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What Happens If Taking Insulin After Food


How Do I Detect Spikes In My Sugar Levels

Insulin: Should You Get It Before or After Meal

The exact timing of blood sugar spikes can vary from person to person and meal to meal. However, on average, the post-meal peaks tend to be about one hour and 15 minutes after starting a meal.

The best way to measure post-meal patterns is by using a continuous glucose monitor or Flash monitors. These devices can give you a clear view, including graphs, of what happens with the glucose levels after meals without the need for finger pricking . You can ask your diabetes health team if they are available for you as they are not available to everybody.

If you are not using a CGM, then please speak to your healthcare team about the best way to do this for you with finger prick testing.

How do I know it is a spike?

There is no universal answer or specific guidelines on when a sugar level is too high after meals. However, if post-meal readings are consistently above your target range , then you should discuss whether it would be beneficial for you to address these spikes and how to do this, with your healthcare team .


If you are reviewing your post-breakfast sugar levels, you should also be aware of changes in your hormones in the morning, which cause increases in sugar levels . This Digibete video may help.

Some ways to reduce blood sugar spikes after meals

1. Choose low glycaemic index foods

When blood sugar levels are low or hypoglycaemic we need high glycaemic index foods , such as dextrose tablets or juice, that are absorbed quickly to raise our levels and to treat the hypo.

What Not To Do If You Forget To Dose Insulin

While its important to be action-oriented, here are some things you should never do if you forget to dose insulin:

  • Blame yourself
  • Go to sleep immediately
  • Not take a correction dose of insulin at all
  • Not tell anyone about the missed dose
  • Bolus like normal for the number of carbohydrates you ate, even if you ate several hours before realizing you missed a dose
  • Take double the amount of insulin for carbohydrates eaten and high blood sugar, without factoring in the time that has passed, carbohydrates already digested, or your blood sugar correction factor

Awesome Foods That Regulate Your Blood Sugar

By Heather

Hypoglycemia, diabetes, or addictions to sugar can all cause blood sugar issues for people, but there are many foods that regulate your blood sugar that can help fight this problem naturally. I always hate to see people turn to medicine before food to fight high blood sugar problems, since there are so many wonderful foods that nature has given us that regulate your blood sugar. A healthy diet can fix an array of issues, and though no diet is perfect for all of us, there are some mainstay foods that help keep insulin levels down, and blood sugar level even. We should all be eating more of these, and focusing on the benefits they offer. I know it can be hard to turn down sweets, breads, unhealthy fats, and processed foods, but I promise itâs worth it. Eating foods that regulate your blood sugar helped me get rid of a lifelong addiction to sugar,fast food, and processed food, and even overcome a seizure condition. Add these delicious, nutritious foods to your diet and youâll see the effects almost immediately.


  • Eggs
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    Urgent Advice: Contact Your Doctor Straight Away If You Take Too Much Glimepiride

    Taking too many glimepiride tablets can give you low blood sugar.

    Early warning signs of low blood sugar include:

    • feeling hungry
    • feeling confused
    • having problems concentrating

    If you think you have low blood sugar, have some food or drink that quickly gets sugar into your bloodstream such as sugar cubes or fruit juice.

    Why They Happen And How To Try And Reduce Them If You Live With Type 1 Diabetes

    Mealtime Insulin: Dosing, Types, Benefits, and More

    Living with type 1 diabetes requires you to regularly check your blood sugar levels before you eat. However, we may not always consider what happens to our sugar levels immediately after we eat where it is very normal for people who dont have diabetes, let alone those who do, to temporarily have high sugar levels. Given that having high sugar levels can give you symptoms like thirst, tiredness and needing to go to the toilet a lot, learning about ways to try and reduce spikes in your sugar levels after meals may make a difference to your overall health and wellbeing.


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    Cautions With Other Medicines

    Some medicines interfere with the way glimepiride works. Your doctor may need to adjust your dose of glimepiride. They may also recommend checking your blood sugar levels more often.

    Tell your doctor if youre taking any of these medicines before starting on glimepiride:

    • steroid tablets such as
    • some medicines used to treat heart problems, high blood pressure and high cholesterol
    • medicines to treat bacterial or fungal infections such as , co-trimoxazole, miconazole or fluconazole
    • rifampicin, a medicine used to treat tuberculosis
    • other diabetes medicines

    Some women may need to adjust their dose of glimepiride after starting contraceptive pills. In rare cases contraceptive pills can increase blood sugar levels.

    Whats A Spike And Why Do They Happen

    After-meal, or postprandial, spikes are temporary high blood glucose levels that occur soon after eating. It is normal for the level of glucose in the blood to rise a small amount after eating, even in people who do not have diabetes. However, if the rise is too high, it can affect your quality of life today and contribute to serious health problems down the road.


