Migraines and diabetes

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Sunshine81

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Type 1
Hi peeps, I'm a T1DM diagnosed in March. On a basal bolus regime plus metformin. I woke up with a lovely migraine today. I've had a protein shake for breakfast, so low carb. My fasting CBG was 10 this morning (down to some late night snacking which I thought I'd gotten away with, without a bolus). Anyway, so had 2 units with my shake, 2.5 hrs later no improvement so gave myself another 2 units, 90mins later still no improvement have myself 4 units.

Do migraines or in fact any illness make you more insulin resistance? Only open my novorapid less than 2 weeks ago, so should still be working.
 
I wouldn't say illness makes you insulin resistant but illness (or ay type of stress) can make your levels rise and high levels make you insulin resistant.
But if you are concerned, change your NovoRapid. Better to be safe (literally) that sorry.
 
Hi. Sorry to hear you have a migraine.

Yes pain, inflammation, injury and illness will all cause your liver to release extra glucose and push your levels up.

I am however a little concerned that you are "stacking" insulin like that when you are so newly diagnosed. I don't know if you have had any advice about stacking insulin and particularly stacking corrections (ie injecting more insulin within 4 hours of a previous correction because it doesn't appear to be working) because the general clinical advice is "DON'T DO IT". I don't subscribe to that advice for myself but you have to be very vigilant if you do "stack" because all that insulin can suddenly combine to drop your levels quite dramatically. I very much hope you have Libre, or similar CGM so that you can keep a close eye on things and don't just go to bed if your migraine gets really bad and risk dropping off to sleep whilst that insulin is still active.
Hope you feel better soon and levels come down gently and smoothly.
 
Thank you both for your replies. I have a libre and keeping very close eye on my levels. Hadn't heard of the 4 hour rule before, but I have stacked before and don't tend to hypo from that, thanks to some insulin resistance from another medication that I have to take (despite maximum dose metformin).

Migraine is better. Moving items on the TV or noise in general is hurting my head less.

Is this why it's hard to sometimes stop having unstable CBGs/DKA, because you just don't know how much extra glucose made during ilness? FYI: I haven't had DKA before.
 
As you can see, I'm just trying to stay below 10!
 

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I think some people are paranoid about stacking. I was diagnosed more than 15 years ago and have never been told not to stack. I have been told to consider insulin on board (bolus insulin which is still active) but I disagree with the "DO NOT DO IT" paranoia. I have seen it lead to people not bolusing for a meal because their last one was three and a half hours ago.
If you do a correction at 11 mmol/l and an hour later your levels have risen to 14mmol/l, you clearly need more insulin. Waiting another 3 hours risks going even higher.
 
helli said:
I think some people are paranoid about stacking. I was diagnosed more than 15 years ago and have never been told not to stack. I have been told to consider insulin on board (bolus insulin which is still active) but I disagree with the "DO NOT DO IT" paranoia. I have seen it lead to people not bolusing for a meal because their last one was three and a half hours ago.
If you do a correction at 11 mmol/l and an hour later your levels have risen to 14mmol/l, you clearly need more insulin. Waiting another 3 hours risks going even higher.
Click to expand...

I agree and that is pretty much what I said in my post above but with the OP being very newly diagnosed, they may not have the knowledge to know that stacking corrections can be problematic or the experience to judge it well, particularly if they didn't have Libre or other CGM to monitor.....
As it is, it looks like they managed it brilliantly, but always important to make people aware of the risks involved and to keep a close eye on it.
 
Yes, thank you all for your help and advice. I've learnt soo much about diabetes and I'm still learning everyday! I didn't expect a migraine to stress my body to make more glucose! What makes my control more fun, is that I'm on an injection tion every 3 months so my insulin resistance goes up quite dramatically 2 weeks after the injection, but will also drop significantly 2-3 weeks before my next injection, so it seems (was diagnosed 2 weeks after an injection 4 months ago). Possibly the fact I've had to learn how to uptitrate and down titrate my insulin within 4 months of diagnosis has put me in a slightly better position... hence the excessive monitoring of my CBGs!
 
More actually uptitrate, down titrate and currently uptitrating again!
 
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