Lantus or Levemir

[MARKW6]

What is your experience with Lantus/Levemir? My control and over all blood sugar seems to be more stable with Levemir. Levemir also seems more predictable. What has anyone else experienced? Mark

[Vytautas]

Never tried Levimir. I've used Humulin N most of the time after that went to Lantus, which was good for me and rather easy to control with a little expermenting and after that just last year straight on to a pump with humalog...

[karen1976]

I'm on Levemir and, to be honest, it's the one I prefer. But I've been having problems with lows at night so they want me to try Lantus again... *sigh* I'll keep you posted. What I know, for sure, is that my numbers have been FANTASTIC (except for those nighttime lows) with Levemir.

[MARKW6]

I also have the same problems. I am not sure if the Levemir is hooking up with the Novolog bringing me down at night or what. But I know when you correct the low, the Levemir effect is over, like it is NOT strong enough to keep the same consistant effect going, does that make sense?

[karen1976]

That makes absolute sense... it's frustrating, to say the least! Especially when my #'s for the rest of the day/evening are great... Once I finish up this vial of Levemir, I agreed to give the Lantus another try to see, once and for all.

Looking forward to a solid night's sleep!

[Blair]

Karen, I wish you luck in trying Lantus so you can sleep all through the night

[karen1976]

Thanks, I'm looking forward to it! Hopefully it works!

[Vytautas]

Good luck. Oh, and what time do you ussualy take your base (be it Lantus or Levemir)? The night lows might be possible to be canceled with carefull insulin ussage. Not only the base, but the short one too. For egzample Humalog doesn't last 2 hours 30 minutes but 6 hours and the 2 and a half hours are simply the strongest effect. After that there is some residue left in the organism that can combine with insulin injected later or at nights and so on...

[MARKW6]

But do you think the quick introduction of sugar/carbs, over power the effects of Levemir? Thanks for ALL the input!MARKW6

[Vytautas]

What I meant was, that the humalog or any other similar insulin still has an impact on your sugar levels during the night, though not as strongly as the effect it has during the first 2 and a half hours.

The Carbs you take in before sleep might help only if you take in enough and they must be lasting. For egzample bread would be good enough for starters, but what you'd really have to do is try to catch when your sugar level is dropping. You need to take appropriate actions depending on when the lows are. If they are in the morning then carbs will not do much good, except getting a higher night but a normal morning (instead of low). In that case if you take levimir before going to bed or let's say arround 10 o'clock in the evening then you might consider changing it to the morning, since levimir will not be so strong at the time you get the lows.

If it's at night you can leave it as is and simply eat something before going to bed. Something that has lasting carbs.

It's all about following your sugar levels and experimenting.