Noob questions

[blacklightmike]

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm thrown with references in here to 'bolus' and 'basals'. Can anyone give a primer to what these terms mean?

[camjen1]

Basal is used as a background insulin. This should keeps one's blood sugar stable throughout the day. Lantus and Levemir are basal insulins. These are long acting insulins.

Bolus is used with meals to cover the rises in blood sugar. Humalog and Novolog are examples of bolus insulin. These are fast acting insulins.

Stand by for more informative posts :D

[Funnygrl]

Everything Camjen said was right on.

The terms are usually used by pumpers. Pumpers use only short acting insulin, so the basal is the small amount delivered every few minutes to prevent the liver from raising the blood sugar. People on shots use Levemir or Lantus.

Bolus doses are again what Camjen said, but can also be used to lower a high glucose. It's just a fancy way of saying a lot of insulin you want to work at once. The bolus dose is typically based on what carbs you are eating and what your blood sugar is. Humalog, Novolog, and a newer one- Apidra are examples of this. R would be as well.

[MARay237]

Certainly no reason to be ashamed..........if You don't use an insulin pump they are most likely unused terms.

Basal refers to the insulin being pumped all day, just to keep Your BS in a normal range.

Bolus is the insulin You take to cover Carbs You eat.

Next, You learn about insulin to carb ratio............How much insulin You need to cover how many grams of carbs............

[REDLAN]

the principle of modern diabetes management is to mimic a normal working pancreas as much as possible...

in a normal person when they are not eating, their pancreas puts out a small amount of background insulin - this is required to allow cells (particularly muscle cells) to absorb glucose from the blood stream - in diabetes this is replaced by the basal insulin

when they eat the beta cells in the pancreas sense the rise in blood glucose and start to produce insulin in large amounts, which causes the liver and muscles to absorb glucose and convert it to glycogen - the bolus dose is used to mimic this rise in insulin. bolus is Latin for ball, and in medicine it usually refers to a large dose of IV medication, which is why I guess it's been adopted for diabetes management jargon.

I was introduced to it many moons ago as the basal-bolus regime, complete with little graphs showing how it works.

I believe it has now morphed into MDI - multiple daily injections. It's also been named intensive or flexible therapy. They're still a basal-bolus system, just with some added twists.

[REDLAN]

found a link with a pretty graph...

from the novo nordisk site - looks just like the one I got shown what is it now 10 years ago...

Basal-bolus insulin therapy achieves effective glycemic control (http://www.novolog.com/professional/basal-bolus-control.asp)

[princesslinda]

Thanks for the easily understood answers guys! I've wondered about all this myself. Just curious, how long did it take you to figure out what amounts to take and when? Were you able to handle doing your shots and everything at a young age, or after you were in your teens? My neighbor is T1 and age 12, and he give his shots like a pro!

[Funnygrl]

It takes a long time to figure doses out, and it continuous. I pretty much started with low doses and worked my way up. It took maybe 3 months on shots, and 6 on the pump.

[type1tenorlady]

I was never really taught how to figure the rates out by myself (or test to see if I needed to change them) when I was on MDI so I pretty much just stuck to what the dr (not an endo) told me, but when I switched to a pump my rep taught me how to test my rates and I was in contact with her while I was tweaking it all so I'd say it probably only took me 4-6 weeks.

[blacklightmike]

Thanks, that cleared it up. I was afraid I might have slept through that part of my diabetic teaching!

[Stuboy]

Basal and Bolus are also referenced alot with MDI (multiple Daily Injections)

[ant hill]

Thanks, that cleared it up. I was afraid I might have slept through that part of my diabetic teaching!

Who said that you stop learning when you leave school.:)

[blacklightmike]

Who said that you stop learning when you leave school.:)

Hear, hear! Students for life!