As a Type 2, I have been managing my fasting sugar level of around 120 since the late 90s very successfully by following the devices of my USA-qualified Endocrinologist. My regular diet centered around LCHF with Diamicrone 80 twice a day.
Covid-19 changed my whole system. After taking the 2nd dose of the vaccine I was nearly dead, on the 3rd day. My reading went up to 280. My doctor changed to different combinations with Diamicrone 80, Diamicrone 60, Metformin 500, Sitagliptin 100, and Pioglitazone 15. It is hanging around 180 but refusing to come down. I assume my organs have suffered considerably from the Covid-19 vaccines.
The doctor suggests my best option, at my present age of 74, is to change to Insulin injections.
I like to know from those taking Insulin injections regularly whether it is painful to take several times daily.
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GVGnanasooriyam
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My Aunt from Sri Lanka, came to UK in 1986. There are family doctors, my aunt started with Metformin first for her type 2, and then went to insulin injections. From UK she traveled to many countries with her insulin medication. Every one had different views on Insulin injection in early 2000.
From a discussion with a family doctor (Professor) she learned to do her injections on her stomach.
She did follow the clock on a daily basis, 12, 3, 6 on the first day, 1,4,7 and so on. Where ever she went always insulin injection before her meal, her type 2 was controlled very well.
She managed this very well without any pain, she has a fall and that was the end.
Please do speak to your Doctor on how to administer you insulin injections.
I have type 1 Diabetes and do multiple insulin injections during the day and one injection before bedtime. I take 3 injections of fast acting insulin before meals depending on the amount of carbs. and what I eat. I take a long acting insulin with my bedtime snack and it’s supposed to last 24 hours in the background.
Which insulin did your doctor prescribe? Some insulin is taken before a meal. Other insulin can be used after eating. Did your doctor say you can use your insulin after a meal?
We should endeavor to locate a very good resting place even when we are forced to dwell in the hell!
With the knowledge you gained from your own experience so far in dealing with insulin, let me know the superior make or brand which will solve this never ending ritual with ‘one dose daily’!
Please consult your doctor about which insulin would be right. It differs between person to person about brands/amount/when to take insulin. I use Basaglar at bedtime and Novolog at breakfast, lunch and dinner depending on the amount of carbs. I eat at the time and also what my blood sugars are on either the CGM and/or finger stick.
i am also a 74 years old type 2 diabetic. I am using 15 units of Long Acting Insulin Glargine made by Sanofi under brand name Lantus since 2014 daily at night. Lantus should be administered once daily at any time but at the same time each day. This insulin comes in cartrige of 100 units and is taken with a reusable insulin pen made by Sanofi with brand name Allstar. The needle of this pen is very thin and you feel almost no pain while administering the insulin in your abdomen. I have been able to control my blood sugar within prescribed limits very effectively by using Lantus insulin and Vildagliptin 50 mg tablets once daily. You may consult your doctor to fix the dose of this insulin and any oral medicine, if needed.
I have found from your profile that you are from Sri Lanka. Lantus brand insulin and Allstar brand insulin pen may not be available there. Therefore, you should look for Long Acting Insulin Glargine and insulin pen with any other brand name. Use and throw insulin pens with Insulin Glargine are also available, but I prefer reusable insulin pen which can be refilled with Insulin Glargine cartrige.
What are your HbA1C values like before and after Covid. The treatment should be based on HbA1C values rather than the individual values of fasting blood sugar or post-prandial blood sugar values. So, I think at present, it is better to stay away from insulin but try other drugs such as sulfonylureas, combination drugs with metformin. It is difficult to manage blood sugar with insulin. It requires quite a bit of experimentation. So please give the oral drugs a chance by monitoring HbA1C. Also, your fasting blood sugar or ppl of 280 can be managed with tablets.
I started with HbA1C of 17.3, fasting blood sugar of 430 and ppl of 750 five years back and after that my HbA1C never crossed 6.5. I use only tablets and no insulin. I am 80 yrs old and my diet also is rich in carbohydrates because I eat south Indian food. I walk about 8000 steps a day and most importantly walk after lunch and dinner as much as possible. Please try these before switching over to insulin.
Please tell me what your HbA1C values were during the last one year. Only then, I can answer your question. I assumed that your HbA1C may be under 7.0 and for your age, it can be managed with tablets. Anyway, it is your choice and may be you can consult another diabelogist for opinion.
