type2 newly on insulin

scooby15

Member
Messages
7
Hi , have been a diagnosed as type 2 for six years, in which time I have had various illness' and my control has steadily slipped in the last two years my most recent hba1c was 10.1 seeing bm levels of 13 - 21 mmols doc was going to put me on glp1 therapy instead of oral but diabetic nurse intervened and has put me on insulin as am in danger of becoming hyperosmolar, my question is: how do i know whether it is my beta cells that have stopped working or it is insulin resistance? as am guessing if it is the former I will be on insulin forever and if it is the latter would being on insulin actually cause the rest of my beta cells to give up? am well confused as i dont know anyone that has come off insuling once they regain a good control :?
 

Mileana

Well-Known Member
Messages
553
Coming off insulin can be possible if you're a clear-cut type 2. It should be done carefully and would in many cases have to do with low-carbing, weight loss if needed, more exercise to have better effect of the insulin you do produce and other of these factors.

There was a recent post by Defren called 'Curiosity' or something like that, you will find a few examples there of type 2s who have come off meds, I think including insulin, or drastically reduced them.

If you get to that point down the road some time, it will have to be done gradually and carefully supervised - it would be a small number of units of insulin reduction on a weekly basis or something like that, and then if your control stays good, a further reduction.

I have a type of Diabetes which is progressive and in my case, the general consensus seems to be that being on insulin will preserve beta cells, not kill them. The reason for this is that high sugars are toxic to betacells, so the best you can do is try to get your numbers under control in any case and then see from there how it goes.

Have a look at that other posts also, and look around the forum and ask questions as you need to.

-M
 

CollieBoy

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,974
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Hi carb Foods
scooby15,
I did it was put straight on insulin on diagnosis and decided that as I could cope when I missed a novorapid shot, I decided to cut back on bolus, then started to do same on basal and quit that too gradually. DSN insisted I go to gliclazide but that quickly dwindled from 80mg to 40mg to 20mg daily and now only take a 20mg if there is a problem, raising my bg. My FBG was 4.4 this morning :D and my last HbA1c was 5.4 :D , thanks to a low carb diet :clap: :clap:
So my advice to you would be that if you want to try kicking the insulin habit, do so gradually and with DSN/physician's support.As Mileana said, if your problem is carb resistance. then trimming of a bit of weight could help and triming off a bit of carbs from your diet could provide the weight loss and provide less carbs to be dealt with.
:thumbup: Good luck.
 

scooby15

Member
Messages
7
Thanks guys I suspect that my beta cells were not as good as they could be as I had a lower than normal c-peptide despite a high glucose count the insulin i am taking is humolog mixed 25/100 and after a week nubers have started to come down , however overnight is marvelous (morning bm is around 10.6 now) but i am still getting spikes of 16 -19 during day i started on 16 units 2x daily rising to 18 yesterday and will probably go up over the next weeks i am wondering whether the short acting is not enough but the long acting seems to be doing the trick, I must say I am surprised that it has started to work so quickly.is this good? because other people not as heavy as me are on about 40 units each time