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Podcast Episodes

The Juicebox Podcast is from the writer of the popular diabetes parenting blog Arden's Day and the award winning parenting memoir, 'Life Is Short, Laundry Is Eternal: Confessions of a Stay-At-Home Dad'. Hosted by Scott Benner, the show features intimate conversations of living and parenting with type I diabetes.

Filtering by Category: Pre Bolus

#258 Defining Diabetes: Pre Bolus

Scott Benner

Defining Diabetes: Pre Bolus

Scott and Jenny Smith, CDE define the terms at the center of your type 1 diabetes care

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - PandoraSpotify - Amazon AlexaGoogle Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public or their favorite podcast app.

Glycemic Index from Harvard.edu

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT


DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Defining diabetes is made possible by Dexcom on the pod and dancing for diabetes, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before becoming bold with insulin, or making any changes to your medical plan. I wanted to find Pre-Bolus Jenny, because I believe that if you just Pre-Bolus, you can knock about a point off your a one say it's not the first step when I talk to people, the first step is always we need to get your basal insulin right. But Pre-Bolus is incredibly important. Mm hmm. People don't do it for what I think of is probably two basic reasons. One is no one ever explained to them what it was, which is fascinating. And the second one is, they'll say, I don't need on a schedule. I'm a free loving person. I'm all cool and hip, and everything about my life is free and easy. And it's hard for me to tie myself down man, like, like, right here, then they'll complain about their budget or being high for five hours in the fight they were and I was like, we just need five seconds worth of focus about 15 minutes before you eat. So let's define Pre-Bolus first.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:11
So Pre-Bolus thing essentially, is when you take insulin at a set time before keyword there before actually starting to take your first bite of food allows time for our poorly named rapid acting insulin to get more active in the system. Because food specifically carbs have very quick impact. The saliva in your mouth starts to break things down so that when it gets to your gut, it's gonna be easier even to break down. So taking insulin, before you start to eat, goal being about 15 minutes, give or take. But a 15 minute rule of thumb to start with if you've never been doing it, and you're hearing this and like, oh, let's give that a try. 15 minutes is a good rule of thumb to sell,

Scott Benner 2:05
and then you can find out. I tell people all the time, you can use your CGM to figure out your Pre-Bolus time, people will be like it's longer, it's shorter, whatever, I don't know what you're gonna be. But you can get your blood sugar stable at a lower number, right like 30, nice and stable 130 for a couple hours, get all the insulin out of you then hit yourself with a bolus that you think's going to take you to 90 and see how long it takes for that to start moving. Right? Once your blood sugar starts moving, that distance of time is about about what your Pre-Bolus is. I just saw something. So I googled it right while you were speaking. Uh huh. I was gonna do that thing where I'm like, Jenny, now I'm gonna read the definition from the internet. And the seriously satis thing happened and I'm not joking. The second return for the words Pre-Bolus definition are from Arden's day in the Juicebox Podcast, I can't believe how is that possible? Awesome. No, it's not awesome. It should be like coming from like nine hospitals and like, like,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:01
well, I'm saying that it's awesome that it's there at all.

Scott Benner 3:05
But yeah, but the point is, is that what does Google Search just told me was is that nobody tells people about this. It's literally not.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:14
Are there any hospitals? Are there any hospitals that are even listed on your Google search? Are there any, like therapeutic

Scott Benner 3:22
to blockhouse? Mine. And then the next one that pops up is a definition for the word Bolus. And it says missing pre. So it's not even. Yeah, there's three things that say Pre-Bolus on it. And one of them is somebody saying I can't seem to do very well with my meal boluses. And it's somebody just complaining about Pre-Bolus. The word definition is excluded from the search. So I am the only search that has the word Pre-Bolus. And it's because on my blog posts, I have some of them tagged because they're about Pre-Bolus. Sure, but I just it's just really sad. Like, I listen, I did not set this up. I wish I did not be a genius. But I really got sad, like when I saw it, I mean, there's a Wikipedia entry. That's even not helpful. It says, a Pre-Bolus of insulin can combine a meal bolus and a correction bolus. When the blood sugar is above the target range before a meal. That's not accurately what a pre marlis is.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:21
And that's not at all the time.

Scott Benner 4:23
The timing of the bolus is a controllable variable to bring down the blood sugar level before eating again, causes it to increase.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:33
That's entirely wrong. That's right.

Scott Benner 4:36
Yeah, sad. Okay.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:38
I never look at Wikipedia for any Oh,

Scott Benner 4:40
yeah, that's not I'm just saying that's the only other thing that popped up like that. Yeah. That's so sad. Right? Okay, so we'll change that. I'm gonna get what Jenny? I'm going to take this audio and I'm going to build a web page. It's just about Pre-Bolus. And I'm gonna make sure I'm gonna get people write blog articles about it, and I'm gonna turn it to a thing because Listen, here's my definition of Pre-Bolus. And I'm sure Jenny just said the same thing. I'm about to say Pre-Bolus sing or pre injecting or pre, whatever you want to call it. It's not really pre nine, if you really think about it, insulin does not go into your system and start working right away. Right? Say it all the time. It's not a light switch, you don't just flip a switch and it happens. Insulin right. So while to work. Mm hmm. You need the impact that that insulin is having on your blood sugar to coincide with the, the food or your you know, anything else, it's trying to make your blood sugar rise, you want to get involved in a fair fight. And I guess this is this place of time is to say it is all you know, it says, Oh my gosh, I just, I don't even know what I was just trying to say that this is a good place to say this. It's a tug of war that you don't want either side to win. And if you just yell, go and let both sides start pulling both sides being insulin on one side and carbs or body function on the other. If you just yell go, carbs and body function are always going to win because it takes a while for your insulin to come online. You need insulin in your body sooner, so that it comes online when the carbs start pulling so that instead of the broke getting jerked all the way on one side. And now that you know your carbs are winning this tug of war greatly, then all the sudden your insulin comes online starts pulling the by then it's too weak. Because you know you only bolus for the carbs you counted, you did not bolus for the momentum that the carbs now have or the distance between your target blood sugar and where it is now. You were 90 when you put the insulin in. Now you're 150 your blood sugar shooting up you have this momentum you have to stop you have to bring the number back and you have to cover the food but you only put in insulin for the food. But if you put that insulin in for the food in time for it to begin working when the the carbs try to pull on that rope, then the carbs can't move the rope because the insolence add its power then and it's fighting. So when you see somebody with a straight line on their CGM online, that's what's going on behind the scenes, the insulin and the carbs are embroiled in a battle that neither of them can win. Right? And then they hired they dropped the rope in the center of the rope is right where it started. And that's how my weird brain thinks about bolusing.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:16
So it's a very, it's a very good example of the tug of war I've used several times since you mentioned it because it's a very easy way to consider what your goal is in using Pre-Bolus it's very easy to comprehend even for kids. It's very easy to comprehend a game of tug of war 100%

