Insulin dosage, carb ratio changes

Type 1 and LADA
1

I use insulin sensitivity and carb ratio’s to estimate my novolog dose before each of 3 meals; the estimate includes a correction for deviations from the target level, and an amount to compensate for grams of carbohydrate.
I use 1 lantus dose per day to attempt to prevent major rises or drops of blood glucose levels overnight.
Both the insulin sensitivity and carbohydrate ratio vary a lot. They’re much higher in warmer weather. They’re lower in the morning. Does anyone know of some good science reporting on this?

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2

We can really all vary how we respond to heat,

But here is a small informal study of hot showers and blood sugar levels.

https://www.quantifieddiabetes.com/2020/03/final-results-hot-shower-effect-on.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR3MUvlFW9QIw-DjTj2iNZV8PLYqPFx87Qeh-wFX4FCJNVLu6NxT5u2vSs8

My blood sugar rockets sky high if I take a hot shower in the morning,by night time it still goes up but not as much. But I know people who purposely take a hot shower to lower their BG levels. Because of either DP or right now it’s FOTF. I need a lot more insulin in the morning even when I don’t eat.

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Thanks for the lead! I commented on their study and hope to join in their work.
The hot shower effect varies from person to person, apparently, but its direction is consistent on a personal basis. Maybe a similar result would emerge for insulin sensitivity with regard to ambient temperatures and/or seasonality.

4

I am on an insulin pump (10 years plus) so my experience may be irrelevant. After adjusting my insulin resistance and carb ratio during the first six months, I have not changed the ratios over the succeeding years except lowering the resistance time once when I switched to Fiasp from NovoLog.

5

Thanks for the data point! If I were using a pump, I would be interested in the background rate of insulin usage. I’ve never used a pump, but I understand that some of them will automatically adjust the background infusion rate, so as to avoid overnight lows, etc. In my case, I try to set the Lantus dose just right, to avoid lows but not go too high.

6

I recently spent 12 days in the hospital and was not allowed to use my pump. Instead, I had to follow the hospital’s protocol of Lantus and humalog injections. One night I had to consume almost a quart of orange juice just to bring my BGs over 70 and another night my meter read over 400.