Comments on: humalog insulin

By: lane_1300

lane_1300 — Wed, 23 Jun 2004 10:48:17 +0000

If you are injecting, you would need a longer acting insulin to work with it.
That is my current regime.

In a pump, the longer acting insulin would not be necessary because you are
receiving a constant flow of insulin all day, so it is always being used,
eliminating the need for the long acting insulin.

Bart

By: silvana_16

silvana_16 — Tue, 22 Jun 2004 23:11:49 +0000

<< I received in the mail on Saturday a letter from the pharmacy I deal
with
About using humalog insulin. Since it is fast acting, it says that a
longer
acting insulin should be used with it. How would that work in a insulin

pump? Is using two different types of insulin recomended to be used in
the
pump? >>

Do NOT use longer acting insulins with the pump. The above is true if
injecting insulin, but contraindicated for pump use. Remember, your basal
rates do away with the need for longer acting insulins.

Patrick

By: kristan_180

kristan_180 — Tue, 22 Jun 2004 17:31:12 +0000

From my perspective, the short acting feature is an essential benefit, and
mixing stuff with it will only restore the problems present with the regular
insulin.

The pump basal feature compensates for this, and with proper adjustment of the
basal rate, things work just fine; in fact, there is little lag in the basal
delivery to performance, which was not the case with regular.

The only thing to watch out for is that the Humilog runs out before long lasting
carbs, so you need to compensate for that. I use the square wave feature to
take care of this problem, and only use it when the meal includes long lasting
carbs, like pasta.

From my perspective, mixing other insulins with Humilog in the pump is a bad
idea, and destroys the major benefit.

This may not be true if you not using a pump, however.

By: carmen15

carmen15 — Tue, 22 Jun 2004 09:22:46 +0000

Hi Kathy:
The first thing you should do is be under the supervision of an endocrine
team - endocrinologist, nurse-diabetes educator, and nutritionist. It is not
wise to experiment with 2 different insulins in the same pump. I know some
people have done it, but if you are not very conversant in diabetes
management, you could cause yourself some severe problems. Humalog is a
rapid acting insulin. If you are not on the pump yet, yes, it should be used
along with a moderate acting (NPH) insulin, again, under your MD supervision.
Some of us use Humalog in our pumps (I do - I’m type 2 and insulin resistant,
so using Humalog works very well for me) only thing is, if the pump is off,
or I remove it for a while, my sugar starts shooting up pretty fast.
For those of us using Regular, like you, the amount you infuse and bolus for
meals is going to be different. Regular is a fast acting but not rapid acting
insulin, so our needs are very individual, based on our activity, lifestyle,
stress levels, all kinds of stuff. Hope that answers your questions….Joan:)

By: antoinette_5

antoinette_5 — Tue, 22 Jun 2004 03:12:40 +0000

I think the letter was talking about injecting insulin. Some pumpers do mix
Humalog and Regular insulin in the pump but I do not think most medical
professionals would recommend this.It is highly experimental and I know must
people do not use a 50-50 mixture. It is more like 5 to 1 or 4 to 1 with
more humalog then regular. Honestly if you are achieving good numbers with
regular now your best bet is to stay with it.

By: carolann_70

carolann_70 — Mon, 21 Jun 2004 17:06:31 +0000

About 80% of pumpers use Humalog exclusively. Where are you? In the US? Did
the letter explicitly refer to pumpers? Was the letter from just the
pharmacy or passed along by them through another source? There are children
who mix a little Velosulin with Humalog (about 5:1) to help the sites last a
little longer than one day. But, remember, too, Humalog has not been
approved for pump use and I have been using it for 3 years now.
Jan (60 y/o, T-1 11/5/50, pmpg 8/23/83) and Bluda Sue (MM507c, 3/99)