December 11, 2001
Insulin
Question from Willowick, Ohio, USA:
My seven year old daughter has had type�1 diabetes since the age of three, and it seems like her evening NPH is lasting for about 18 hours, but the daytime NPH doesn’t seem to work that way. I give her 7 units of NPH at about 5:00 pm, and her morning numbers are 70-250 mg/dl [3.9-13.9 mmol/L]. In the morning before school I only give her 10 units of NPH (no Humalog) because it seems like the NPH is still working from the night before since her blood sugar at 11:30 am is about 140 mg/dl [7.8 mmol/L]. Is that normal? What happens at night time with the slow down of insulin absorption?
Answer:
Insulin can have various durations of absorption depending on the type of insulin. Please see What is Insulin?. It is not my experience that the same insulin will vary its duration of absorption or time of peak activity depending on the time of day it’s given, as your e-mail suggests.
MSB