Scott Benner 7:41
Sure, yes, for sports fans soccer fan. It's not Pre-Bolus things like playing without a goalie. Are you a baseball fan? It's like hitting off a little leaguer? Are you a football fan? It's like not having an offensive line expecting your quarterback not to get sack basketball, imagine they raised the hoop to 50 feet, right? Like these are the situations you're putting yourself in if you're not Pre-Bolus. And I'm telling you right now, this podcast is incredibly helpful. I mean that and I think you'll find it to be helpful. But if you just Pre-Bolus you're going to get an A one c reduction. That's it. I mean, the rest of it is hugely important. But this is this is this is 1 billion steps. It's understanding your basal insulin, which technically is Pre-Bolus saying right having the right bazel is nothing more or less than having your basal insulin be at the right power at the right time. Being you know, Pre-Bolus thing is having a meal insulin at the right power at the right time. Okay, I can't give away all the secrets or there won't be a podcast.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:40
Not true. There's always something to discuss with

Scott Benner 8:42
diabetes. Definitely not true. Jenny Smith is not just the delightful voice you hear on the Juicebox Podcast. She's also a real live person with a job and she works at integrated diabetes. If you'd like Jenny to help you in your personal journey with Type One Diabetes, go to integrated diabetes comm find Jenny's profile and send her an email. There's also links right here in the show notes about you know how you can do that. I think there's actually even a link there to her email. And there's a brief description of her you know, Bona Fie days Why it is you might want to give Jenny a ring. Thanks so much to the sponsors Dexcom on the pod and dancing for diabetes. There are links in your show notes at Juicebox podcast.com. Where you can find out more about the dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor. Figure out what's going on at dancing for diabetes.com and order a free no obligation pod experience get that's right a free no obligation demo of the Omni pod

About Jenny Smith

Jennifer holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Nutrition and Biology from the University of Wisconsin. She is a Registered (and Licensed) Dietitian, Certified Diabetes Educator, and Certified Trainer on most makes/models of insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring systems. You can reach Jenny at jennifer@integrateddiabetes.com


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#226 Diabetes Pro Tip: The Perfect Bolus

Scott Benner

Scott and Jenny Smith, CDE share insights on type 1 diabetes care.….

I am thrilled to welcome Jenny Smith, CDE back to the show. Jenny will be joining us for an extended series of conversations that focus solely on the management ideas that we discuss on the podcast.

Jennifer holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Nutrition and Biology from the University of Wisconsin. She is a Registered (and Licensed) Dietitian, Certified Diabetes Educator, and Certified Trainer on most makes/models of insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring systems. You can reach Jenny at jennifer@integrateddiabetes.com.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon AlexaGoogle Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public or their favorite podcast app.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT


DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello and welcome to Episode 226 of the Juicebox Podcast. Today's episode is called the perfect Bolus, and it is installment number nine of my diabetes pro tip series with CDE Jennifer Smith. I'm gonna make this episode ad free, but I'll probably give them a mention here and there, you know, not a whole like big sell, but still, I really love the advertisers. Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. And the Always consult a physician before becoming bold with insulin or making any changes to your medical plan.

If you find yourself loving Jenny as much as I do, and you'd like to hire her personally, you can go to integrated diabetes.com. To find out more. There's also a link to Jenny's email address right in the show notes of your podcast player. And at Juicebox. podcast.com.

Hey, everyone, Jennifer's back. And we're here today to talk about the perfect Bolus. So that already sounds like a topic that everyone's gonna get upset about when they hear but i think but there's a lot of different ideas here. So Jennifer, what I was thinking was, Bolus is different differ depending on situation, right? You might have a high blood sugar a low you might be falling, you might be rising, you might have a new site. There's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 1:39
exercise, you might Yeah, keep going. Right? You may have just exercised you might have you might be ill you might have your period, you may be coming into having your period, you know, your dog might have eaten the other dog next door and like you're dealing

Scott Benner 1:54
with a little bit of anxiety going and there's a different tick, Good dog, maybe your next door neighbor's dog Jennifer, Has that ever happened in your life? So psychologists say that if you make up something like that, it comes from something. I don't believe that because my my humor is so bizarre that I look back sometimes. And I think, but that was something really strange. I just said does that have any real connection to my thoughts? And I've really looked closely because I've been worried in the past. But I don't think that's true for everybody.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:22
I got a chocolate lab and I don't think that that's even in there. Totally not in the nature. So anyway. No, it's never happened, thankfully.

Scott Benner 2:31
So you people have already learned the chocolate labs are not carnivorous. At least towards other dogs.

Unknown Speaker 2:39
Pog, Oh,

Scott Benner 2:41
my gosh, okay, yeah. So anyway, so I want to start with I mean, we're just going to pick one, right? Let's say your blood sugar's where you mean for it to be your bezels are in check, they work? Well, you haven't eaten in a while. It's the perfect scenario, the one that they described you in the doctor's office, the first time you're diagnosed, right? Your blood sugar is 95. And you're hungry. And you're thinking, What am I going to do? So? Ideally, we know at this point, now from listening to the episodes, we have to figure out what our length of time for our Pre-Bolus is. Right? But how do we know? How much to Pre-Bolus? And I think the answer always has to be, I can't tell you, Jennifer can't tell you it's situational, but that you'll learn through trial and error. So but let's make this one general, right, it's a it's a nice balanced meal, you've got some vegetables, some carbs, there's protein, it looks like it looks like a plate from a superfriends episode that the government told you how to eat in the 70s. The food triangle, it's called

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:47
a triangle.

Scott Benner 3:48
So so if you're a nice steady blood sugar, if if my daughter was at 95, and I thought this was a pretty, you know, average meal, as far as what I expect, as far as impact back from it, I might put in all of the insulin, you know, in the beginning, but I also might even say, hey, there's bread in there a potato that might stretch out the action of the impact of the carbs over more time. So maybe I'll put in, I don't know, 50% or 60%, and stretch it out over a half hour an hour just to create, like we've talked about in the past that kind of blanket of insulin to cover the entire impact timeline of the carbs. I think that the thing to remember is, is that there can't be really a set idea for what that means. Like maybe you'll figure out a meal eventually and say it's 70% and 30% over an hour. You might get to that point at some point.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:39
And many people do many people who have pretty consistent intake, or like the same things over and over. But the variables would be around that will sometimes change even near more standard figured out meal.

Scott Benner 4:54
Yeah. And so I think so my first my first step, I'm telling you Any good Bolus, that one that has any chance of working, I think it's a nice simple way of saying it has to have a Pre-Bolus. Like you have to start, you have to start getting the momentum of your blood sugar moving down, so that when the carbs start acting, they move up. So so that's that, to me, that's step one. Now, do you talk about or do you in your own life use combination of Bolus and Basal in situations like this?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 5:29
Ah, in some situations like this, perhaps more often, more often what I do and more often what I eat is Pre-Bolus based on some of the meal content, because some of that does. It does work together things like glycemic index. And also, as you brought in to begin with the where the blood sugar starting, is it coming in standard at your target? Are you coming in, but it's already dipping down? Are you coming in, in target, but it's already drifting high. All of that is where you can also look at Bolus timing, and how much Pre-Bolus you may need. So you know, coming in at a blood sugar of 95 with a straight horizontal line the past hour, awesome, that looks great. But the minute you put food in, that, that blood sugar line is gonna start to change a quick after that, if there's not time for that insulin to talk first to begin with, right?

