Basal and Bolus?!?!?!

[Jamison]

I keep hearing these words but I don't know what they mean and somehow they can be 'measured'. Someone explain :confused:

[Emm]

Basal is the background insulin you take - Lantus, Levemir, NPH... And bolus is the fast acting insulin you take for meals / corrections.

[Chappo]

Basal refers to the long-term effect of insulin on your body. It's more related to pumping and MDI (multiple daily injections). Bolus is the word used to refer to short-term corrections due to meals/rises in blood sugars.

With MDI's, a user will predominantly have a basal insulin (such as Levemir or Lantus) and then to correct blood sugar movements will use bolus (with a rapid acting insulin such as Humalog, NovoRapid or Apidra).

With pumping, the Basal refers to the long-term and overall release of the insulin, and closer BGL corrections are made with higher doses (like an injection) of insulin - this is a bolus.

So:
Basal = long acting/long effect (BASE-AL - this is how i remembered when i first came across the terms:))
Bolus = rapid acting/rapid effect

Hope it helps ;)

[morrisma]

Welcome to the club!

Insulins have an action profile. That profile has properties: onset and duration.

For example, humalog, a fast acting insulin, has an onset of 15 minutes meaning it will begin working within that time and a duration of 1 hour meaning it will have peaked and worn off and be substantially out of your system in that hour.

A long acting insulin will have a longer onset, 1 to 4 hours, and much longer duration, ideally 24 hours.

If you begin, as most type 1's, you will inject a long acting insulin once or twice per day and fast acting insulin at every meal in an amount calculated to correct for the carbohydrates eaten with that meal.

In addition and most importantly, you will test your blood sugar often to determine how well the insulin you are taking is working.

Ask you doc (hopefully and endocrinologist) about all this and make sure you understand as much as possible. Keep asking questions here as well.

[xMenace]

Here's an excellent link. Never mind that it's about pumping. It's relevant to all taking insulin.

Insulin pump - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin_pump)

In medicine, a bolus (from Latin bolus, ball) is the administration of a medication, drug or other compound that is given to raise blood concentration to an effective level. The administration can be given intravenously, by intramuscular or subcutaneous injection.

Basal refers to a minimal level that is necessary for health or life. As used by diabetics and health care professionals, it describes a low, continuous dosage of insulin (either as a basal rate from an insulin pump or a slow-acting insulin injection) intended to "cover" the glucose output of the liver.

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Two eggcelent books are Think Like A Pancreas by Sheiner and Using Insulin by Walsh :egg:

[Jamison]

Thanks, that helps a lot. I used to think they meant insulin that your body still secretes.