Reduced my basal by eleven units in three weeks!!

[AJLang]

My body has gone completely weird. December 9th HBA1C was a lovely 6.5 but since December 12th I've had to dramatically reduce my basal from 36 units to 25 units and my BG levels still keep dropping. Any thoughts? I many be eating slightly less overall but I've hardly left the house so it isn't because of increased physical activity and my weight is steady. Seven day average is 7.3 (which is low for me).The only other thing that has changed is that 2-3 months ago I started taking Alpha Lipoic Acid just to see if it helped my body in anyway but I can't see how that would lead to a one third basal reduction. I've also decreased my bolus ratios. Any thoughts? Just hope that I don't have to make anymore major basal changes in either direction.

 

[Robin]

My body has gone completely weird. December 9th HBA1C was a lovely 6.5 but since December 12th I've had to dramatically reduce my basal from 36 units to 25 units and my BG levels still keep dropping. Any thoughts? I many be eating slightly less overall but I've hardly left the house so it isn't because of increased physical activity and my weight is steady. Seven day average is 7.3 (which is low for me).The only other thing that has changed is that 2-3 months ago I started taking Alpha Lipoic Acid just to see if it helped my body in anyway but I can't see how that would lead to a one third basal reduction. I've also decreased my bolus ratios. Any thoughts? Just hope that I don't have to make anymore major basal changes in either direction.

I just plugged Alpha Lipoic Acid + Blood sugar into Google, and a lot of stuff came up, mostly from America. Suggest you have a look, it seems to be a known thing.

 

[AJLang]

Oh wow Robin I didn't realise that there were so many articles. I guess it must be that then. Wow if I'd known before that something like that could reduce my insulin requirements so much I would have tried it ages ago. Should be an interesting conversation with the diabetic consultant 🙂

 

[Grogg1]

If this works for type one would ALA be beneficial for T2 too? If so what sort of dosage do you need to have any effect?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I make 25 to be 70% of 36. It’s not unusual for me to vary between 12u and 16u over the course of the year (just changing with the seasons) which is 75%, so not all that different I suppose?

 

[AJLang]

I guess not that different Mike it was just the shock of having to reduce it so much in just three weeks whilst having to have 30g of fast acting when suddenly dropping to 2.9 and then only just managing to stay in the 4's (but sometimes dropping back to hypo). I've never had to do such a decrease in such a short amount of time before.
Anyhow after all that looks like I now need to start increasing the basal....just feeling worn out with it all at the moment due to other things going on as well.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I guess not that different Mike it was just the shock of having to reduce it so much in just three weeks whilst having to have 30g of fast acting when suddenly dropping to 2.9 and then only just managing to stay in the 4's (but sometimes dropping back to hypo). I've never had to do such a decrease in such a short amount of time before.
Anyhow after all that looks like I now need to start increasing the basal....just feeling worn out with it all at the moment due to other things going on as well.

Sounds grim Amanda, it is so exhausting when the goalposts keep moving and things don’t settle. My basal changes are more or less constant, but tend to be more gradual over weeks and months than that sort of sudden change. Well done for keeping on top of it.

 

[AJLang]

Thank you Mike.