Scott Benner 6:33
Yep, I hear what you're saying too, about, like, understanding the glycemic load of different like foods, if you have something like you know, using Chinese food, such a great example, because it normally incorporates rice, which stays for a long time and hit you hard, and usually some sugar that'll hit you fast. So if there's something sugary in there, you may need a real, you know, push of insulin in the beginning to combat that initial rise. But that initial rise could get beat up by that insulin very quickly. And now what's left over is the, you know, the rice they can linger in the back, right? It's an excellent, good.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:08
So yeah, yeah, yeah, I was just gonna follow with Yes, you could, in that instance, then have the potential for meeting both Bolus and bazel. Potential change, and also where we talk about Basal. And most doctors are like, well, Basal shouldn't ever be used for food or covering anything. Well, we've learned very differently, especially with fat. Fat requires a huge amount of bazel change in the aftermath of eating your typical pizza, or, you know, burger and french fries, or mac and cheese that's homemade, or whatever it might be. Oftentimes, you need 4050 60% of an increase in bazel for many hours after that meal, or you're gonna stay stuck high,

Scott Benner 7:50
right? Or you could end up hitting it with so much insulin up front that you think you've avoided that and then three or four hours later, you start rising, and you think it's for no reason. Right? And it's still that fat. Is it still the fat? Yep. So I like a in what I call karbi situations, I, which is not a word, but

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:08
hyrecar in our world, in our world, karbi is absolutely a word.

Scott Benner 8:13
So with carbee foods, there's a couple different ways I use Temp Basal, and we talked about it before, but in this situation, if I thought a meal was 10 units for sure, but I wanted it to be spread out more Arden's basal rate being 1.4. I might double Arden's bazel for an hour and a half and catch two and a quarter units that way, and then take some of that out of the of the bottom line, right?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 8:37
Absolutely. Because we get a lingering effect from the bazel. And you get less upfront, but you're still getting the whole bolus you determined you need it. Okay,

Scott Benner 8:46
same meal. Jenny rapidfire, same meal, but I walk in the door from work, and my spouse says dinner's ready, and it hits the table. I can't Pre-Bolus I didn't know this was gonna happen. What do you do? And that's where I'd like you to lay out the idea of overhauling for people here.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:09
Yeah, and that's over Bolus thing. Essentially, that's a good Super Bolus, as you can kind of be talked a little bit about before, that's a situation where 100% unless that meal is like a plate of broccoli, in which you would never need a Super Bowl, or Pre-Bolus. right in your typical meal that we're saying we're having 100% of Super Bowl, this would be beneficial, where you actually do take a load of insulin that would be your bazel behind you added on to the suggested bolus for what you're going to eat. And then you may actually knock off the bazel behind so you don't go low later, but you've gotten the load of insulin, the push up front, right. The other option that many people do in that situation too is they take the bull and they may actually turn their bazel off 100% for an hour.

Scott Benner 9:56
Okay to also try to spike

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:59
right in actly so that they're getting a bolus, they're maybe not quite sure if the food in the bolus, even though it's happening at the same time is going to cause as much of a rise. But they're definitely saying, I know I need a lot more because I wasn't able to give that 2030 minutes before this.

Scott Benner 10:14
Yeah. And, and I think of over bolusing in two situations. So the one I don't have time to Pre-Bolus. So in my mind, the way it strikes me is I now need the insulin for the food for the high number I know is going to come because I didn't Pre-Bolus and some to stop the momentum or stop the arrow, right? And so if I thought the meal was definitely six units, but I thought, wow, there's no way this doesn't go to 250. I Bolus the six units. And I Bolus like I'm trying to bring down a 250 at the same time, right? Well, that's again, listen, we're calling these you know, we're calling these this series diabetes protests. So this is like ninja level stuff. Like you don't don't try this on day one. But at some point, right. On day one, don't go I didn't Pre-Bolus I'm gonna double my balls, please. Right. Yeah, right. But as you're figuring things out, that's a great place to do. As you've heard in past episodes. There's a very famous book called, is it pumping insulin?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:13
pumping insulin is john Walsh. And he's the one who lobbies for bowling. Yeah.

Good. Oh, you got you know, you call it something else? Yeah, we call it

Scott Benner 11:23
I call it over bolusing. But I don't know why.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:27
No, I was gonna say the other. You know, the other concept that kind of comes in here that you'd sort of just alluded to is, where is the blood sugar going to likely be? And that trajectory, you know, assuming that okay, I might be 95 right now. But if I haven't Pre-Bolus, I could easily be to 50 in the next 30 to 60 minutes. Okay, you're taking that value. And it's looking at the trajectory of where it will probably be, and using that glucose value to add on to the current Bolus. So you're avoiding that really high blood sugar.

Scott Benner 12:00
And what I say on the podcast, which people might remember is I just say you have to trust that what you know is going to happen is going to happen, right? So you can't just pretend this will be the time this doesn't happen. You know, oh, I'll get away with not Pre-Bolus thing today, there's, that doesn't make any sense. It might happen once in a while. But that's some random reason from something earlier. That's not you know, that's not

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:20
me, I ran 10 miles and don't usually ever do that. And now, look at that my blood sugar doesn't.

Scott Benner 12:26
So now another place to use an over Bolus as a Pre-Bolus is a is a place where this the concept in my mind is the same, the situation is different. What if I've been fighting with my blood sugar all day, and I just can't get it down. It's 200. But I know I'm gonna eat an hour, like it's dinnertime and an hour and I've been, you know, pushing and pushing little boluses little bays or anything, I can't make this 200 move for whatever, maybe it's a site not working well, whatever it is, in my mind, I Bolus the meal. I Bolus the number I over Bolus upfront and create a fall that I then catch with the food. So I reverse. I we're going to talk about this in the next episode. But I reverse the way I think about I think most of the time we consider how does the food impact my blood sugar? How does the insulin impact my blood sugar? We don't often enough think about how does the food impact the insulin? Right. And that's, and we've talked we talked about that in earlier episodes where we put a little, you know, we put a little boy's blood sugar into a freefall and got it by eating at the right time. So all we're talking about any of these situations is timing, right? It's the right amount. It's the right amount of insulin at the right time. And if your blood sugar's 300, and you have to eat an hour from now, well, the right amount of insulin is now and you know, it's it is now and you can't you can't just wait and do your 15 minute Pre-Bolus on the 300 blood sugar because you've lost already. Right? Right.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 13:58
And you know, something that that kind of goes along to with the concept that catching catching the potential drop while also sort of avoiding or taking care of a higher blood sugar. in pregnancy with the women that I work with. It's kind of similar, we actually at some point get to bolusing. That's like a split a split meal where you actually load the front of that meal time with the whole bolus. Yeah, but you only actually eat about 70% of the food now. And you catch the drop about an hour later with the rest of the meal.

Scott Benner 14:29
Interesting.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:30
So what you get is not a spike, not going above those post meal ranges for pregnancy. But you also catch the drop on the back end and you never go low.

