What are the different regimes?

What type of insulin do you use? Why do you think you were given this type?

1. A lot of people with busy lives use something called a Basal Bolus or Multiple Daily Injection (MDI) regimen. This way of giving insulin is good if you do different stuff in your life and if you don’t always stick to a routine. What it means is that you have background insulin, or basal insulin given using either a long-acting analogue or Isophane insulin. You then take fast-acting analogue or soluble insulin before you eat carbs. By doing this it allows you to eat at different times of the day and also vary the amount of carbs you eat. To do this you would need to learn carb counting, and how to increase or decrease your dose depending on the amount of carbs you are going to eat. You can also learn how to adjust the dose when you are exercising to prevent low or high blood glucose levels. Because of all of this, it is a really flexible way of giving insulin. It does need a bit practice though to understand how to adjust your insulin doses.

2. Some people might use a Basal Bolus or MDI and not adjust the doses. This is usually if they have quite a routine lifestyle, and tend to eat the same types of food and carb portion sizes, and also exercise at the same times.

3. If someone has a very routine lifestyle, or if someone is newly diagnosed and trying to get their head around diabetes, they may use a twice daily mixed insulin. This is usually given before breakfast and bed.

However, very often people might need to try different regimens and insulins until they find the best for their lifestyle. This is quite normal. Also don’t worry if you are trying something new and your blood glucose isn’t perfect straight away. Often it takes a bit time to fiddle around with doses and for you to understand how the insulin is working in your body when you are doing different activities.