What should I do if my blood sugar level rises after taking insulin?

If blood sugar rises after insulin injection, it generally means that the patient's pancreatic function has been further damaged and the existing treatment and medication methods are no longer suitable. This involves the problem of absorption after injection, as well as the time and place of injection, etc. Of course, if the insulin is not stored properly, resulting in a decrease in insulin efficacy, this phenomenon may also occur.

What should I do if my blood sugar level rises after taking insulin?

When pancreatic function is damaged to a certain extent, insulin treatment is necessary. However, there are many patients whose blood sugar is still high after taking insulin. People thought that insulin was the last straw to control blood sugar, but this is not the case. Studies have shown that only one-quarter of diabetic patients in my country meet blood sugar control rates, and only 37% of patients who have used insulin meet blood sugar control rates. What causes low blood sugar control rates in people taking insulin?

Cause Analysis

If your blood sugar is still high after taking insulin, the main reason may be that your pancreatic function is further damaged and the current medication plan is not suitable. It is not just the insulin dose itself that determines the patient's blood sugar level. Many factors, such as how the insulin is injected, where it is injected, and how it is absorbed after injection, have a great impact on achieving blood sugar control standards. In addition, the storage of insulin will also affect the therapeutic effect of insulin.

1. Improper storage of insulin leads to its ineffectiveness: At relatively high temperatures, over time, the insulin will gradually precipitate at the bottom and walls of the bottle. Although these precipitates will not affect the normal activity of the insulin, they are not easy to pass through the needle, resulting in reduced activity of the extracted insulin and causing the insulin to become ineffective. As a result, the insulin injection is equivalent to a waste of time and does not play its due role. In addition, placing insulin in a checked suitcase when traveling can also cause the insulin to become ineffective because the temperature of the checked luggage is often below freezing.

2. Improper use of insulin results in the failure of insulin to play its due role: arbitrarily changing the type of insulin, mismatch between injection time and drug effect time, improper injection site (such as injection into a hardened area) leading to slower insulin absorption, etc., all of which will cause insulin to fail to play its due role and lead to increased blood sugar.

3. Severe insulin resistance, without combined oral hypoglycemic drugs with insulin sensitizing effects, results in a large amount of insulin being unable to play its due role in the body, which can also lead to increased blood sugar.

4. Using excessive doses of hypoglycemic drugs can cause patients to frequently experience symptomatic or asymptomatic hypoglycemia, which in turn leads to reactive hyperglycemia.

Possible medical conditions

One of the biggest side effects of insulin is weight gain, which in turn increases insulin resistance, leading to further increases in blood sugar and making it more difficult to control. In addition, other diseases can also aggravate insulin resistance, making blood sugar difficult to control, such as polycystic ovary syndrome, which manifests itself as obesity, hirsutism, amenorrhea, infertility, etc.

What should have been done but was not done?

For those whose blood sugar is still very high despite insulin treatment, islet function testing is required to determine whether insulin secretion is reduced, delayed, or resisted. Based on this, decide which insulin to use and whether oral hypoglycemic drugs are needed in combination.

For individuals who are in a state of high blood sugar for a long time, early screening for various complications of diabetes is necessary to ensure early detection and early treatment, because high blood sugar is the direct cause of diabetic complications. The examination items include: diabetic retinopathy, liver function and kidney function, urine protein, glycosylated hemoglobin, neuroelectromyography, cardiovascular and carotid artery ultrasound, etc., so as to nip the complications in the bud as soon as possible.