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    How To Know If Mealtime Insulin Is Right For You

    Most doctors will start you on a long-acting insulin at first. But sometimes long-acting insulin isnt enough to keep your blood sugar at your target level throughout the day.

    When you eat a meal, sugar levels in the blood can rise rapidly. This spike in blood sugar may be too high for long-acting insulin to control. This is when your doctor may want to add a mealtime insulin to your long-acting therapy or prescribe a combination insulin.

    Your doctor will work with you to figure out if you need a mealtime insulin. They will have you take note of how much your blood sugar fluctuates throughout the day. Theyll also ask about your lifestyle and eating habits.

    Your doctor will likely recommend that you add a mealtime insulin to your long-acting insulin if your glucose levels are still too high after eating a meal.


    Youll continue to take your long-acting insulin as prescribed by your doctor. But youll also take the mealtime insulin right before you eat your meals .

    What Is Insulin Anyway

    How Long Does It Take To Reverse Insulin Resistance?

    Insulin is a hormone that the pancreas secretes due to high blood glucose levels. It causes the liver, muscles, and fat cells to use or store glucose.

    Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood sugar levels. The body produces it when there are high glucose levels in the blood. It can be used by the liver, muscles, and fat cells to help them use or store glucose. Low blood sugar can cause dehydration, shakiness, and confusion.

    Insulin helps control diabetes by lowering blood sugar levels after meals and assisting cells in absorbing glucose from food, so they dont have to make it themselves.

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    You Cannot Swallow Insulin

    You cannot swallow Insulin in the sense that it will help you as a medicine! I mean you can swallow it, and it wonât hurt you. But it wonât do the job itâs supposed to do. It is supposed to lower sugar levels in the blood and control diabetes. I am writing this because I have recently overheard an astonishing conversation about diabetic medicines. It was like a little competition about who is taking which pills and how many and who has to inject insulin instead of â taking it as a pill. No! No! No! Insulin is a protein, and if you swallow a protein it will be digested, means cut in pieces. Insulin cut in pieces cannot do its job. Human Insulin is a protein! The pills do not contain insulin. The pills have different functions like slowing down the digestion, motivating the body to produce more insulin and keeping the liver from sending out more sugar into the body. All of this helps the body to keep up with the amounts of sugar and carbs that are eaten. Insulin can be prepared to work in different ways like fast and short, or slow and long, or medium fast and medium long. There is a link to a nice table showing the different types of insulin and how they work. Since different bodies simply react differently, and every life-style is unique, there is no better or worse, and there should definitely be no competition. Will be digested, ⦠picture courtesy of interactive-biology.comContinue reading > >

    Factors That Speed Insulin Absorption

    Variation in insulin absorption can cause changes in blood glucose levels. Insulin absorption is increased by:

    • injecting into an exercised area such as the thighs or arms
    • high temperatures due to a hot shower, bath, hot water bottle, spa or sauna
    • massaging the area around the injection site
    • injecting into muscle this causes the insulin to be absorbed more quickly and could cause blood glucose levels to drop too low.

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    Controlling Diabetes When Youre Not Hungry

    If you find that youre eating less due to an illness or other factors, your medications may need adjusting, so its important to talk to your doctor. Meanwhile, here are some general guidelines:

    • Mealtime insulin: For mealtime insulin, if you skip the meal, you should also forego the mealtime insulin.
    • Long-acting insulin: The dosage for long-acting insulin is not usually based on food intake, so your doctor will not likely recommend a dose reduction.
    • Other medications: There are some diabetes medications that will lower your blood sugar when high, but wont normally cause hypoglycemia. They may or may not need adjustment, depending on how much youre eating. These medications include metformin, SGLT-2 inhibitors and DPP4 inhibitors.

    Why Does The Food And Drug Administration Warn Against The Use Of Insulin After Food

    What happens if insulin is taken after food? answered by experts

    Insulin is a medication that use to treat diabetes. It helps the body process sugar, which people with diabetes need to survive. It also helps the body produce energy.


    However, there are some instances where insulin should not be taken before food. The Food and Drug Administration warns against taking insulin before food because of the risk of severe hypoglycemia . This warning is because when a person eats, their pancreas releases insulin into their bloodstream, which can cause a sudden drop in blood sugar levels if there is an overdose of insulin taken before food.

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    • Preheat the oven to 350°F .
    • Drain and rinse the grains and add them to the blender along with the apple, coconut, maple syrup, cacao powder, mineral water, and walnuts.
    • Blend until totally smooth, about 3 minutes.
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    • When the cupcakes are cool, spread a generous amount of frosting on each.