I don't use insulin but I have seen some of my friends using insulin having trouble adjusting the dose every day and monitoring blood sugar every day more than once. I monitor my blood sugar only once in a week and HbA1C every three months withoutfail. Also, they get episodes of hypoglycemia because they have taken more units Of insulin than necessary. Of course, there are millions who use insulin. I used insulin during first two weeks after diagnosis and as soon as my blood sugar levels have come to reasonable values( still above normal), my diabetologist switched me over to tablets.
Ten years ago in UK, doctors only tested fasting blood sugar and HbA1c was new, only a few knew about this. As my fasting blood glucose was high the GP practice nurse told me that I can confirm your diabetic and you will be on medication for the rest of your life.!!!
As I was not happy with I started to research and found out about life style change and regular exercise. Start of my journey. It was hard to start with on food intake control, I am not on medication for type 2. I go for blood test, eye check and foot check once a year, some time blood test twice a year. I am 76. The (I phone) do give me the number of steps. There is mo medical evidence on number of steps, this was start during Tokyo Olympics to sell a gadget to make money.
I have this South Asian label in UK. I also found out as we age our blood number do increase.
That was ten years back before HbA1C was known. Now, no diabetologist would prescribe or alter medication without knowing HbA1C. My HbA1C in 2012 was 6.5, fasting blood sugar was 87 and ppl was 118. I was not prescribed any medicine. I started taking medicine only since last five years. I have a record of all my readings from 2007 onwards.
At times I feel we are wasting our time with medication and various other moves on the recommendations of the professionals whom our presence is a necessary ingredient for their earnings.
Once our offspring's are able to move on their own we should go where we came from as it seems only we are delaying the inevitable!
It is very true that death is inevitable and all of us will have to go back to where we came from. But, the time, place and the way of going back is in the hands of our Creator. Your expiry date is known only to Him and you can neither delay nor expedite it. The opening lines of a Hindi movie song describes this situation very effectively and its English translation is as follows:
"We will have to live if we have come to this world and if life is poison we will have to drink it"
it should be our endeavour to live healthy and happily till we die, and if needed, we should not hesitate in taking medical advice and medicines. It is not only you who will suffer with health problems by avoiding medication, but your family members too will have to suffer physically and mentally for taking your care. So, live a carefree life leaving everything to the Almighty God. Don't take life very seriously at this age when you have fulfilled all your commitments. Neither coming to this world was by your choice nor going back as per your choice is possible.
I fully agree with you that HbA1C is the most reliable way to monitor blood sugar level and manage diabetes as it gives the average blood sugar level for past 3 months. Fasting and PP tests give the values at the time of testing only and the blood sugar level keeps on varying throughout the day depending upon the type and quantity of food intake and the physical activity. But, fasting and PP tests indicate how your body is reacting to the diabetes treatment being followed by you. You have mentioned that your blood sugar levels are within reasonable limits, but still above normal by taking tablets only. I am not a Diabetologist, but I feel that by having blood sugar level above normal by taking tablets only may lead to higher HbA1C, and therefore, insulin should also be taken to manage blood sugar at normal levels. I can say from my personal experience that managing diabetes with long acting insulin glargine taken once daily is quite easy for type-2 diabetics and frequent changes in its dose are not needed. Also, I had only 3-4 episodes of hypoglycemia during a period of 8 years. Managing diabetes is very difficult for Type-1 diabetics, who have to be fully dependant on a combination of fast and long acting insulins taken about 3-4 times daily by adjusting the dose after checking blood sugar level. Frequent episodes of hypoglycemia is also quite common in type-1 diabetics, because there is no natural control of insulin dose in their bodies. However, it is one's personal choice to take tablets or insulin for managing diabetes. Nowadays, a new method of diabetes revarsal without medication and insulin and only by changing the food habits and the lifestyle is becoming popular.
Thank you for the detailed reply. I agree with most of what you have written. A simple calculation shows that if both fasting and ppl sugar values are within normal limits, then HbA1c will be 5.6. But if they are slightly above normal values, then HbA1c will be above 5.6 but may not be very high. In my case, my HbA1c is below 6.5 always so far because they are sometimes within normal limits and sometimes above normal for the reasons you mentioned.
This is not the 4th formula. It is the 2nd formula out of 3 formulae posted by me earlier. It is for calculating the average plasma glucose in terms of mmol/L followed in UK for measuring blood glucose level. All these formulae show the average glucose level during past 3 months based on the HbA1c reading for that period. It indicates how was your blood glucose control during the past 3 months. Higher values will indicate diabetes. HbA1c for a non-diabetic person should be around 5.6% and based on it the average blood plasma level would be 122 mg/dl (formula 1) and 6.8 mmol/L (formula 2). HbA1c between 5.7% to 6.4% indicates prediabetic person and HbA1c of 6.5% or more indicates diabetic person. It means if your average blood glucose level is 154 mg/dl ( 8.58 mmol/L) or more you are a diabetic.
