Hello all current or former Insulin-(Glargine or Detemir) users,
Summary:
Lantus (Insulin Glargine) Mfg by Sanofi
Levemir(Insulin Detemir) Mfg by Novo Nordisk
As you probably know already, most long acting Insulins have a near linear activity rate when starting up followed by an extended plateau phase where the activity remains relatively constant for the rest of the ~24h period after injection.
TextGraph below is Activity(y)/Time(x)
______
/…\
0…12…24
Text graph is neither to scale or as steady as it looks or drug companies claim.
My doctor has given me a sample Levemir Pen to test it’s stability as a long acting insulin versus Lantus that I’m currently taking.
I was thinking that having a discussion that involves people who have used one or both of these Insulins would help people using either discuss any reasons they prefer one or the other or problems they’s had with it lasting longer or shorter than the 24h expected period of activity.
From chats discussion had or read on this site I know that not everyone takes their shots at the same time because of the drop off in activity at end of it’s cycle. I used to take mine in am before breakfast but that meant it would be less active during sleep and may cause High BG in morning. Then I started Injecting in evening so that when I’m still up and walking around being active that would help prevent my BG from spiking.
Some people like myself take two shots a day splitting the dosage into two parts Higher during periods of lower physical activity and Lower during periods of higher activity. Although nowhere near the adjust-ability that pumps offer with varying Basal Rates. It’s more flexible and easier to adjust as long as you can calculate average insulin for last 24h period.
Questions:
I’d like to know from your personal experiences with one or both of these insulins which you preferred.
1: Which one do you think gave you better control of BG during a given 24h period.
2: If you’ve used both. Why did you switch from one to the other?
3: When do you take or adjust your shots?
1/day every 24hours
2/day every 12hours
4: If you miss a shot how long until you take next one?
Thanks,
Mike
mikfly# pm for twitter info