I am T1 for about 29 years. My doctor recently put me on Glucobay. He and my nurse offered some advice about it, but because it's not a very widely used drug, especially for T1's, their information was limited. I've taken it for two days now, just with dinner. Both days, I got a hypo about 1-2 hours after my meal. When I asked my nurse if I would need to adjust my bolus to a square or dual wave, she said no, but if Glucobay prolongs your absorption of carbs, then to me, that would make more sense. I wonder if that is why I'm experiencing the hypo's?
Secondly, what other options are out there for treating hypo's while on this drug? From what the nurse provided me with, my options are limited to dextrose (those tabs make me gag), honey and milk (also, yuck). Any other ideas? I miss my jelly beans and juice already...
Glucobay will partially prevent that the digested carbohydrates are absorbed. Many carbs will get flushed out without being digested. To be more exact some bacteria in your colon will consume the carbs. As a result of the 40g you have eaten just 20g are absorbed (just a guess). So your expectation that it just prolongs the absorbtion is not correct. Of course to compensate for the lower amount of carbs in your blood stream you need to lower your bolus! How on earth can they recommend to keep your bolus at the same level it was without Glucobay?
I am not positive about recommending Glucobay to T1 diabetics in the first place but this ignorance by your medical team is just unbelievable and dangerous!
Is anyone using Acarbose, or the generic together with bolus insulin?
I would love to hear about your experience.
My recent c peptide is low------->0.5
The anti body tests are negative.
I use 7 units of Tresiba for basal; and for bolus I use Novolog. The bolus amount can be as much as 10 or more units for a meal. The usual dinner is about 6-7 units. Lunch is also 6-7 units.
My pancreas does not appear to be able to keep up with the meal time rise in BG. So I use Novolog. My question is : I think I still produce insulin because my Tresiba amount is not much. So, I think that a drug like Acarbose may help me, perhaps reduce the quantity of meal time insulin.
Unless his sugars are still high. Then he would keep his bolus the same and add the med to bring him in range.
But I really don’t understand the point of giving you this drug instead of increasing insulin.
These kids of drugs seem to be there so you can eat things you shouldn’t. Like binging on cake and ice cream.
I prefer to have a little cake and up my insulin and not mess wit my bodies
I am hoping to use less insulin if I use Acarbose:
I don’t plan to binge on cake and ice cream. Because insulin can cause hypo glycemia (so can sulfonylureas)- I’m hoping to decrease the amount of insulin that I use.
Acarbose is tricky. I used if for 2 months and gave up because of all the hypos. If you bolus as normal, you will go hypo in my experience. If you bolus for half, you get weird spikes and hypos. If you give frequent small boluses to reactively treat and not proactively lead a spike it might be possible. I never succeeded at it and had 1 trip too many to the er to justify any benefits from it. Your experience may vary based on your specific situation and body chemistry.
Just a suggestion, get your supply of “oh crap I’m low’!” Glucose handy for several hours after taking acarbose.
I have found that I use far less quantities of Novolog when taking it together with Acarbose. For a meal of about 30-40 gram carb, I use 1.5 units Novolog with Acarbose. Without Acarbose, I would use about 7 units of Novolog. The prevention of the carbohydrates breakdown to glucose does work.
