#Diabetic: #Insulin Fine-tuning. #Diabetes; #Diabetics

  Hi, all

If you're taking insulin, the point is to keep blood sugar down, but hypoglycemia can occur if your injections bring your levels too low. On the other hand, you may experience hyperglycemia if your doses are improperly timed. Monitoring can help you figure out how to use insulin to keep glucose levels steady.

• Inject earlier to bring down highs. Patients taking regular (fast-acting) insulin normally inject it about 30 to 45 minutes before a meal. But if monitoring shows that your blood-sugar levels tend to be high either before or about an hour after you eat, you may want to add more time between injecting and eating to give the insulin a better chance to bring glucose levels down. You might also do some exercise for a similar effect. This advice does not apply if you're taking rapid-acting insulin analogs such as lispro, aspart, or glulisine, which must be injected 15 minutes or less before eating.

• Wait a bit to raise up lows. If your blood sugar tends to be on the low side 30 to 45 minutes before you have a meal, you may want to wait until you're closer to eating before injecting insulin to keep blood sugar from dropping lower before you've had a chance to get some food into your system. Even if you're taking a rapid-acting insulin analog, you may want to wait until immediately before eating, or even just after eating, to inject your insulin if your blood sugar is already on the low side.
• Add small snacks. If insulin injections tend to produce hypoglycemia, you might want to eat a small amount of carbohydrate (such as a handful of raisins) around mid-morning and mid-afternoon to keep blood-glucose levels steady between meals. Or discuss with your doctor the possibility of adjusting your insulin regimen.