What Do Post-Meal Blood-Sugar Spikes Look Like with Different Insulins?
Avoiding post-meal blood-sugar spikes can be difficult for those with insulin-dependent type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Want to know what post-meal blood-sugar spikes look like with different insulins?
Let’s take a look.
Why Do Blood-Sugar Levels Spike After Meals?
People with insulin-dependent diabetes are unable to normally digest sugar from their diet.
Insulin is a hormone produced by the beta cells in the pancreas. To feed and energize the body’s cells, insulin metabolizes glucose, which is the molecule sugar is broken down into in the body.
Without insulin, sugar remains in the bloodstream, increasing blood sugar levels and depriving the body’s cells of energy.
During a meal, when people with diabetes take insulin for the carbs they consume, they attempt to adjust their insulin dosage to match their carb intake. —an imperfect science in the real world.
Sometimes the ratios do not perfectly add up, either resulting in high or low-blood-sugar levels afterwards.
Limiting the frequency and duration of blood-sugar spikes and dips can enhance quality of life and help avert long-term consequences related to diabetes.
Why Should We Limit Post-Meal Blood-Sugar Spikes?
Reducing blood-sugar spikes after meals—a.k.a. “postprandial” spikes—is crucial to improving time in range, a measure of your quality of life and how well your diabetes is managed.
Tight blood sugar management during meals can also help avert long-term diabetes complications, including neuropathy, heart disease, kidney disease, retinopathy, and reduced life expectancy.
What Do Post-Meal Blood-Sugar Spikes Look Like with Different Insulins?
There are different types of meal-time insulin.
If you’re on multiple daily injections, they can be used in conjunction with long-acting (basal) insulin. Alternatively, if you use an insulin pump, you can use a single type of rapid-acting (bolus) insulin for all of your insulin demands.
The different types of rapid-acting (meal-time) insulin include:
- Lispro (Humalog and Lyumjev)
- Aspart (Novolog and Fiasp)
- Glulisine (Apidra)
- Regular (Humulin, N Novolin, and R insulin)
- Premixed (combination of long-acting and short and/or rapid-acting insulin in one vial)
These insulins can be further categorized based on how quickly they work in the bloodstream:
Short-acting insulins (Humulin, N Novolin, R insulin)
- These types of insulin should be administered 30 minutes before a meal.
- This insulin works best between 30-60 minutes after it’s administered.
Rapid-acting insulins (Humalog, Novolog, Apidra)
- These types of insulin should be administered 0–15 minutes before a meal.
- These insulins work best between 10 and 30 minutes after it’s administered.
Ultra-rapid-acting insulins (Lyumjev and Fiasp)
- These are the fastest-acting mealtime insulins available.
- Depending on the kind of food you’re eating, they may be taken just before you start eating—or even during or after a meal.
- These insulins work best within one to five minutes after administration.
Pre-mixed insulins (Humulin 70/30 and Novolin 70/30)
- These are a mixture of slower (NPH) and faster-acting (Regular) insulin in one bottle.
- Humalog 75/25, Humalog 50/50, and Novolog 70/30 also contain slower insulin (NPH) along with lispro or aspart (rapid-acting insulins).
- These premixed insulins are usually taken regularly before a set meal, like breakfast or dinner, because they also contain your daily basal dose as well.
- Depending on the types of food you’re eating, you will administer these insulins either 30 minutes (Humulin or Novolin) or 0-15 minutes (Humalog 72/25, Humalog 50/50, or Novolog 70/30) before your meal.
It is important to note that pre-mixed insulin, which includes NPH, has an unpredictable action. Your blood-sugar levels after taking it and the timing of the insulin are not always predictable.
Furthermore, there is an increased risk of both high and low-blood-sugar levels when the dose of premixed insulin with NPH is changed. This affects both the rapid and short-acting insulin in the mixture.
The inability to make a separate insulin correction dose for elevated blood-sugar levels due to mixtures necessitates careful meal planning, which adds to the difficulty and rigidity of managing diabetes.
How Well Does Insulin Prevent Blood-Sugar Spikes?
All forms of insulin have the potential to reduce blood-sugar rises following meals, but the more rapid acting the insulin, the more effective it is in preventing hyperglycemia.
That is because rapid-acting insulin better mimics the body’s release of insulin from the pancreas.
For people without diabetes, this process is seamless and happens within seconds.
If you use short-acting or rapid-acting insulin—instead of ultra-rapid-acting insulin—you will need to take it much earlier than you’re eating—but that will depend on your insulin sensitivity and is a decision that should be made between you and your doctor. Taking insulin early gives it time to reach your bloodstream, usually in time to coincide with the release of carbs during a meal.
Because ultra-rapid-acting insulins are also more quickly digested by the body and leave the system sooner, they also help to prevent low-blood-sugar levels later on.
If you choose to take short-acting or rapid-acting insulin, it will stay in your bloodstream longer, which helps prevent high blood-sugar levels later on—but it can also cause low blood-sugar levels as well.
Taking insulin—either short- or rapid-acting—means it will stay in your bloodstream longer than ultra-rapid-acting insulin. This helps prevent high blood sugar later on, but can also cause low blood-sugar levels as well.
Other Ways to Prevent Post-Meal Blood-Sugar Spikes
If you are an insulin-dependent person with diabetes, the best and most efficient method of lowering post-meal blood-sugar spikes is to use insulin.
In addition to insulin, other strategies to maintain healthy blood-sugar levels after meals include:
- Take a brisk walk after a meal.
- Test your blood sugar one and two hours after a meal to make sure you aren’t spiking.
- Stay hydrated with water.
- Take all medications, including insulin, as prescribed.
- Stick to high-protein, and high-fiber meals.
- Avoid added sugars and refined carbohydrates in foods and drinks.
- Reach out to your doctor and care team if you’re experiencing persistently high blood-sugar levels after meals to help calibrate your medications or make changes as necessary
Diabetes management is a personal challenge. You and your doctor must determine which insulin therapy best suits your needs, lifestyle and overall health objectives.
By paying attention to the amount and timing of the insulin you take, it is possible to tailor your diabetes care to fit your life—rather than the other way around.
This content was made possible by Lilly, a Founding Partner of Beyond Type 2.
Beyond Type 2 maintains editorial control over its content.
