Basal Insulin dosage

Basal insulin is one of the most influent factors on our blood glucose management, even though the importance of the precision of its dosage is often underestimated or unknown to the most.

The effects this kind of insulin has on our BG are completely different from its rapid similar's ones: in fact, the aim of basal insulin is to keep the trend of our glycaemia as stable as possible, especially when fast-acting insulin is not active.

This last fact provides us a great starting point: the accuracy of our basal doses should be primarily evaluated considering those time intervals which are relatively far away from meals, or from any injection of rapid insulin, in fact usually the night or the few hours before a meal are the time spot when this kind of insulin's effects are more evident. However, since the many variables to which our BG is subject, I suggest to evaluate things mainly throighout nights.

Taking into exam a sleep time of eight hours, if you have finished your dinner from at least three/four hours, your BG is on a straight line and your basal insulin is well-dosed, your blood glucose will be most likely to slowly drop in the first part of the night and to slightly rebound in the second one, due to the beginning of the dawn phenomenon. Some people might even observe a completely inverted pattern, however what counts is that you should actually change your basal insulin dosage whenerver the fluctuations become too evident and tend to exit from the range. If your drop is too deep, correct with some few grams of fast-acting carbs and gradually reduce your basal dose if the pattern persists for more than two consecutive days. On the other hand, if your rise is too high correct with some rapid insulin and gradually increase your basal dose if the pattern persists for more than two consecutive days.

But what could actually influence your need for basal insulin? The factors are many and still unknown for the largest part. By the way, it is sure that basal insulin demand is directly proportional to body weight, so an increase or decrease in it will impact on your insulin doses. Furthermore, the percentage of muscular mass is also very influent: an increase in it will improve your basal metabolism and reduce your need for basal insulin, and, to conclude, physical activity is extremely relevant, as, after intense exercise, you could observe a glycaemic drop overnight and need to act consequently.

Are you willing to know more on what kind of basal insulin I use and on Diabetes Management in general? All you have to do is to keep reading my website!