Scott Benner 14:40
Yeah, that's very similar to how I handle days like Christmas or Thanksgiving. The idea that there's always going to be eating. So I all I'm always Pre-Bolus in the next grazing opportunity, right like that's interest

Jennifer Smith, CDE 14:56
you for holidays is I actually knowing I'm coming into a grazing time period that's going to be a lot less than precise, a lot less. And a lot of little nibbles along the way behind any holiday where I know I'm going to be up hours of nibbling and eating 25% increase in bazel. And then again, I Bolus along the way. And depending on where glucose is, I might nudge that along the way, too. Yep,

Scott Benner 15:23
yeah. Okay, so now, what happens if dinners taking a little too long to make, and my perfect 95 is turned into a 90 that turned into an 80 that turned on 85. And now it's 75. And now, now someone's yelling, dinner's gonna be ready in five minutes. I know that for most people that makes them feel like Well, I'm too low to Pre-Bolus. But No, you're not. And and so you have to get some insulin moving. And you'll learn how much you can do over time. But in the in the interim, it's got to be some subtle, right, you're just you're drifting low. I'm not even talking about FedEx computer, somebody we're talking about diagnol down, I'm just this, this blood sugar just is kind of drifting down. Your Pre-Bolus still takes as long as it takes to eat to excuse me as long as it takes to work. So if you're 75 and drifting down, Pre-Bolus thing right now is not going to make you start crashing down. If that does happen, that was a coincidence. That's not you. Again, the insulin didn't just start magically working like that, right? Science didn't change. So you still need a Pre-Bolus. Now I get if it's a it's a big meal, and you're like, well, I can't put in eight units. While I'm 75 diagnose, you're right, you probably can't. But you could put in some 20 20% of it even. And we do this a lot while Arden's at school because we Pre-Bolus 20 minutes ahead of Arden's meal at school while she's still in a class. I'm still Pre-Bolus if she's 85. So if I give an ardent gets a big bolus at lunchtime, that while she's in school, much larger than most any other times in her life, 12 sometimes 13 units right for 145 pound kid. So I might do a zero percent upfront, and the balance over a half an hour. So it's all kind of getting squeezed in. But it's not all going to come on line and be active right away. It might be 20% up front, but you have to get some sort of that momentum happening again, on the on the action of your insulin, your insulin to be pulling down when the food goes in. Right, right. Okay.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 17:22
And that's important even for kids, I think in what you're doing that is important, especially for little kids, where you're not quite sure. I know a lot of the people I parents I work with, what I don't know how much Billy is going to eat, or Susie is a really slow eater or, you know, today's she might love spaghetti and she'll love it for the next three days. But then she hates it and I prepared it and I Bolus for it. And now what's going to happen, right? You, for the most part kids and teens will always eat as you said a percent. Let's say that you always know they're going to eat 10 grams of something, even if you have to change what it is they're going to eat something for you. Yes. So if you can Bolus for that little bit up front, it's giving insulin again, more action before you put food in.

Scott Benner 18:08
And one of the many, many reasons that Jenny is on the show is because if Jenny wasn't here, that would have been the next thing I would have said. It's perfect. You, you parents of little kids, it's a perfect idea. Get something moving, even if it's a little bit, just get something moving, give yourself a fighting chance. And to Jenny's point, there's an amount of food if you look back at your kids meals, they always eat at least a little bit. And by the way, if they really flake out and don't worry if, as in the case of the interview I did yesterday with a mother who said she was so excited, she put the insulin in, grab some like fast food and drove away and the kid fell asleep while they were driving away. Right? You know, okay, that might happen. It's happened to me, but still a little bit of juice, right? You only put a little bit in all you've done is Pre-Bolus a couple of sips of juice, you don't have to worry about the food. The point is, is that the Pre-Bolus is always important. It's it's Listen, if you're crashing down as the foods hitting the table and you're literally 50 and your blood sugar's falling. Okay. That's your Pre-Bolus. Right. Right. Okay, you're now prepared.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:14
Because there's already insulin that's causing the crash.

Scott Benner 19:17
Yes. Something whether you meant for it or not. You have been Pre-Bolus by so long, right? So good. So see that put the food in. And as soon as that stops, right, as soon as that down arrow goes away, it is time to get your insulin in. You absolutely cannot then say well, I don't know. I'm 60. And that seems dangerous. Now what's dangerous is that you've put all that food in your body and it's going to start hitting you the other direction happened to us last night. And I had to Bolus I had to make a significant bolus at a 75 diagonal up blood sugar because I was like, well, this is I know what's gonna happen. Let me get let me stay ahead of it right.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:59
I'm the hardest about using CGM now, as wonderful 100% as they are, the hard thing is that CGM do lag in times of quick change. And so if you have been diagonally down and you're waiting for, you know, you want to Pre-Bolus, but you're not quite sure, sure, go ahead and eat as. But as soon as you see that horizontal or a bit of a trend up, I guarantee your finger stick is higher in the sij than the CGM is showing you. You're already at a deficit of insulin.

Scott Benner 20:29
Yes. Yes. The deficits an important way to think of it and you. And this is again, something you'll learn over time.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 20:35
Well, yeah. It's a bit like the first month. Again,

Scott Benner 20:39
not on your first day, right? Yeah, listen to all the episodes of the podcast to really absorb everything, go through the pro tip stuff, and then say to yourself, I and then you have to see it, right, you have to recognize it. There's a way for CGM users, you have to be able to look, there's like a bend in the line. It's hard to put into words, right. But on the three hour graph on the Dexcom, the last three dots on the right side, tell a story about what's happening. And you will get to be able to glance at that at some point and say, Oh, this is heading down. This is heading up, I can tell I know what and so it's not day one, and it might not be the first month. But if what most of you report back in your emails is anywhere close to true for most, somewhere in the three to six month range. This all just starts making sense in a way. Yeah. Early on the podcast, I used to talk about it like in the matrix, when Neo stopped the bullets. But that has become such an old reference at this point. I'm afraid right now there's like a 19 year old going to what what are we talking about? Now?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 21:39
I'm old enough. I totally know at

Scott Benner 21:41
some point, at some point, diabetes makes so much sense to you, the bullets aren't even moving, you can just walk in between them. And so you get there at some point, right? Okay, so I'm low, I'm high, I'm falling like in the end, I think you're hearing. It's all about the right amount of insulin at the right time, just like we've been saying over and over again, a new site is a good example of, I'm gonna put this in here, even though it doesn't sort of fit, but it does fit. And so if you put a new site on, and you find that your sites don't work as well, immediately, once you put them on, or you know, you just have a site that doesn't seem to be as reactive as you're accustomed to. You still have to do what you have to do. You might have to do it sooner, you might have to do it more aggressively. And I know you're gonna say But what happens when that site starts working? Suddenly? Well, then it does. But you can't not be aggressive when something like that's going on. Because then you that's how you end up at 300 all day long, staring at it wondering what to do next. Right,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 22:44
right. I think the biggest the biggest piece of that Pre-Bolus message is unfortunately, really learning. And it's a daily relearn in the beginning of starting the Pre-Bolus. Rapid insulin is not rapid. Rapid is a bad word for it, it's a better word than our regular insulin used to be, which they called short acting, and I'd actually call that longer than short. I mean, rapid is not instantaneous rapid, as they tell you it is it takes a minimum of 15 to 20 minutes to really get moving.

