Sensitivity to insulin

Neil Walden

Most of us know that the general advice we receive from doctors and DSNs is just that - "general" and based on the "average" person with diabetes. However this completely well intentioned advice does not cater for the huge variations in individual responses to food and insulin. For instance when monitoring carbohydrate intake before a meal we all have different responses to certain types of carbohydrate as has been noted by several correspondents. Add to this variable response to insulin and you have a heady mix of factors!

I recently had a review of my progress with DAFNE with my DSN where it was suggested that I might need to consider changing to 0.5 dosing since I seem to be very sensitive to insulin, so that correcting for a snack of say 2.5 carbohydrate units by injecting 3 units of Humalog can be too much sometimes (except when it isn't of course on one of those days and it is too little!)  I do get quite a few hypos, or at least above the DAFNE recommendations (8 in the past two weeks). I have considered the alternative of using an insulin pump, but to me it seems more of a hassle than 6-7 injections per day.  It is all down to personal preference I guess and I would still need to carb.count, plus programming the pump and all the associated stuff. 

I would be pleased to hear from other people who are very sensitive to insulin, so that we can share experiences and helpful tips.

I reckon that we should establish an ongoing forum to discuss the kind of issue we have raised during the currency of this blog because a lot of valuable insights are emerging.

Comments

[Trinkwasser]

I tend to use newsgroups, alt.support.diabetes, alt.support.diabetes.uk and misc.health.diabetes. The latter tended to have more Type 1s, and in asd there was a poster called Old Al who was an engineer and applied the same problem-solving philosophy to his diabetes: his posts are worth googling for though he gave a lot of advice to Type 2s as well (he was LADA and intitially diagnosed as Type 2 in error) he managed remarkably tight control by using correction boluses and when necessary corrections to his corrections, including the use of glucose tabs when he overdid things.

Here's a UK forum that you may find worth visiting

http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/

Also of course Bernstein's forum

http://www.diabetes-book.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl

never bothered with that one, you need to register even to view it, but his somewhat ascetic policy of minimal carbs covered by minimal insulin suggests you should give it a look.

Agreed that this "secret" site has some content better than many of the public and well known sources, would be NICE (pun intended) to see it continue

[Mathew Hipwood]

I set this forum up immediately after completing my DAFNE course.

I'm happy to let the users of this site use it as well.

Any suggestions for sub forums welcome.

[Mathew Hipwood]

http://forum.hariboglobin.com/

Thats the url, I seem to have tagged it onto my name in the last post :)

[Graham]

Sometimes dealing with Type II Diabetes can be overwhelming.

Our doctors prescribe medications to stabilize our symptoms, and suggest things we can do to be as healthy as possible. Soon, you notice a theme. The dreaded phrase "Diet and Exercise” occurs over and over. Chances are you've tried diet and exercise before, with varying degrees of success. So you look at your options, and none of them thrill you.

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“An hour of vigorous pole walking keeps my blood glucose down for a whole day and as well or better than an hour-long workout at my fitness centre,” says Dan Overmyer a retired University of British Columbia professor

The Canadian Diabetes Association’s 2003 Clinical Practice Guidelines recommend that individuals with Type II Diabetes aim for 50 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (like walking, swimming or cycling) three days week. They also recommend resistance exercise (like wall push ups, lifting soup cans or propelling yourself with Nordic walking poles) be done three times per week.

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For more research information on the health benefits of Urban Poling check out: www.urbanpoling.com

[mydiabetesnotes]

metformin is my first choice before take insulin, thank you for articles

[Dan Wilson]

Yes, you can. More people are diagnosed with diabetes at an early age even more on children. So, it can strike you anytime and at an early age. Being obese and having a sedentary (non-active) lifestyle are the major causes for this (Type 2 diabetes), unless it was genetically transmitted by your parents to you which is a case of Type 1 diabetes.

I found this site diabetes-research.net that deals with diabetes. Their intensive diabetes research helps individual to know more about diabetes and shows some tips/ways on how to prevent and minimize the effects of diabetes and most of all they provide diabetes menu plans to help manage diabetes for those who suffer the illness.

Hope that helps in some way.

[Dan Wilson]

Yes, you can. More people are diagnosed with diabetes at an early age even more on children. So, it can strike you anytime and at an early age. Being obese and having a sedentary (non-active) lifestyle are the major causes for this (Type 2 diabetes), unless it was genetically transmitted by your parents to you which is a case of Type 1 diabetes.

I found this site diabetes-research.net that deals with diabetes. Their intensive diabetes research helps individual to know more about diabetes and shows some tips/ways on how to prevent and minimize the effects of diabetes and most of all they provide diabetes menu plans to help manage diabetes for those who suffer the illness.

Hope that helps in some way.

[Shared Decision Making]

Absolutely correct...it has to be observed after pushing into the body.each body is different and therefore will behave differently.

[diabetes]

Which is worser? type 1 or type 2 diabetes? I think they're all worst.

-sm

[EMR]

There is a lot of discussion about the carbohydrate limits for such a patient in the internet ...in fact there are diet charts too.

[Dental Roseville]

Insulin is a hormone that is produced by specialized cells (beta cells) of the pancreas. (The pancreas is a deep-seated organ in the abdomen located behind the stomach.) In addition to helping glucose enter the cells, insulin is also important in tightly regulating the level of glucose in the blood.

[diabetes]

I am not sensitive to insulin anymore.

Sam Nisbett

[Roger Mew]

Hi, It seems I must have a sensitivity to insulin. After first useage got pains in my chest and no nothing to do with the heart. after 9 years and the problem getting so bad my BP went to silly figures had a chat with a doctor and we decided it was something to do with the insulin. Took aerius for a while and problem has gone, well for 6 months. The effect is now coming back with pains in my chest My Insulin is now at silly levels but have now tried an experiment, instead of 3 x per day before meals, cut the last of the day down to less than half and have a third before going to bed. Blood sugar levels lowest they have been and pain not so bad!!
Insulin is Humolog 30 and 20 AM 20 midday and before 60 now 30 before meal and 15.
Does anybody else suffer from associated chest pains.
Incidentally, when in hospital for an op and no insulin I had no pains!

[diabetic neuropathy symptoms]

Thanks for sharing this informative entry. And there is always a thing or two one can learn from the comments.

[Keranamu Gula]

Diabetes type 2 is easier to control compare to type 1.

[erectile dysfunction treatment]

Very Good information about insulin intake. Really many times it happens that people suffering from diabetes start taking insulin and after some period
they become addict of insulin. but really it is not good practice because after some time our body stop giving response and ultimately complication diabetes
start coming on the surface.

So best go to Ayurvedic treatment and also start practicing Yoga. It will give you definitely give you relief.

Thanks for sharing your own experience It will really very helpful to other people suffering from diabetes and using insulin.

keep posting helpful information about diabetes

best regards
- Smith Alan
http://www.raymeds.com/blog

[furosemide]

I liked this blog, i think is very interesting, most of all for the new ideas that this blog talk.

[Am I a Diabetic?]

Superlike this! You nailed it when you said that we should establish a diabetes forum. This blog seems to work though!

~Stacy

[Diabetic Food Lists]

totally agree that we need a diabetes forum!

[Diabetes Causes]

Diabetes is becoming a worldwide problem and epidemic. The world leaders should take more action to help educate citizens about diabetes prevention and the cause of type 2 diabetes.