First of all, let’s define what Basal Insulin is. It is the amount of fast acting insulin that you need every hour to keep your blood sugars in the normal range without having to eat any food. Think of it as an insulin drip. This is the easy part of living with diabetes. Getting there or knowing what your Basal Rate is per hour is a trial and error process, after you get your suggestions from your Endocrinologist. Also, you need to be on an Insulin Pump to take advantage of this Basal Rate Insulin feature. If you take long acting insulin with a syringe on pen, keep doing what you are doing. Do however, talk with your Endocrinologist about getting an Insulin Pump.
The way you figure out your normal blood glucose levels are with an Insulin Pump, using a fast acting insulin, like Novolog or Humalog. The goal is to see if you can skip a meal and see if your blood glucose drops too much and you have to eat something. Ideally, when you find your ideal Basal Rate, you could go all day without eating and your blood sugar would stay in the normal range. Basal Insulin is what it takes for your body to function in the normal range. Like I said, you start with a number that your doctor gives you, and then adjust from there. For example, my Basal Rate is 2.3 units per hour around the clock. I use an Insulin Pump by Medtronic called the 770G.
What are acceptable blood glucose levels for a Type 1 Diabetic?
The goal is to keep the daytime blood sugar levels before meals between 80 and 130 mg/dL. That is the way my first Endocrinologist taught me. He believed in tight, controlled numbers. However, after-meal numbers should be no higher than 180 mg/dL. 180 mg/dl sounds too high for me. What I do when my blood glucose is 180 mg/dl or more is to take extra fast acting insulin for every 20 points over 120 mg/dl. For example, if my blood sugar was 180 mg/dl, I would take 4 units of fast acting insulin. Talk to your doctor about this correction of blood sugars. But, this is what I do, and it works for me. My goal is to keep my blood glucose in the normal range listed above at least 80% of the time every day. That is the goal. The closer your blood sugars stay in this range, the lower your A1C will be. My A1C normally is 6.4.
Why go through the hassle of keeping a check on your blood sugar numbers all of the time?
The motivation is to prevent diabetic complications, due to dangerous blood sugar levels. If you let your diabetes go out of control or stay high, over 230 mg/dl, you will feel terrible and if left like this for years at a time, then you have set yourself up to have diabetic complications. I don’t even want to go there. That is focusing on the negative. What you and I need to do is to focus on the positive, and the positive goal is to have normal glucose levels 80% of the time. Notice, I did not say 100% of the time.
Why does my blood sugar go high all of a sudden?
The reason is that diabetes sometimes has a mind of its own, and no matter what you do, you can not seem to control it. It goes high on you and stays high for hours at a time. When this happens, I change out my Medtronic Infusion Set in my leg, and try a new vial of Insulin. I also take a syringe injection for the correcting insulin and skip the Insulin Pump all together. My goal is just to get my blood sugar down to at least 160 mg/dl. Once I get my blood sugar down to 160mg/dl, I feel that I can go back to my auto pilot life and my sugars will be normal 80% of the time. I just checked my compliance for today’s date, 2-11-24 and I have been inside the range of 80mg/dl to 180 mg/dl 100% of the time within the last 24 hours. We are going to go into detail how this can happen.
What are the long-term benefits of effectively controlling blood sugars with Basal Insulin?
Finding and using your Basal Rate of Insulin per hour that fits your body and lifestyle will give you a better chance of not having diabetic complications. It is the best way that I know of to control blood sugar levels. For me, this is motivation enough. I have had Type 1 Diabetes for 45 years and have zero complications from the disease. My eyes are healthy, my blood flow circulation to my feet are good. I am blessed. The only issue that I have concerning my physical body is that I am slightly overweight. I have a goal of losing 15 more pounds.
Determining Your Basal Insulin Needs
I mentioned above that my Basal Insulin Rate is 2.3 units per hour. I came to this number through testing if I could skip a meal and not have a low blood glucose reading. Your Endocrinologist will help you set your individual insulin Basal Rate, as well as your insulin sensitivity level. Mine is 1 unit of Humalog Insulin to 5 units of carbs. So, when I use to eat bread, (and we will talk about this later), and if the bread had 15 grams of carbs, I would take 3 units of Humalog Insulin. Your sensitively level will differ from mine. It is an individual thing. Your doctor will be your best guide in helping you here. Collaboration with your healthcare team is one of your best offensive weapons against having high blood glucose levels.