Scott Benner 23:24
Yes. If you don't leave this episode, and in general, this series, believing that understanding how insulin works in your body is the core of this entire thing. You are not paying attention. So go back and start again.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 23:36
When you get a slap on the hand. Well,

Scott Benner 23:39
I didn't go to Catholic school, but I mean, if I did, yeah, well see Jenny's like, I know what happens when I don't listen, someone hits me with a ruler. So now I guess the last piece of this right about this perfect Bolus thing, right is in my heart, it's about remaining fluid. Now, you know, a lot of people are going to tell you, you really have to count your carbs correctly, right, which is true. You can't use the wrong amount of insulin like you know, you can't have a 50 carb meal in front of you and only put in 30 carbs and then act like oh, I don't know why this didn't work that but you know from listening for me and for a lot of people have been around type on for a while like you just I don't think about it as much as carbs. I think about it as units. I look at a plate and I think that looks like eight units to me. But if I'm wrong, and I am frequently for reasons that I don't care why, right like maybe it's a bad site, maybe I missed on my Pre-Bolus maybe Arden sick I don't care why but I miss then I readdress immediately, right based on my historical knowledge of how Arden acts I know that if I see a double arrow up after a meal bolus, I screwed something up pretty big. And I go more insulin. That's when you guys are starting to hear this. I'm starting to see you on online like talking to other people that people are just going more insulin. I'm like, Yes, I know. That's one of the podcasts and so But is she diagonal up, well, then maybe I missed by a lot less so a little more insulin, or I'll try to bump it back down again, or try to just try to stop the arrow. But staying fluid is the rest of it. Mm hmm. 100% staying fluid as the rest of it. And I know that I heard someone say this the other day. And I like the way they put it, that the idea of stacking insulin in a glucose monitor world is not quite accurate anymore, like you. But this person kind of went a little farther and said, You can't, you can't really stack insulin, when you have a glucose monitor on because you're seeing that you need more insulin. Right? I thought, Boy, that's a big idea. I agree with it in totally in theory. But most of you are going to be taught when you're diagnosed, don't stack and so on. And what they mean when they say that is don't put insulin in at one o'clock, and then put more in it, you know, 130, because you're gonna get low eventually. And if you're not using a glucose monitor, that very well may be true. But right, you can't follow it. Yeah. But if you can see your blood sugar, the direction and the speed it's moving in, you'd have to be incredibly insane to stack to the point where you'd call it some sort of a low that would make you incapable of responding.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 26:13
And that's where even you know, in the CGM, one that we talked about, I had mentioned using those event markers. And the event markers can be hugely beneficial now that they also show up right on your screen. So you can actually see, where did I put the insulin and you don't even have to go back to your pump to look at that. Or remember, when you took your injection, if you just mark it, you will know when those injections went in, you can follow the trend line and you see, okay, do I need more? I don't need very much more. I need a little bit more or a lot more, right?

Scott Benner 26:44
Yep, I've been this is gonna get away from this. And we'll stop in a second go to the next idea. But I've been talking to college students a lot through Instagram messaging. And if you just heard that and think oh my god, that's me. You're adorable. It could be any number of you. But but but but this one person just had a long, protracted high blood sugar that wasn't coming down. So finally, I just said, Look, you you have to like, crush this number, and crank up your bazel like do a Temp Basal raid for hours, like six hours, let's do 30% more and put in however much insulin you think is going to bring this down. And it took most of the afternoon but they got there. And then just with that idea of oh my gosh, I don't have enough basal insulin. The next day, here comes the 24 hour graph hundred and 30 blood sugar, because they're trying to live with not enough base. So as much as as much as we're talking about the perfect bolus here. Remember, you can't make the perfect bolus if your basal insulin is wrong. Correct, right, you'll never be able to. Because you'll always be replacing bazel that doesn't exist. Or if your basal is too high, you'll be causing lows and thinking oh, this is the bolus when actually

Jennifer Smith, CDE 27:59
it might not. Or if you are trying to really be aggressive with your Bolus thing. Then you're Bolus thing and Bolus thing and then finally Bolus thing too much. And that actually brings you back down. In which case then you might be eating, you're sending yourself back up. The Basal isn't enough in the background. So it becomes a roller coaster.

Scott Benner 28:16
So infuriating is this is going to be and then we'll we'll end up this episode. But if you're bezels, right, and you haven't had insulin or food for a few hours, your blood sugar's like 80 it's sitting right there. That's how you know you have your bazel right, and

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:31
so be stable,

Scott Benner 28:32
right stable. And so and so if you stability at 140 a little more might have stability at 120 a little more you that's how you can learn to play with it, but I'm just telling you that if it's if it was, you know, as intended, you know, by the heavens, then your blood sugar would be around 85. without food or insulin. It's not always going to be like that. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying if you're that far away from that number, you've got work to do on your basal rates, right. Okay, so we're gonna wrap this one up, and then record the next one right away. Okay. Thank you, Jenny for taking the time to be here on the podcast. Don't forget, you can hire Jenny at integrated diabetes.com. Her email address is in the show notes of your podcast player, and at Juicebox podcast.com. As always, I appreciate the support of the sponsors Dexcom on the pod dancing for diabetes and real good foods. You can save 20% on your entire order at real good foods calm by using the offer code juice box. This was the ninth installment of my diabetes pro tip series with Jenny Smith. There are more coming in the beginning I call it like a 10 part series. It might go longer. What do you think of that? If you're enjoying the podcast, please go to iTunes and leave a rating and review. The Five Star kind are the best where you say nice stuff. The better the podcast is reviewed on iTunes the more searchable it is for new people looking for Type One Diabetes support. Thank you very much. For those of you who share on Instagram, Facebook and privately, I love that you guys are telling your endos and your friends and anyone who will listen about the Juicebox Podcast. It's helping us grow. I appreciate it immensely.


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#217 Diabetes Pro Tip: Pre Bolus

Scott Benner

Scott and Jenny Smith, CDE share insights on type 1 diabetes care.….

I am thrilled to welcome Jenny Smith, CDE back to the show. Jenny will be joining us for an extended series of conversations that focus solely on the management ideas that we discuss on the podcast.

Jennifer holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Nutrition and Biology from the University of Wisconsin. She is a Registered (and Licensed) Dietitian, Certified Diabetes Educator, and Certified Trainer on most makes/models of insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring systems. You can reach Jenny at jennifer@integrateddiabetes.com.

You can always listen to the Juicebox Podcast here but the cool kids use: Apple Podcasts/iOS - Spotify - Amazon AlexaGoogle Play/Android - iHeart Radio -  Radio Public or their favorite podcast app.

+ Click for EPISODE TRANSCRIPT


DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello and welcome to the fourth installment of my series entitled diabetes pro tip. In this episode, we talked about something so important it gets its own episode, and what could be that important Pre-Bolus thing. Today I'll be joined again by Jennifer Smith. Jennifer has been living with Type One Diabetes since she was a child. She also holds a bachelor's degree in human nutrition and biology from the University of Wisconsin. Jenny is a registered and licensed dietitian, a certified diabetes educator and a certified trainer on most makes and models of insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors. And I love the way she thinks about type one diabetes. If you'd like to get one on one coaching with Jenny, you can go to integrated diabetes.com. To find out more. Before we get started, I'd like to thank the sponsors of the Juicebox Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about Dexcom on the pod and dancing for diabetes, you can find out more about the sponsors and about Jenny, in the shownotes of your podcast app or at Juicebox podcast.com.

Please remember that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. And always consult a physician before becoming bold with insulin or making any changes to your health care plan. Now let's talk about the most important of important things, making sure your insulin is well timed with your meals.

In the episode about insulin, I told you that that my nurse practitioner CDA told us that fear of insulin was the biggest sticking point for people making good decisions with their diabetes, right. And after I got past my fear of insulin, the next hurdle I had to get past was Pre-Bolus. And I am now years and years later at a time where I will tell you that if you do not Pre-Bolus a meal, the likelihood of success is near zero. And if you have success without Pre-Bolus, saying.

