The real reason you should care about basal rates if you have diabetes #shorts

If you are living with diabetes and are insulin dependent, you might be wondering why you have to take basal insulin….

Whether you’re on injections or whether you’re on an insulin pump, there’s going to be an amount of background insulin you are getting to keep your blood sugar steady.

Here’s why:

Ever notice when your blood sugar rises on its own when you don’t have your insulin pump on?

Or you forgot to take your basal insulin injection and you start rising slowly?

Your liver is constantly dumping glucose into the bloodstream to give your body “energy”.

With no basal insulin, your blood sugar would continue to go up and up and up until it got to a place that’s dangerous.

By taking basal insulin, it helps to “counteract” that glucose dump from the liver so your blood sugar can stay in range.

As previously mentioned, you can get it via a long-acting insulin injection like Tresiba or Toujeo, or via an insulin pump.

If you are insulin dependent, this is absolutely crucial, but it’s something that nobody ever takes time to explain.

Let me know if this is the first time you’ve heard of this or if your care team has gone over it.