Tiredness

[SarahW]

Hi All!

Just a quick question. Are all type 1 diabetics tired on a daily basis or is just me? Last HbA1c was 7.8 which has come down from around the 8.9 mark so doing pretty well for me. Also after a hypo are you all tired. Sometimes when I have one I just feel the need to sleep afterwards?

Thanks

 

[totsy]

im tired a lot but i suffer from cfs, before cfs i wasnt though, after an hypo i sometimes get sleepy

 

[noblehead]

Hi All!

Just a quick question. Are all type 1 diabetics tired on a daily basis or is just me? Last HbA1c was 7.8 which has come down from around the 8.9 mark so doing pretty well for me. Also after a hypo are you all tired. Sometimes when I have one I just feel the need to sleep afterwards?

Thanks

Sarah,

Tiredness can be down to other things too, not just diabetes so always best to get this checked out if it is causing you worry. Feeling tired after a hypo is common syptom, I often feel drained and just want to rest, but this usually passes after a short time.

Nigel

 

[brendan1985]

hi sarah
my last hbac1 was 7.8 aswell and had improved slightly similar to you. i used to always feel tired b4 but basically just started to goin to bed earlier(12am) and taking those energy supplement tablets like pharmaton capsules or vitamin c drink with my breakfast in morning.

this wud always keep me goin but wud get tired again around 6pm but most ppl do anyway after long day or watever

tiredness is always common after hypos i wouldnt worry about that. have half glass of lucozade and ul be buzzin' for at least an hr after :lol:

Brendan

 

[janabelle]

Hi Sarah,
No, not all diabetics feel tired, but as previous poster suggested there could be reasons unrelated to diabetes that could be causing yours.
However, extreme lethargy is one of the most common side-effects of synthetic and analogue insulins, especially Lantus. When I was on it I was always saying to my husband that the tiredness did not feel like normal tiredness, more like someone had drugged or poisoned me. I felt tired most of the time, but some days it could come on suddenly and I felt like I would collapse; this is commonly reported with Lantus.
You should give the IDDT website a look http://www.iddt.org/
Jus

 

[jopar]

It's normal to feel zapped of energy after a hypo, after all glucose is an energy provider and when you hypo you've stripped out your energy source..

If you suffer frquent hypo's then this can make one feel lethargic, as you are constantly sapping the energy from your body and not having enough time to recover and it ends up impacting on it self..

If you can't idenify with any of these, then a word with doc just to check out there isn't any other underlying reason, such as underactive thyroid etc..

 

[NeedleMagnet]

The only related thought I can think is that going hypo is extremely tiring on your body, and often I can sleep a good 6-7 hours after a very serious hypo. Any other case of extreme and unusual tiredness I would suggest is an external problem and maybe down to something as trivial as not getting enough deep sleep - noises in the night and vibrations effecting your bedroom or suchlike which dont quite wake you but keep your body more tense than usual. on the Other hand it may be something more serious, anything from work time stress to early onset ME.

 

[ashey]

Weakness and Fatigue in Diabetes

Diabetics feel fatigued and out of breathe very quickly. The sugar in the blood is unable to get into the cells where it is converted into energy. This lowers stamina and resistance. As a result the patient feels tired and fatigued continuously. The patient may have a pale appearance due to anemia.
Diabetic patients frequently complain of headaches and pain all over the body especially hands, arms, legs and feet. Elevated sugar levels in the blood damage the nerves and are responsible for these aches and pains.

 

[noblehead]

Re: Weakness and Fatigue in Diabetes

Diabetics feel fatigued and out of breathe very quickly. The sugar in the blood is unable to get into the cells where it is converted into energy. This lowers stamina and resistance. As a result the patient feels tired and fatigued continuously. The patient may have a pale appearance due to anemia.
Diabetic patients frequently complain of headaches and pain all over the body especially hands, arms, legs and feet. Elevated sugar levels in the blood damage the nerves and are responsible for these aches and pains.

Is this a generalisation of all people with diabetes ashey? In what context are you referring too?

Nigel

 

[janabelle]

Ashey,
Diabetics should not, and do not feel tired continuously; and why should all diabetics be anaemic??? As for suggesting that headaches, pains in arms, legs, etc in diabetic patients are caused solely by neuropathy, that is not accurate. There are plenty of people,many on this forum, who have suffered the aforementioned ailments and found the cause to be a result of GM insulin side-effects.
Where have you got this info from and what medication the diabetics you refer to are on?
Jus

 

[catherinecherub]

We will soon have a reply as to a cure methinks looking at the poster's signature. Spam??????

