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View Full Version : hypos from: niacin, vitamin C, ... what else?


Eddy
02-12-2008, 07:10 AM
I've already determined that niacin (500 mg when I take it) seems to trigger hypos. Instead of 1U insulin dropping me 25 mg/dL, I can expect 50 to 65 (after 1.0 to 1.5 hr using Humulin-R!) when I've recently done niacin.

Now I'm finding vitamin C somehow triggers hypos. I'd suspected this before, and recently observed it again.

e.g. last night: BG = 91 mg/dL @ 23:45, virtually no IOB. Had 1x Emergen-C packet -- 6g carbohydrate (which is worth a 15 mg/dL bump) and 1g vitamin C -- and a little stevia powder.

I've set my Lantus to give me ~ 10 mg/dL drop overnight. Yet this morning I awoke with 54 mg/dL.

It's not just the Emergen-C or stevia, either: A few days ago, 4g of vit-C with rose hips coincided with an excursion to 41 mg/dL. I forget what I'd eaten, but I understood it well and have no reason to question the bolus.

Odd. Just thought I'd share.

pdxdennisj
02-12-2008, 10:01 PM
My lipid doc warned me years ago that Niacin makes some have unstable (high or low) blood glucose. It is well known in professional diabetes circles.

Eddy
02-15-2008, 03:35 AM
My lipid doc warned me years ago that Niacin makes some have unstable (high or low) blood glucose. It is well known in professional diabetes circles.

I'd heard of niacin having a hyperglycemic effect, but not hypo. Vitamin C... I'd not heard anything.

Then, again, I was averaging 65 g/day of Vitamin C during the two months before DX. Kind of makes me wonder...