Intensive Insulin Therapy For Type 1 Diabetes From Diabetes Education Online

So what is intensive insulin therapy?

The following is from Intensive Insulin Therapy by Diabetes Education Online and will explain the term:

What is an intensive insulin regimen?

Intensive insulin regimens attempt to mimic the body’s normal pattern of insulin secretion, and deliver replacement insulin using the concepts of basal and bolus insulin coverage.

Your insulin regimen will include:

  1. A basal or background insulin dose
  2. A bolus insulin dose to cover the sugar or carbohydrate in your food
    This will be presented as an insulin to carbohydrate ratio (I:CHO). The I:CHO tells you how many grams of carbohydrate can be covered by one unit of rapid acting insulin
  3. A high blood sugar correction bolus insulin dose to bring your blood sugar back into the target range. This will be presented as a correction factor. This correction factor refers to how much your blood sugar will drop after 1 unit of insulin rapid acting insulin.

Intensive insulin therapy requires:

With MDI, insulin glargine or detemir is used to provide basal (background) insulin; and insulin aspart, glulisine or lispro provide bolus (mealtime and high blood sugar correction) coverage.

With an insulin pump, insulin aspart, glulisine or lispro provide both basal and bolus insulin replacement.

Advantages of Intensive Insulin Regimens

  • While intensive regimens require more calculation at each meal, they allow for more flexibility in timing and in the amount of carbohydrate content in meals and snacks.
  • An accurate insulin dose will also result in better blood glucose control with fewer high and low blood sugars.
  • Changes in activity and stress can be accommodated without sacrificing glucose control.
  • Over time, high blood glucose correction can be separated from the food coverage. For example, if your blood sugar is very high (over 240 mg/dl), you can delay your meal and give yourself a correcting dose. Once your blood sugar falls below 200 mg/dl, you can inject your meal insulin and then eat.
  • Learning these important skills will make managing your diabetes easier.
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