All that means is that you gave yourself too much insulin prior to that. And it's just catching up now. And so this is it. We're going to talk about Pre-Bolus. And we're going to talk about how about insulin action, right the action of the insulin and how to balance it against the impact of the carbs or your body function. So tell me, let's go over the part that people aren't going to find comforting at first, right, which is, the amount of time it takes insulin to begin working in a person varies person to person and insulin to insulin. Is that pretty fair to say?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:58
It's pretty fair to say yes. And insulin to insulin. I would definitely say most of the rapids on the market should be fairly similar. The rapid acting influence on the market and their time of action should be fairly similar now. person to person. Yeah, that may vary situation to situation as well, creation to situation, it may vary. But again, that's the learning part of it.

Scott Benner 3:27
Okay, so person, the person could end up meaning just your body chemistry could mean where your infusion set is, right, you know, or your injections, right? Absolutely, yeah, you're a person who gets stuck on, I always injected my belly in the same place, that spot might not be as reactive to the insulin as if you would just try a new spot. If I went to a new spot, it might work quicker than it has been in your old spot. Right? If you're wearing an infusion set, it could and we alluded to it before you could get better action from your insulin on day one than you do on day three or better on day two, then, you know, two hours after you've put it on, there's a lot of different variables. But we're speaking generally here to you, you'll apply them to your variables later. Now, if you've heard this podcast before, you'll know that I have alluded to how insulin works in a number of different ways. So I'm gonna give my kind of cartoony description of it, and then we're gonna let Jenny talk about it for real,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:24
or 2d might be better as

Scott Benner 4:25
we'll see. So here's how I pictured my head a couple of different ways. The first way is I think of a tug of war. And I imagine a rope with a with a flag hanging in the middle of it. And on one side of this tug of war rope is insulin. And on the other side is your carbs and your body function. It could be adrenaline, it could be fear, it could be anxiety, whatever it helps to drive your blood sugar up. That stuff's on one side of the rope. The insolence on the other side. Unlike a tug of war in a school yard, our goal is not for one side to win. Our goal is for them both to pull and pull and pull until they get it exhausted, they both go, I can't do this anymore, and they drop the rope and our flag still in the center. That flag represents the blood sugar. You start at when the impact of the carbs begins in my mind. So I'll explain a little more. If you let them both start pulling at the same time, the carbs are generally speaking going to gain power and momentum before the insulin begins to work. So now your rope is going towards a high blood sugar and you're starting to head up. Now suddenly, you're 50 points higher. And what if you started with 150 blood sugar, now you're at 200. And now these carbs have momentum, they have speed, they're pulling your blood sugar up. Now, all of a sudden, 15 2030 minutes later, the insolence like, Oh, no, wait, I have a job to do. I remember and it kind of comes online. But now it's pulling, it can overpower the the momentum that the carbs have created. Plus, you now have another hundred points of blood sugar to contend with. And all you have is the insulin that you counted your carbs for. So even if you counted your carbs perfectly, and realize that this meal is five units, once the momentum of the carbs is rocketing your blood sugar up, once you have a number that is higher than you started with those five units, are not even going to begin to cover what's happening, let alone the food that you've put in. But if you put the insulin in first, and let the insulin come online slowly and begin to pull down and create the momentum in the other way, then you flip the script. And now the carbs are fighting. So instead of having a fight at 180, blood sugar, you're having a fight at an 80 blood sugar. And instead of your blood sugar falling at 80, it's being the attempt is that it's now trying to be pulled up by the carbs. And that's how when you see people with a stable graph, that's how they're doing it. And so for me, in a perfect situation, for me, my daughter's blood sugar is diagonal down when I give her most foods. Mm hmm. There's differences, you know, food to food, situation to situation, but in a perfect world. To me, that's it, you want your insulin working, your blood sugar trending down, creating some momentum down, when you allow the carbs to begin to pull up. Now, you explain that in a technical way that sounds

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:28
and in most in most settings, yes, that's 100% I mean, insulin, our rapid, I've always thought that rapid is such a misnomer, honestly, rapid indicates like now rapid is like, you know, click, click, click lights with design, it's working. And it's, you know, still education is take your insulin and start to eat. I mean, even from most endo offices, it's take your insulin and start to eat, it's going to be working very, very quickly. That's not the case. And anybody who has been taking insulin long enough, and you've seen the spikes, and you've seen the issue is despite counting your carbs as precisely and weighing them and everything, and you're still seeing these issues. It's the mismatch of insulin timing, it is so rapid take anywhere between about 15 to 30 minutes to really get that active peak, not peak, but that active phase where then when you start putting your carbs in. They will match as you said that carb digestion will start to match with the insulin, you'll get a nice gentle curve up. And it should then start to curve back down. There is a lot of there's a lot of education that also focuses on, as you mentioned, watching for that curve down, watching for the curve down to start so that you know the insulin is already moving thing. Yep.

Scott Benner 9:04
Yeah. And to give you some context, the person I spoke about in a previous episode, who was having trouble, told me but what am I gonna do, I'm gonna be scared. I said, Well try it a little bit this time, and then a little more next time and a little more next time and go forward. And, and so I always tell this story somewhere. And I think here's the right place to tell it prior to glucose sensing technology being a thing that anyone knew about, but prior to, you know, Dexcom, I was again in the office and the CD says to me, hey, you're going to get one of those Dexcom things and I thought, I don't know what that is, you know, and she starts telling me it's it's a continuous glucose monitor. And I'm like, I again, don't know. And then she tells me this simple story. There's a 17 year old boy in our practice, who loves candy, certain kinds of candy and he can't figure out how to bowl with it. So he gets a dexcom whatever the first one was, I don't even remember anymore. His whole goal was to eat this candy without a spike. So it goes out to the store. And he buys like little grab bags of these candies and a number of them enough for a week and every day starts on this experiment first day, just like you said, eats, gives himself as his insulin, just like he'd been told his whole life, blood sugar goes up to 20, something like that sits there forever. Eventually, he has to give himself more insulin to bring it back down again. Next day, he tries a little sooner, give himself a few minutes, 510 minutes gets a little less of a rise. So the next day, he goes even sooner. And then before you know it, it's a little sooner, a little more, and he starts adjusting it back and forth a little more, a little sooner, a little later, until one day, he eats the candy. And his blood sugar never moves. And she tells me that story. And I thought immediately Wow, that means it's possible. Yeah, that was the first time I thought I was like, if that kid can do it with candy. I can do it with anything. Like anything, right? And so yes, give me that CGM. Please. And I got it. And I and I started, you know, dispense with my fear. And I started learning about it. There were hiccups along the way, right? I've given her insulin, and she's gotten lower than I meant to for two when she's eating. But you know, once twice, I'll go back to this over and over again, when something goes wrong. It's not a mistake. It's a learning experience. It's data for next time, right? Right. So I put the insulin in, and she goes down to 70 and sits at 70. While she's eating. It's beautiful. You know, like, there she goes that and then and then then a spike. Even if I really messed up on the amount of insulin I used a spike takes you to 120. Right, right, right. It's not right. It's just, it's all about that timing and amount. And I repeated over and over again, that you all the things you and I are going to speak about all the things that people hear about on this podcast, if you want to know how to use your insulin, at its core, the very first step is timing and amount. If you get used the right amount at the wrong time, you can use the wrong amount at the right time, that it's too much if the right amount of insulin at the right time, you have to balance the action of the insulin against the impact of the carbs. If you do that, I don't want to say it's easy, because that's insulting to people. But let me just say I don't think about diabetes that much anymore. It's easier, it's much easier if you do that. It is easier. Absolutely. And it's a lot more.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 12:26
It gives you a lot more visual than to understand. Because it's not so much of an unknown well, gosh, I counted the carbs, I took the right amount of insulin and this is always happening to me. Why. And if you can start to put those pieces together, it's not a y anymore. It's like turning the light bulb on. Here's how I explain what Jenny just said.

