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What happens if I have my daily insulin injection and I don't eat?

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AlexB

AlexB

Active Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I'm still pretty new to this and I want to understand all about it. I've got no one my age to talk about it with, so here I am. I've had food and not taken insulin before and felt fine, is it the same as when you take insulin and don't eat anything?

Also what do I do if my sugar levels are up high?
 
Alex it depends on what and when you last ate. It also depends on when you take your insulin and what your blood sugar levels are when you take your insulin. Taking insulin, particularly fast acting insulin can and probably is quite dangerous although without knowing more about your own conditions and management regime this is a general statement only. The one thing I would add is feeling fine and actually being fine can be and all too frequently are a million miles apart from each other. Without regular blood testing, regular food and regular medication with the greatest of respect you may feel relatively OK short term but this is not a long term solution to a condition which you will have to endure for the rest of your life.

To answer your question directly short term high blood sugars may make you feel tired and lethargic and thirsty and irritable and generally just crappy. It can make you more susceptible to minor infections which will take longer to recover from. Mid to long term high blood sugars can lead to loss of sensation in your toes and fingers. It can affect your eyesight with an unpleasant condition known as retinopothy. It can lead to loss of libido and loss of limbs. Heart attacks, strokes and premature death. There are many other complications which uncontrolled diabetes can and does contribute to. I do not write these things to shock or frighten you but you should be fully aware of some of the potential consequences of poor control. Please look after yourself because the fact is it is you and you alone that poor control will adversely affect.
 
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AlexB said:
is it the same as when you take insulin and don't eat anything?
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No. It most certainly is not. Not taking insulin with food leads to you running high, even if you feel fine. (Of course, that depends on what food you ate. No carbs - you dont need insulin for, so that would have no effect.)
No food after taking insulin will lead to a low blood sugar (of course, how low depends on how high you were before you gave your insulin). A low blood sugar does not, generally leave you feeling fine, it leaves you feeling like sh!t. Unless you have no hypo symptoms, in which case, it leaves you out cold.
I'm not trying to scare you. I am just urging you not to ever take insulin and then not eat.
(If your sugar levels are high, then you can take a correction dose. You need to discuss this with your nurse or doctor before you even start trying it.)
 
I find that taking insulin pretty much forces you to eat. When I was initially put on mixed insulin I found that I had to eat at certain times of the day whether I felt like it or not as the profile of the insulin dictated the rules. I would feel weak and shaky if I didn't eat as my sugar levels started to plummet. Under no circumstances should you be taking rapid insulin & not eating unless you are correcting a high sugar level as that would probably leave you spark out on the floor!!
 
Are you type 1 Alex? If so, I really recommend you get a copy of this book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Type-Diabe...8&qid=1466582888&sr=1-1&keywords=ragnar+hanas

As the saying goes, "the person with diabetes who knows the most lives the longest".

To answer your question, no it's not the same. If you eat food containing carbs, and you don't have any insulin in your system, your body will be unable to get energy from the food - instead it will sit in your bloodstream as high blood glucose, and meanwhile your body will try to break down fats for energy, which produces toxic by-products called ketones. High blood glucose and ketones can be life threatening within hours. High blood glucose over the long term leads to the horrible complications of diabetes.

If you take insulin in anticipation of a meal, but then don't eat, you risk having a severe hypo, which in the worst case scenario could be fatal. Insulin can be taken without food to correct a high BG level, and you'd be best off talking to your DSN about the right dose for you. As a guideline, you can use a correction factor based on the formula "100 divided by your total daily dose", e.g. if you take 20 units of basal insulin and a total of 30 units of rapid insulin each day, that would be a total daily dose of 50 units. 100 divided by 50 is 2. So in that case you could use a factor of 1:2, ie 1 unit of insulin for every 2mmol you need to reduce your BG by.

Have you been taught to carb count and adjust your insulin dose? If not, ask your clinic about going on a DAFNE course.
 
I am assuming you are asking as a just in case scenario.
Only the other week I took my rapid insulin and didn't eat breakfast, it wasn't deliberate I just got involved in other things. I felt dreadful, it took time, loads of dextrose tabs and in the end a sarnie with loads of peanut butter to sort it out.
Hypo's and hyper's are serious and can be life threatening, so please do all you can to avoid them.
I set an alarm to remind me it's time to take my basal.
 
Mid to long term high blood sugars can lead to loss of sensation in your toes and fingers. It can affect your eyesight with an unpleasant condition known as retinopothy. It can lead to loss of libido and loss of limbs.
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There's also another thing to consider relative to diabetic retinopathy.

Diabetic retinopathy is when damage is done to the small blood vessels in the highly vascular area of the back of the eye.

If you're a male, there's another highly vascular area in your body, filled with small blood vessels. If those vessels are damaged, they stop working properly, and that particular area will stop working properly. You will be very upset if this happens. And you can easily prevent it from happening by maintaining normal blood sugar levels.
 
DeusXM said:
There's also another thing to consider relative to diabetic retinopathy.

Diabetic retinopathy is when damage is done to the small blood vessels in the highly vascular area of the back of the eye.

If you're a male, there's another highly vascular area in your body, filled with small blood vessels. If those vessels are damaged, they stop working properly, and that particular area will stop working properly. You will be very upset if this happens. And you can easily prevent it from happening by maintaining normal blood sugar levels.
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In my original post I did make reference to libido which will of course be significantly reduced if the small blood vessels stop working properly. I DO NOT MAKE REFERENCE TO THIS FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. I DON'T, I DON'T I DON'T but I have this mate of mine who.................................😛
 
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