 

[janabelle]

Catherinecherub,
:lol: Yeah,suspected it might be!
Worries me though that in the future docs may consider exhaustion & pain to be part of the diabetic condition, even in younger, recently diagnosed patients. Could be inevitable as insulin choice decreases. :cry:
Jus

 

[catherinecherub]

I understand your concerns with regards to insulin choices. I appreciate that you and others here are highlighting insulin choices.
Go to the poster's profile and see what I mean. Click on the website and get your answers.

 

[noblehead]

Catherine/janabelle,

That's what I thought too, hence why I asked him to elaborate further.

Nigel

 

[IrishJoe]

So you feel like rubbish a lot of the time? At least I'm not the only one...

 

[Jenni_1984]

Hi Sarah,
No, not all diabetics feel tired, but as previous poster suggested there could be reasons unrelated to diabetes that could be causing yours.
However, extreme lethargy is one of the most common side-effects of synthetic and analogue insulins, especially Lantus. When I was on it I was always saying to my husband that the tiredness did not feel like normal tiredness, more like someone had drugged or poisoned me. I felt tired most of the time, but some days it could come on suddenly and I felt like I would collapse; this is commonly reported with Lantus.
You should give the IDDT website a look http://www.iddt.org/
Jus

I use lantus before bed - currently injecting 23 units. Reading your post and others posted here about lantus is putting me right off it. I put my tiredness down to a bad night's sleep or round about the time of my period when I feel like I could sleep for days. But realistically most nights I am asleep by 11pm and average about 8 hours sleep.

I am sat in work this morning feeling absolutely shattered - slept from 10.30pm to 7.00am this morning. I do feel like this quite a lot and it doesn't seem to relate to my bm readings - feel this way at 5 or 10 if you understand what I'm saying.

Hmmm...food for thought. It's hard not to take stock of the negative comments I have been reading about lantus.

Jenni

 

[janabelle]

Hi Jenni,
Sorry to read you're feeling so knackered and with a decent amount of sleep too. If anything I've said has made you or anyone else doubt Lantus, that's a goood thing I only wish I'd had that opportunity instead of 4 years of misery and doubting my own body instead. You are right to have concerns.
http://www.diabeticconnect.com/discussi ... de-effects
http://www.organicconsumers.org/article ... _15105.cfm
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve ... 2707000289
http://www.purefood.org/patent/geinsulinbad.cfm
Jus

 

[SarahW]

Thanks for all your replies! Think maybe I'm not the only person who feels tired alot of the time. I have looked into the synthetic insulin thing but because am actually finally getting somewhere with my sugar levels, I'm a bit scared to change again. I tried swopping from lantus to .......cant remember the name, a weaker insulin anyway and OMG my sugars went through the roof. Is there anyone out there who has gone onto animal insulin and it hasnt suited them by the way. If it can happen it would happen to me, I just know it would. Also does it come in prefiled pens etc with small needles? Soz to ask so many questions!

 

[janabelle]

HI Sara,
Animal insulins are available in pen-fill cartridges, not pre-filled pens as far as I'm aware. The Owen-mumford autopen, and the Lily Humapen Luxura can be used with hypurin cartridges. The needles for these are small & fine, not sure of exact lengths though.You can contact Wockhardt who manufacture the insulin http://www.wockhardt.co.uk/index.asp They are really helpful and will be able to give you more updated info.
As for how you'll get on with animal insulin and how it will affect your control; you will only find out by trying it. Personally it's the best I've ever been on, and given me stable control, which i hadn't had since diagnosis 21 yrs ago. Even if my control wasn't so good, it'd still be worth it to feel human and not like the walking dead!
If your tiredness is related to Lantus/synthetic analogues, then there's no reason you won't suffer other side-effects as many of us have- these can take from months to years to show themselves and include joint/muscle pain, cognitive dysfunction, and symptoms almost identical to that of ME,Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
Not all people suffer these probs, but for the many that do it can have a devastating impact on their lives.
You could always give animal insulin a try for a month or 2, and see if you feel any better. If not, you can change back to Lantus.
Best of luck with whatever u decide to do, keep us posted
Jus

 

[SarahW]

Thanks janabelle! Think will leave it for a few months get hols out of the way etc and then may seriously think about it. Will throw it at the professer at my next diabetic clinic appointment I think.

Take care