Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Zoe on March 14, 2011 at 10:37am

Insulin sensitivity factor. How many points one unit of insulin lowers your blood sugar, used for correction purposes. Mine is about 1/40. One unit of insulin will lower my blood sugar 40 points.

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Permalink Reply by LiL MaMa on March 14, 2011 at 1:18pm

How do you figure out your ISF?

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Permalink Reply by Jag1 on March 14, 2011 at 2:07pm

A T1.5 LADA in honeymoon is likely to be very different, so I hesitate to give any recommendation.

The best way is to test - if your BG is high and you don't have any active bolus insulin (and your basal is set correctly), then see how much a unit of bolus brings your BG down. That is your ISF. But if your pancreas is still working (LADA and honeymoon) then your BG may come down on its own, which makes your ISF harder to measure.

It can be guessed at using equations starting with TDD (total daily dose): the 1500 rule etc. But these are designed for T1 not in honeymoon. They are in the Using Insulin, Pumping Insulin, Think Like a Pancreas, etc. books and also can be found online.

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Permalink Reply by Jag1 on March 14, 2011 at 2:59pm

You got it. But to get an accurate result you need to wait until all the rapid acting insulin has had a chance to complete its action - and that can take 4-5 hours. So your sensitivity is likely even bigger than 1:100. Next time assume a number larger than 100 and treat based on that; then hopefully it'll settle down nicely without needing to treat with orange juice and after the four or so hours you'll get an even more accurate number. As with all this diabetes stuff, it takes several attempts before you can settle on a number. (And then of course things change in a month so you have to do it all over again!)

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Permalink Reply by LiL MaMa on March 15, 2011 at 2:58am

Wow thats a high ISF...I think from my insulin to carb ratio one unit only drops me maybe 50 points but I have not tested my ISF without food just to bring down a high so I will need to test this out soon.

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Permalink Reply by LiL MaMa on March 15, 2011 at 2:57am

Thanks Jag. Yes I did read about this in Using Insulin but I believe it was called "testing your correction factor" so I was a little confused. I have not done this yet but don't seem to be very sensitive to humalog.

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Permalink Reply by Natalie ._c- on March 14, 2011 at 4:24pm

People vary widely, partly because of eating and exercise habits, but also according to how much insulin resistance they have (yes, Type 1's DO get insulin resistance -- usually none to mild, but sometimes significant!)
In my case, my I:C ratio is 1:8, and my ISF is 30. I do have some mild insulin resistance, but according to my endo, I'm not far off the mark. And looking at the answers here, I am also reassured! :-)

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Permalink Reply by LiL MaMa on March 15, 2011 at 2:55am

I believe for my size and being a honeymooning LADA I am not very sensitive to insulin. My I:C ratio is only 1:8-10 so at my size, how much I exercise, and being in my honeymoon I would consider myself to have some insulin resistance which my endo said most LADAs are insulin deficient AND resistant and I believe I fall into that category.

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Permalink Reply by Natalie ._c- on March 15, 2011 at 3:08am

Interesting -- I fall into that category too, although my diabetes showed up 20 years ago. I'm only slightly insulin-resistant, and don't see any reason to mess around with Metformin, because of its GI side-effects, and the fact that I'm usually under 40u TDD. I'd almost certainly be lower if I'd exercise more! :-S And my hospital stay proved that I'm definitely insulin deficient, although I've never had a C-peptide. I'm saving that for next year when I start the process to go on Medicare.

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Permalink Reply by Marps on March 16, 2011 at 8:44am

I'm typically 1:5 and ISF 25. Being 5 months pregnant, I'm 1:2 in the morning and 1:4 the rest of the day. ISF still 25.

It think it's normal to have to change your I:C a few times per year-
I have to change mine when I have my menstrual cycle. haha.

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