Common Health Issues

Timing of Diabetes Insulin Injections

• By Rich Health Editorial Team
• November 01, 2021

In people who don’t have diabetes, the pancreas puts out a steady amount of insulin throughout the day and night. This basal level of insulin helps to keep the cells of the body supplied with glucose the body needs for energy to carry on daily living. Your body needs more glucose during the day when you are active. The meals you eat supply the needed glucose. 

 

DIABETES INSULIN INJECTION TIMING

 

After you eat a meal, your glucose level is high and your body makes more insulin, which helps glucose enter the cells that need it. At night when you are inactive, you need less glucose and your insulin levels are low. If you don’t have diabetes, your body responds to the amount of glucose in your blood automatically. But if you have diabetes, you face a great challenge: trying to match the insulin in your blood with the amount of glucose in your blood. Most insulin plans are designed to mimic what the body does naturally.

 

Symptoms of Insulin Injection Timing Problems

If you are on insulin and experiencing swings in blood glucose, you may be having problems with the timing of your injections. An occasional high or low blood glucose reading is probably no cause for concern. But if you find that your blood glucose readings are often too high (above 250mg/dl) or too low (below 60mg/dl) throughout the day, or if you frequently experience any of the symptoms of hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia, talk to your doctor or diabetes educator. You may want to change your insulin injection plan altogether or you may need to work out ways to make occasional changes in your injection schedule to accommodate changes in your meal or exercise schedule as they arise.

 

What You Should Do When You Have Insulin Injection Timing Problems

Any episode of hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia should be treated right away. If your blood glucose levels fall too low, you could develop hypoglycemia, which, if left untreated, can lead to unconsciousness. If your glucose level climbs too high, you will develop hyperglycemia, which can progress to diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening condition that can cause seizures, unconsciousness, coma and even death.

 

If you have hypoglycemia, you need to increase the amount of glucose in your blood as soon as possible. This is best done by eating a fast-acting carbohydrate snack. If your hypoglycemia is more severe and you become confused, you may need to have someone give you a glucagon injection.

 

If your blood glucose is over 250mg/d, you may need to treat your hyperglycemia. This can be accomplished with an extra dose of insulin. Talk to your doctor or a member of your health care team about what to do in an emergency situation should your blood glucose levels swing too high or too low. If your levels are chronically high or low, talk to your doctor about how you might change your insulin injection schedule to help you better control your blood glucose levels.

 

Prevention of Insulin Injection Timing Problems

To prevent swings in blood glucose, you may need to make changes in your insulin injection schedule. Most insulin plans will try to mimic the function of a normal pancreas. The pancreas puts out a steady stream of insulin throughout the day and night. This is known as the basal or baseline level of insulin. When you eat a meal, your blood glucose level rises. 

A normally functioning pancreas will put out more insulin in response to the increase in blood glucose. When blood glucose levels fall, the pancreas puts out less insulin. If you use an insulin pump, your pump puts out a steady stream of insulin throughout the day and night. You can program it to pump extra insulin before meals or you can manually control it to put out extra insulin.

 

If you are injecting insulin, then you most likely will want a plan that will accomplish the same thing. Most people use combination insulin plans. By using a combination of long-acting insulin to provide basal levels of insulin and shorter-acting insulin to act as a bolus, or booster, dose to cover the rise in glucose with your meals, you can mimic the action of a normal pancreas. The trick is finding the schedule that works for you.

 

When you develop an insulin schedule or when you make changes in your existing schedule, it helps to know when different types of insulin will take effect. This information is summarized in the chart below:

 

Sources and References

• The Diabetes Problem Solver—Quick Answers to Your Questions About Treatment and Self-Care by Nancy Touchette

 

• Insulin Timing: A Patient-Centered Approach to Improve Control in Type-1 Diabetes by Elizabeth Duran-Valdez, Paula Broderick, Virginia Valentine et al