Scott Benner 12:53
The dexcom g six continuous glucose monitor gives you a complete picture of your glucose showing you where it's going and how fast it's getting there. There can be nothing more important. The dexcom g six also eliminates finger sticks for calibration, diabetes treatment decisions, and diabetes management. It also has an automatic inserter. Like it just you know, you stick it on and you push the button and the next thing you know you're wearing it. Now you can use the dexcom receiver to get the information from your transmitter. But for those of you who enjoy using your cell phone, it works great with iPhone and Android as well. The last little thing about Dexcom isn't so little. How about the share and follow features also for Android and iPhone, your loved ones can follow your blood sugar anywhere in the world. And if you're the parent or a caregiver of someone with Type One Diabetes, you can be watching their blood sugar as well. You want to know what Arden's blood sugar is right now. It's 82 just glanced up and saw it just like that. Now my results are mine and yours may vary. But my daughter's a one C has been between 5.2 and 6.2. for over five solid years. The decisions we make about how to give my daughter insulin and when to give it to her come directly from the data that comes from the dexcom g six. And I don't know if you know this or not, but my daughter does not have one dietary restriction. Those numbers are accomplished through waffles, just as well as through salads, through burgers, just as well as through zucchini. It doesn't matter anything that impacts my daughter's blood sugar. That impact is shown to me by the dexcom g sex and then I make good decisions. You want to make some good decisions, go to dexcom.com forward slash juice box and get started today. That's the best decision you're ever gonna make. This is a short episode and I don't want you to have to have to add breaks. So hang on for me for one more second. Let's talk about Omnipod. This past week I visited the AMI pod headquarters in Massachusetts where they've just moved their production facility. It's about to go live and I got to tour the floor where you're on the pod You're going to be made from now on, right here in America, right in Massachusetts, I want you to know that what I witnessed in Massachusetts on that assembly line, it didn't just renew my excitement about on the pod, it shot me over the moon, the accomplishment of bringing a production like that into one facility, putting it under your roof, that showed me a real commitment to the people living with Type One Diabetes. Right? This isn't being made overseas somewhere or you know, a bunch of different factories. It's all right there at the Omnipod headquarters, and it's state of the art is absolutely stunning. This is a company who is behind you for the long haul. I believe that before but I believe it even more. Now, here's what you want to do, go to my omnipod.com Ford slash juicebox. Or click on the links in your show notes or Juicebox podcast.com. When you get there request a free experience kit. That's right, a pack a pod experience kit on the pod is gonna send you a pod that is an exact replica of the one you'll get when you start using the product for real, but this one's non functioning. And so it's safe to wear for you to try out, you'll be able to find out if you like it, where you want to wear it. And you'll notice how after you've had it on for a little while you don't even remember that it's there. Miami pod.com forward slash juice boxes links show notes at Juicebox podcast.com.

Last thing, don't forget dancing for diabetes that's dancing the number four diabetes.com. It's the little organization that does a ton of good for a lot of people living with type one, they're on Facebook and Instagram, and it dancing the number four diabetes.com check them out. Here's how I explain what Jenny just said. I think of it as this equation that it's a mathematical equation that doesn't have any math in it. I did this. That happened. So next time, I'll do more or less sooner, you know, a little less a little more, that kind of thing. And I always just I always just keep looking at it like that. I did this. And that happened. It's the idea of being in a fistfight. And you want to hit first because now you have caused an effect. Right? And if you and so now, you know, I've done something. And that's what happened next. Now I can make a good decision about what what I do next, instead of waiting for diabetes to do something to you. And then you're just covering up your face hoping not to get knocked out. Right? Like because you don't know what's happening. You don't know why it's happening, you have no context for what's going on. But when you make the first move, you can be sure that what happens next was impacted by what you did, I put insulin in 10 minutes before you ate 10 minutes before I ate. And my blood sugar went to 150. So the next time I'm going to try 15 minutes. And if it goes to 130 I might try 20 minutes. And you know, if I get low, then later I might say okay, I might need a little more a little less. Now here's where people always say, Well, how much Scott How long? You know, give me the time, give me the amount? That answer for me is always going to be I don't know, figure it out for yourself. Okay, you have to

Jennifer Smith, CDE 18:13
this is the starting place.

Scott Benner 18:15
Yes. This is

Jennifer Smith, CDE 18:15
where to start. This is how to start. You have to do your own. I mean, diabetes as a science experiment, it's a daily, I feel like every day you're almost given like this new petri dish. And you're told, keep the dots growing purple today. Okay, let's work on keeping the dots growing proponents of something green pops in. And then these like little horny pink things pop on, you're like, Ah, you know, but it is it's like, it's a science experiment that for the most part, when you figure out what does work, the timing around the most typical foods that you eat and whatnot, it takes a lot less thinking out of the equation.

Scott Benner 18:55
Yeah. And while this isn't about Pre-Bolus, and we'll come up later. But it's important for me to say because I think this is impactful when you really stop and think about your, your habits around food. They're pretty similar. Right? Right. So you know, you're not I always say like this, like, if you're a person who gets a pizza on a Friday night and has two slices. You don't suddenly next Friday have seven slices. You don't go from being a two slice person to a seven slice person, right? Like Yeah, and so, so you can start making these decisions about how much insulin and when. And you can make them based on historical knowledge about what's going yeah,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 19:33
I usually tell people as the Pre-Bolus piece you've got most people have about 20 to 25 foods that are the most common for you to eat regularly. Yeah, that's at least 80% of your control there at least. So if you can nail the Bolus timing around those and figure it out, for the most part, you know, variations in setting will happen. Whatever Ever Yeah, but for the most part, if you've figured that out, you're also much more likely to be able to figure out food that isn't your norm, because of the similarities to what you've chosen. And what you're usually eating,

Scott Benner 20:18
because you can stay flexible, I call it 60 fluid, right? So here's, here's where I'll tell people this, don't get mad. I don't count carbs. I actually think about it a little backwards from maybe how most of you think about it. I don't look at the food and say, you know, weigh it or measured and say, Okay, well, that's 25 carbs. And my pump says that, I get one unit for every 10. So that's two and a half units. In honesty, there is no accurate insulin to carb ratio set up in Arden's pump. We don't even I don't even pay attention to that. I look at a plate and I say to myself, that's seven units. I think that if she's gonna sit down and gorge herself on nachos and cheese, the last time that happened, it took 10 units. I think of it as insulin, not as carbs. And of course, that takes a little practice, right? It does, it does. And it is a little contingent on you having a CGM, I'm not gonna lie about that, right, because I start with a healthy Pre-Bolus. And healthy would mean in amount and time. And then I watch her CGM, and I don't really watch it, I have her tolerances set tightly enough that if she leaves that range, I find out about it. So as an example, if I were to give Arden something incredibly carb heavy, I might use a Temp Basal increase, and a Pre-Bolus to try to spread out the action of the insulin across this timeline where there's going to be these carbs, right? If I make a bolus, and 30 minutes after I do it, she's 121 30 diagonal up. I look at that line. And it tells me something based on my previous knowledge, it's that I say to myself, ooh, this I missed, like, this isn't enough insulin, and I will give her more I will bump it and nudge it back. It's not a ton more, it's enough to stop the arrows.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 22:16
Right? And the arrows are very important to bring up in this in this as well. Because if you are using a CGM does arrows do indicate a rate of change? And again, that's not something that most people realize. They don't understand that and not understand.

