Insulin and hypos

[Dee11]

Hi, just a question
If you have a hypo ....do you fix the hypo and still take your insulin

 

[SB2015]

Hi @Dee11 and welcome to the forum.

The brief answer is yes. However I have noted that you are at risk of diabetes, so it is unlikely that you will be on meds that can cause hypos, or using insulin. Are you asking this out of interest or for someone else?

 

[Dee11]

Yes....just asking for a friend if that's ok
Bit confused about hypos.... fixing it but still taking prescribed insulin

 

[rebrascora]

In my opinion, it depends on the circumstances and the insulin concerned. I would not be taking any fast acting insulin until I knew that I had the hypo effectively treated and BG was reasonably stable. It is certainly safer to be too high than too low, so I would err on the side of caution and delay a bolus insulin and meal until a hypo was treated, but I would still inject basal insulin at the usual time.

 

[Dee11]

Thanks Barbara

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

Yes....just asking for a friend if that's ok
Bit confused about hypos.... fixing it but still taking prescribed insulin

Yes, of course that's OK.

The fast acting (bolus) insulin taken with meals is to cover the food eaten at the meal - the insulin is needed to balance out the carbs in the food. If an insulin-user doesn't have their insulin with their meal their blood sugar will go up very high and - if they keep not having insulin - they'll end up in hospital.

So it doesn't matter how many hypos someone has, they still need to keep taking their insulin with every meal (unless the meal is carb-free). But as Barbara says, if they have a hypo, they'll need to wait until after the hypo is treated before injecting, and never have fast-acting insulin while hypo. And if they have lots of hypos they might need to talk to their diabetes specialist nurse about reducing the amount of insulin they have - they'd still have to take it with every meal, they might just need a bit less of it.

Slow acting (basal) insulin is a bit different, it's not to cover food, it's just to provide a background to keep blood sugar steady in between meals and overnight. In theory you could inject this while hypo as it takes a while to take effect, but personally, to be on the safe side, I wouldn't: I'd wait until I'd treated the hypo. But again, insulin-users need to keep taking it to stop their blood sugar going too high (and again, if they keep having hypos they might need to ask their diabetes nurse about reducing their dose).

 

[Dee11]

Thanks Juliet