Diabetes Talking

Question:

basal is the insulin you use once a day (sometimes twice) to take care of your resting and non-feeding needs. bolus is the insulin you use immedisately before a meal to take care of the after-food rise in your glucose levels.

Thanks Al for your quick and direct response, most helpful.  Also for your pointers to other fellow supporters in the group. Peter —

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hi Al, and others in this newsgroup, You mentioned the following keywords in a recent response… bolus and  basal doses Being new to this ‘game’ (diagnosed Dec02 after heart attack – Xmas week!!) I’m still picking up on the jargon, the routines, the diet and the overall life/body changes.  Could you explain these keywords please? I’m guessing that they refer to the two types of insulin that I’m using… Peter

Hi Peter, basal is the insulin you use once a day (sometimes twice) to take care of your resting and non-feeding needs. bolus is the insulin you use immedisately before a meal to take care of the after-food rise in your glucose levels. Sometimes this regime is referred to as mdi, meaning Multiple Daily Injections. OldAl, who usually posts in alt.support.diabetes and misc.health.diabetes, sometimes here, has excellent advice on this, and so do Beav, Flying Rat, and Tiger Lily, to name but three. Al.

Response:

many thanks for the explanations. Yes, they do make sense. if I think of any other beginner’s questions I know where to come. Regards, Alan

Response:

Hi Al, and others in this newsgroup, You mentioned the following keywords in a recent response… bolus and  basal doses

Being new to this ‘game’ (diagnosed Dec02 after heart attack – Xmas week!!) I’m still picking up on the jargon, the routines, the diet and the overall life/body changes.  Could you explain these keywords please? I’m guessing that they refer to the two types of insulin that I’m using… Peter —

Response:

new to this diabetes lark and picking up lots of useful info from you all, so thanks for that. Here’s a beginner’s question which I can’t fathom… . . .(snip). . ., why then does the liver in non-alcohol situations contribute unnecessarily to the mess by upping the glucose level in the blood? Why doesn’t it just stay out of things? . . .(snip). . . Yours perplexedly, with thanks for any replies, Alan

   A bit more than you want to know about this question:    1.  The liver releases glucose when it "thinks" we have low blood sugar    2.  Unfortunately, the liver doesn’t measure blood sugar    3.  It measures insulin levels.  It "assumes" that the pancreas is measuring blood sugar and releasing insulin in appropriate amounts at appropriate times.    That means "high insulin" at times of high blood sugar, and "low insulin" at times of low blood sugar.    4.  When the liver sees little or no insulin, it "assumes"  we are about to keel over from lack of blood sugar, and thus releases glucose.    5.  Unfortunately, we are diabetics, and have a totally fouled up system                 a.  Our pancreas can’t release as much insulin as it thinks appropriate  (T1’s release hardly any,  T2’s have lost half or more by the time they are diagnosed.                b.  If you are T2, Insulin Resistance also means your liver "resists" detecting insulin, so you can have a fair amount floating around and the liver can’t "see" any at all.   This is why we insulin shooters have to be so careful with our basal insulin doses.  If we mess up, and our both our bolus and  basal doses wear off simultaneously ,  the liver will go nuts and push us up over 17 mmol/L in the blink of an eye.   Regards   Old Al (A retired engineer on the Western side of the Pond)

Response:

alan fairbairn posted this… new to this diabetes lark and picking up lots of useful info from you all, so thanks for that. Here’s a beginner’s question which I can’t fathom… if a couple of glasses of wine with a meal can help keep levels down, and if this is due to the liver being temporarily distracted (I’m deliberately using laymans’s language here) and not pumping out its  contribution of glucose into the system, why then does the liver in non-alcohol situations contribute unnecessarily to the mess by upping the glucose level in the blood? Why doesn’t it just stay out of things? And why isn’t a recommendation of a couple of glasses of wine mandatory for diabetics anyway if their injected insulin doesn’t make it impossible? Yours perplexedly, with thanks for any replies, Alan

Your liver stores energy. When prehistoric man needed to leg it a bit sharpish from an approaching sabre tooth tiger, it provided the boost of energy needed without stripping the bloodstream of all available glucose. We still have that function now. When the liver senses that energy is needed, it releases stored glycogen. Otherwise said prehistoric geezer would just flop down in a hypo and be a savoury snack for said STT. In diabetics, that mechanism is impaired for a number of reasons. So the liver does it’s historic part, but the insulin bit isn’t working to transfer it into the muscles as it should. Injected insulin doesn’t turn you dry overnight. Moderation is the key. Any clearer? Ratty — "A face only a mother could love And even she hates me…" ratty at flyingrat.net

Response:

you could get that relaxed you forget the rest of your meds regards sandy where did i put that bloody pen hic!is the cat diabetic dear because you given it 30 units of lantus.

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – new to this diabetes lark and picking up lots of useful info from you all, so thanks for that. Here’s a beginner’s question which I can’t fathom… if a couple of glasses of wine with a meal can help keep levels down, and if this is due to the liver being temporarily distracted (I’m deliberately using laymans’s language here) and not pumping out its  contribution of glucose into the system, why then does the liver in non-alcohol situations contribute unnecessarily to the mess by upping the glucose level in the blood? Why doesn’t it just stay out of things? And why isn’t a recommendation of a couple of glasses of wine mandatory for diabetics anyway if their injected insulin doesn’t make it impossible? Yours perplexedly, with thanks for any replies, Alan

— Would you like a glass of coke dear, you seem to be slurrying your words again, and please take you hands off the cats neck. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).

Response:

new to this diabetes lark and picking up lots of useful info from you all, so thanks for that. Here’s a beginner’s question which I can’t fathom… if a couple of glasses of wine with a meal can help keep levels down, and if this is due to the liver being temporarily distracted (I’m deliberately using laymans’s language here) and not pumping out its  contribution of glucose into the system, why then does the liver in non-alcohol situations contribute unnecessarily to the mess by upping the glucose level in the blood? Why doesn’t it just stay out of things? And why isn’t a recommendation of a couple of glasses of wine mandatory for diabetics anyway if their injected insulin doesn’t make it impossible? Yours perplexedly, with thanks for any replies, Alan

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