I am from India too. I have found after doing some research on difference in formlas for calculating the average blood glucose level that these are just two different interoretations of the same thing. The formula given in your report is the newer one and presently in use.
I have come to know that the short form of Mean Glucose level is MBG (Mean Blood Glucose) and not MPG as mentioned in your report. Perhaps it is a typographical error.
Thanks for detailed discussion. In the reports of the lab that I go to, they use the word Mean Blood Glucose but im the formula they use MPG. It is not a typographical error.
Pandemic or not, If you have decided to stop moving, lying down for gaining your weight willingly, stop taking any medications or moving so that you can Rest in Peace very soon…forever!
If you can understand Hindi, you may subscribe to "DIAAFIT" channel of Dr. Aupam Ghosh on Youtube. He gives very valuable advice on diabetes and also conducts Q & A sessions.
Then you can subscribe to Youtube channel of Dr. V. Mohan, which is in English and very informative about diabetes. Link of Dr. V. Mohan's channel is youtube.com/c/drvmohan
Some of our friends have gone further and furnished the brand names as well and I am better equipped with the range of information furnished by our colloquies so that I will be in a better position to discus the issue when I meet my doctor next week.
Insulin should be used if your blood sugar levels do not come below 200 levels with medication and stay there for a long time. Insulin is as natural as human DNA and possibly has the least side effects as compared to tablets. At your age, of 74, you can avoid insulin but if your pancreas has become inefficient or bets cells are not producing enough insulin even with tablets you can go for long-acting insulin. Lantus from Sanofi is basal insulin that does not cause any severe hypoglycemia and gives better control throughout the day. Alternately if you were young in your 30's you could have preferred a combination of fast-acting for meals and ultra long-acting (24 hr) insulin at bedtime.
One way to determine your pancreas efficiency is to do the C peptide test. Higher values may indicate an active pancreas and you can possibly control sugar levels with diet, tablets, and exercise. But is C peptide values are lower (less than 20% functional pancreas) better opt for insulin. Insulin therapy needs a lot of self-study and monitoring before you gain an understanding of your body's metabolism. But it is worth it for young patients. Insulin is available in cartridges and vials (small bottles). The cartridge is costly, but pens used with these cartridges for injection are almost painless, whereas you will have to use syringes with vials, which are a bit more painful than pens.
These days a combination of diet, exercise, and breathing techniques has gained popularity because many practitioners have reversed their type 2 diabetes, while those with type 1 have reported stable glucose levels and a significant decrease in insulin requirements
As you feel that COVID has blown off your sugar levels (damaged the pancreas or the metabolism), trust me, this can be reversed. Practice some breath hold techniques, these are called Kumbhak techniques and are well known to Hindu and Buddhist monks. They regenerate stem cells slowly and over a period of time and you can reverse the spikes in sugar levels and possibly your diabetes as well
I took this issue very lightly when I started the inquiry and I am highly delighted to observe the interest shown by peoples from a range of backgrounds scattered all over the globe. The diabetic has become a household item among human these days as “we all are continue eating what our forefathers were eating without doing even 1/10th of the physical efforts they were engaged in”.
Your reference to “C peptide test” and your confidence that...” As you feel that COVID has blown off your sugar levels (damaged the pancreas or the metabolism), trust me, this can be reversed” interest me a lot! It opens a different angle.
Reviving a damaged organ may be a possibility in our body’s routine operation and I do agree with the suggestion. The very reason I wrote to the site first was ‘taking insulin was as if a taboo’. However, from the versions of others I come to a settlement in my mind that insulin is a supportive tool, like bearing an eye glass, and wanted to proceed. Your view forces me to rethink!
Is resorting to insulin will disable the pancreas permanently? Can’t the revival process of the organs will be stopped permanently once we begin taking insulin? If not, at my present age of 74, why can’t I move away from orals?
I am getting fasting blood sugar level between 80-110 with only 10 units of long acting insulin now after changing my diet by having more protein and less carbohydrates as advised by Dr. Anupam Ghosh in his Youtube channel "Diaafit". He gives very useful and informative advises about diabetes control and reversal. He conducts live Q and A sessions also regularly on Youtube. If you understand Hindi I suggest you to watch his videos otherwise you may watch Youtube videos by Dr. V. Mohan, which are in English.
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