Scott Benner 22:33
Don't tell us that

Jennifer Smith, CDE 22:34
it's that they've not been told they've not been told, hey, these arrows tell you that you're increasing by 30 to 60 points in the next 30 minutes. Okay. If that's the case, and I know what my kind of correction factor is, or whatever, I can say, Okay, I'm going to need this much more insulin, because if I don't correct my rising 130 blood sugar in the next 30 minutes, I could be 30 to 60 points higher. I could be as high as 190. I don't want to be 190 I've obviously miscalculated someplace, I can throw in a bit more insulin to counter that expected and stabilize it. Yes.

Scott Benner 23:11
Yeah. It very much. Yeah, it very much is remembering to, like I guess the way I usually say it is that you have to trust that what you know is going to happen is going to happen. Right? Yeah. You see, and and i think that the least important aspect of what the Dexcom does is the number. It's the direction and the speed, direction and hundred percent.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 23:40
I wish more please say that, again, is the direction it's the trend, it is not

Scott Benner 23:46
just the number, the numbers nice, like don't get me wrong, it's a starting point. But you know, if you're 60 and stable, and you haven't had insulin for three hours, you have had food for three hours, well, maybe you could get away with like a Temp Basal decrease of 100% for a half an hour, maybe you'll rise to 90, right. But if you're 60 and you're falling well, then you don't have enough time because as we've now discussed over and over again, insulin doesn't begin working right away. Also temp basals are insulin. It's funny how people think of bolusing and bazel is different. But once you're on a pump, it's the same thing. You can't just turn your bazel off and it starts happening right away,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 24:26
takes about 60 minutes for circulating insulin level to be different.

Scott Benner 24:29
And I always write and I always try to think of it a little bit as like Arden's Pre-Bolus time like if Arden's Pre-Bolus time is 20 minutes, well then setting a Temp Basal is not really going to start working for at least 20 minutes plus, it's a fraction of the bazel rate if if you're getting a unit an hour, and I say to it, okay, let's double it. Let's double it to two units an hour. That impact of that doesn't begin for 20 minutes or so plus, it's not the whole unit extra. It's the it's the fraction of it. So right when we talk about bazel We'll get to that. But so Pre-Bolus thing is really just the idea of balancing, again, the action of the insulin against the impact of the carbs, giving yourself a chance, not letting the carbs wash you away. Because here's what happens when the carbs wash you away. Count your carbs exactly right, you put your insulin in, you spike up the 200. When that happens, that insulin was only for the food. It wasn't for the 200 blood sugar, and it wasn't for the momentum of the rise. And so when I see that, like, I guess an easier way to say this, when when I don't have time for Pre-Bolus and Pre-Bolus. And to me is never about the number, you can Pre-Bolus a 65 blood sugar, you know, you can Pre-Bolus at 90 blood sugar, because still no matter what, if you're stable at 65, the insulin you put in is not going to start working until it starts working. So you have and so don't get me wrong. If I see a 65 blood sugar and I and Arden needs 10 units for what she's eating. I don't put all 10 units in at a 65 I might do an extended bolus which we'll talk about an extended boluses. But I get some insulin moving, I make sure the insulin is on the winning side of this tug of war to start. But in a situation where I can't Pre-Bolus let's say I know the meal is five units, hundred percent certain it's five units. But for whatever reason life, let's call it I can't Pre-Bolus and ardens. You know, I'm going to start eating right now. I'll give her seven units. Mm hmm. Because I Bolus for the food, the five units for the food I knew. And I pre buy. And I'm Pre-Bolus seeing the rise, I know is coming. And the and the number I know is coming. So I'm already treating a high blood sugar that hasn't happened yet. Because I know it's going to happen. Because I didn't Pre-Bolus

Jennifer Smith, CDE 26:54
right. JOHN Walsh goes into detail about what you're doing in a little bit of a different way. He calls it super Bolus,

Scott Benner 27:01
I call it over bolusing.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 27:02
Yeah. And he calls it super Bolus in the way that you take that five units, let's say in your example, and let's say your bazel behind that meal for the next two hours is one unit an hour, you actually take your bazel running for the next two hours, and you add it into the Bolus for the meal and you take it all up front. And then to decrease the chance of being too low later. Because of so much upfront action and the blood sugar staying normal, you actually set a temporary basal decrease, he recommends starting with 100% because you've loaded that onto the front to avoid a low but on the back end. Some people find though that attempt B is 100% off is too much. They only need a 50% they still call the spike and prevent it. But in the back end, they're not having a low then. So similar kind of concept.

Scott Benner 27:58
Yeah, I consider that trading Bolus for Basal. So so you know, say 120 diagnol, up 3040 minutes after a meal and I go, Oh, geez, I gotta stop that arrow. How much do I Bolus to stop the arrow? I usually Bolus an hour's worth of a baby of basal insulin. That way, if the arrow stops, and I stay steady, and she doesn't go down, I say okay, well, obviously, I was just wrong on the initial amount. But in those situations where you push the button, you know the unit and a half goes in, and five seconds later the error goes from 120. to diagnose the flat you go, Oh, I didn't need that. Right Temp Basal off a half hour. All I've done is trade the Basal for the Bolus. Absolutely. Here's a good place to say this. And we'll say this in each of these little vignettes. Never suspend your bazel it's always temporary basals. When you suspend you're shutting your pump off when you shut your pump off. It does not.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 28:52
You have to remember to turn it back on. Yes,

Scott Benner 28:54
yep. It's always temporary, because you can set at Temp Basal for a half an hour, an hour, two hours, but at the end of that time, it was that it'll go back on and start delivering your Basal it's always temporary Basal is not not don't suspend your pump. Okay, so I think do you think we covered Pre-Bolus? there?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 29:11
I think that's pretty good. Good. Yeah, that's awesome.

Scott Benner 29:16
Don't forget that you can work with Jenny yourself. If you want just go to integrated diabetes.com to find out how. Let's also take a moment to thank our sponsors Dexcom on the pod and dancing for diabetes. There are links in the show notes of your podcast player app, or Juicebox podcast.com. But you can always go to dexcom.com forward slash juicebox. My omnipod.com forward slash juicebox or dancing the number four diabetes.com. I hope you're enjoying the pro tip series. This was Episode Four where we talked about Pre-Bolus. And don't forget that episode one is for those starting over or just being diagnosed. Episode Two was all about multiple daily injections. Episode Three. We talked all about insulin. today of course Pre-Bolus Singh. In the next episode, Temp Basal rates huge and important and then after that insulin pumping, they're designed to be listened to an order, trust me, listen to them in order. I have just a little bit of music left here. So let me thank everyone for the great reviews and ratings on iTunes. very much appreciated.


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