account better for your own personal basal needs (including
for the dawn phenomenon that you mentioned).
A more even basal rate should iron out any highs and lows if they were the fault of you basal
insulin, and mean that meal time boluses become more uniform.

Hope this helps,
Timo.
 
Andrew, sorry to muddy the waters further for you, but it could also depend on what you're eating for lunch? Different foods take different amounts of time to get absorbed, but that's another whole can of worms I'm afraid (check out GI for various foods and you'll see what I mean)!

Hope you can sort this by splitting the Lantus as timo suggests...
 
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