    I hope that you have a happy week. May it be filled with hope where there was no hope before.

    Taking Medications That Cause Insulin Resistance

    Occasionally it may be necessary to take medications, such as steroids or niacin, that lead to insulin resistance.

    The solution: Work with your diabetes team to adjust your insulin dose to maintain glucose control.


    Any decrease in your customary activity can decrease your insulin sensitivity and increase your insulin requirements.

    The solution: Monitor your blood sugar levels closely and adjust your insulin replacement accordingly.

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    Diabetics Can Eat Right After Using Insulin: Study

    By Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters Health

    4 Min Read


    NEW YORK – People with type 2 diabetes are sometimes told to wait after using insulin for the drug to work its way into the body before they can begin eating, but a new study from Germany says thats not necessary.

    In a group of about 100 diabetics, researchers found that blood sugar levels remained steady regardless of whether or not participants left a 20 to 30-minute gap between using insulin and eating a meal. The diabetics overwhelmingly preferred being able to eat right away, too.

    Its a very promising result. It will lead to better adherence and satisfaction, said Dr. Aaron Cypess, a staff endocrinologist in the clinic of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston who was not involved in the study.

    Insulin gives glucose – or blood sugar – access to the bodys cells to be used as fuel. But in type 2 diabetes cells are resistant to insulin or the body doesnt make enough of the hormone, so glucose remains in the bloodstream and can climb to dangerously high levels.

    Injectable insulin is available for diabetics in a newer fast-acting form, but its expensive and many still use human insulin, which takes some time to become active in the body. So doctors often recommend waiting to eat after using human insulin to prevent blood sugar spikes.


    Cypess said people should talk with their doctors before making any sort of change to their insulin routine.

    Talk to your doctor, he said.

    Why Is It Important To Reduce The Size And Duration Of These Spikes

    What happens to your body after eating a meal? | Metabolism

    Reducing these spikes may help you to increase the amount of time you spend in your target blood sugar range , which will have a positive impact on your future health. You should consult your healthcare team to understand the best target range for you, as this will differ from person to person. However, the International Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Diabetes recommends a target of 5.0-10.0 mmol/L .

    Symptoms of a high blood sugar level also vary in individuals, but they may cause you to feel thirsty, tired, stressed and need to go to the toilet a lot. In the short term, by avoiding prolonged high blood sugar readings after eating, you should also reduce the occurrence of these symptoms and improve your energy, cognitive and athletic ability and overall mood.

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    What Is Different About Insulin Lispro

    Insulin lispro is a new type of insulin. It starts working sooner than other insulin types. It also reaches peak activity faster and goes away sooner. Insulin lispro helps keep your blood sugar level from going too high after you eat. To keep your blood sugar level steady, your doctor will probably prescribe either a longer-acting insulin or another drug for you to take each day in addition to the insulin lispro.

    If you need to mix insulin lispro with a longer-acting insulin, it’s best that you mix insulin lispro only with Humulin U or Humulin N, which are brand names for certain longer-acting insulins. Insulin lispro should always be drawn into the syringe first. This will keep the longer-acting insulin from getting into the insulin lispro bottle.

    Types of insulin

    Each type of insulin works at a different speed and lasts for a different length of time.

    • Quick-acting, such as insulin lispro , begins to work very quickly and lasts for 3 to 4 hours.

    • Short-acting, such as Regular insulin, starts working within 30 minutes and lasts about 5 to 8 hours.

    • Intermediate-acting, such as NPH or Lente insulin, starts working in 1 to 3 hours and lasts 16 to 24 hours.

    • Long-acting, such as Ultralente insulin, doesn’t start to work for 4 to 6 hours, but lasts 24 to 28 hours.

    • NPH and Regular insulin mixture, two types of insulin mixed together in 1 bottle, starts working in 30 minutes and lasts 16 to 24 hours.

    Dont Switch Your Insulin Dose Or Stop Taking It Without Seeing Your Doctor First

    Switching your insulin medication or changing the dose without asking a doctor can put you at risk for serious side effects and complications.

    If you have type 2 diabetes, you should be seeing your doctor or endocrinologist for a checkup roughly every three to four months. At your appointment, your doctor can assess your individual insulin needs and give you proper training on new doses or dosing methods.


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    How Does The Body React When Its Not Being Met With Insulin After Food

    In the body, insulin is a hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels. When insulin is not present in require amount after food, your body will react differently.

    Insulin is a hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels. In the body, insulin is a hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels. When its not met with insulin after food, your body will react in different ways: Some people may experience hypoglycemia others may experience hyperglycemia, and some people may experience no change at all.

    When you dont take your insulin or eat right, the first thing to do is to check for any signs of hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia, which can be symptoms.

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