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When to eat after Insuman Comb insulin dose?

M

MikeSA

Member
Messages
14
Type of diabetes
Type 1
After injecting oneself with insulin is it absolutely imperative to wait 25-40 minutes (as stated in insulin instruction leaflets) or can one start eating immediately?
 
What insulin are you using? I've not seen that instruction in the leaflets.

Usually pre bolusing is used to try and avoid a post prandial spike. If you don't wait before eating, you'll digest the food before the insulin starts working and you'll get a bigger rise. But usually with fast acting insulin the official advice is that you don't need wait and it starts working immediately, it's only people actually using it that have discovered it takes longer to start working because it's marketed as fast acting or rapid acting.
 
I don't remember seeing that advice in any leaflet? It just makes sense to wait 30 minutes or so to try to match the timing between eating and insulin working
 
I inject humalog then I eat immediately..... if my sugar level is under 6 I eat first then inject.
 
MikeSA: it's a trade-off. The sooner you start eating, the higher your blood sugar will spike before coming back down.

It's OK for your sugar to be high sometimes, as long as it's not too high or too prolonged. Your HbA1c is the best indicator of how you are doing overall. If it is too high, then you need to find the lowest-hanging fruit to improve it.
 
It's different for everyone. What you want to do is time eating for when insulin starts browning active.

Also depends on your insulin, but I'll assume a fast acting one (Novorapid for example).

So I would start injecting just before eating. Then measure your results, if your bg goes higher that 8-10 then you may need to inject a bit earlier before eating.

But it also depends on what you're 3stimg at the time, different foods raise your bg higher or lower. Something rich in sugars (sweets) will raise you quicker than something rich in starch (potatoes). But then if you eat a lot of fat with the meal (pizza with lots of cheese), that will slow down the food too!

You just have to experiment! There sadly isn't one answer that works for everyone.
 
catapillar said:
What insulin are you using? I've not seen that instruction in the leaflets.
Click to expand...

It's sometime since I've used animal insulin but sure the patient information leaflet said wait 30-40 mins before eating.
 
Thanks for all the responses. The insulin that I have been prescribed is Sanofi-Aventis Insuman Comb 30/70 and the patient information leaflet definitely states that one should wait atleast 25 minutes before eating. Perhaps the same requirement does not apply for other types of insulin but most times I have started to eat immediately and have not experienced any adverse effects.
 
I use humalog I inject then eat immediately after but if I'm high I wait 10 to 15 minutes if I'm low 7 or less I eat then inject after. Humalog is super quick so got to be careful.
 
MikeSA said:
Thanks for all the responses. The insulin that I have been prescribed is Sanofi-Aventis Insuman Comb 30/70 and the patient information leaflet definitely states that one should wait atleast 25 minutes before eating. Perhaps the same requirement does not apply for other types of insulin but most times I have started to eat immediately and have not experienced any adverse effects.
Click to expand...

That's very helpful :)

That's a mixed insulin and yes, the advice is to inject approx 30mins in advance of eating :)

That gives the insulin a chance to start working :)

I've edited the title of this thread to add that info in.
 
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