my bloodsugar levels peak about an hour after a meal. and slowly goes down until it stabilizes after around 2 hours… my levels can get quite high 1 hour after breakfast. it can basically go from 11 to 3,5 within an hour and a half. should i take a higher dose of insulin to avoid a high peak and then eat a snack about 2,5h after breakfast? should high peaks be avoided after a meal (with more insulin) even though the sugar goes down rapidly after the peak??
What you’ve discovered is totally typical. Most people find that to avoid the peaks at an hour after, you can (a) take your insulin 30-40 minutes (or MORE) before you begin eating and/or (b) cut back on carbs.
And yes, high peaks MUST be avoided to bring down your A1c. It’s those post-prandial (post-meal) highs that are skewing your average negatively.
In the mornings, you may need to increase your insulin because your body is more insulin-resistant in the mornings (look up “dawn phenomenon” in our forum search). But increasing your insulin across the board may result in big lows at 2-3 hours afterward.
Dolores-
I give myself insulin 30 minutes before meals and to avoid the dawn P, I try not to eat a snack before bed and I bolus if my bg’s are too high before bed time
Umm… what kind of insulin are you people talking about? Suggesting that someone take their meal time insulin long before they eat seems like an invitation to hypos if the person is using a rapid insulin (NovoRapid or Humalog) rather than just a regular insulin.
Many educators, endos, and those who have had more recent experience collecting data from continuous glucose monitoring have begun suggesting that we severely overestimated the “rapid” activity of our rapid insulins. Personally, I take the most rapid peaking of the fast-acting insulins - Apidra - and I have been advised to advance my insulin 20-30 minutes before a meal now. My educator told me two weeks ago that the 30minutes prior back when I was on Regular as a child should probably have been an hour and that three years ago when they touted Apidra (and in the late 90s when I started on Humalog) as insulins you could take simultaneously with food or with Apidra even after a meal was a little too ambitious!
Both Cherise and I who have posted here are on fast-acting insulins in our insulin pumps and have successfully reduced our post-prandial effects. I first heard the suggestion from another admin here and have been loving the results.
I am not saying that your experience is not valid. If waiting with your fast-acting insulin causes you to go low, please consult a doctor before you make that choice and attempt that approach! If I wait 40min on Apidra, I can promise I will be shaky as I begin my meal, so I try never to wait too long, but I can promise you that a 20-30min lead time has a 40-80mg/dl effect on my post-prandials at 1 hour and 2 hours post-meal - and THAT lowers my A1c. My endocrine team swears by it.
Melissa-
I agree with you! I haven’t hit any lows by giving my insulin 15-30 minutes before I eat. If I would have any hypo’s I have my Great Glucose tablets!
WHEN IN DOUBT ABOUT YOUR HEALTH OR MEDICATIONS, ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN…
thats good advice, ive read that novorapid (which is what i take with meals) start working around 20-25 mins after injections… so i will definately try this method… to be on the safe side i will prepare my breakfast right after the injection so if i start feeling shaky i can start eating earlier…
What I ask my diabetic kids to do is check BG,if not in normal range,hi,take insulin and wait from 30-40 min and then eat.if in normal range take it and wait 20 min ( regular) and eat.For lispro or aspart we use the same to avoid high postprandial or low.They check 2 hr after meal to get it right,watching CHO portions they eat
If you are eating cold cerial that could be part of the problem also. I have found that eating oatmeal has helped with that.
my blood sugar levels are always normal after 2 hours. It’s after 1 hour that my bloodsugar is really high. Is it okay to have high bloodsugar 1 hour after as long as it is normal 2 hours after???!
I never eat oatmeal, it shoots my bloodsugar off the roof… I only eat two pieces of bread for breakfast… (black bread) pumpernickel
I’ve found the same to be true. 20-30 minutes before the meal seems to be the trick. The only time I tend to deviate from this is when I am on the low side (60-80) and then I scale it according to my low. I use Apidra and still have issues with certain foods but for the most part, this works for me.
Not really.
Unless you want to skew your A1c high. Remember, insulin works much more slowly than carbohydrate. The idea is to have your blood sugar correction already in motion before the carbs you’re eating are converted to glucose. If your blood sugar is too high at 1 hour after your meal, your carbs won the race against the insulin. The insulin will cross the finish line, yes, but later and in second place against a much tougher-to-correct blood sugar. Does that make sense?
All of us will have different targets, of course, depending on multiple health factors, but right now, for instance, my endocrine team is shooting for me to be at 140 at 1 hour and 120 at 2 hours, with a full correction to my target 100 by the 3-3.5 hours insulin activity completion.