Time zones and insulin

[Tim]

Times zones are generally a pain in the bum – frankly I wish the world was flat. But it’s not. So how do you deal with travelling from time zone to time zone – especially dealing with your long acting insulin?

[Annette A]

Irrelevant to the actual question (and forum), but I wonder if it comes from the same school of thought that had Stephen missing a dose (which does sound a bit odd) – When my sister went to Australia with her hubbie, who is T2 (but is semi disabled following a stroke, and is reliant on my sister for his care), one piece of advice given was to miss a dose of his tablets (metformin) on the way out and add an extra dose on the way back.
She didnt in the end [she decided to put in a stopover in both directions so he wouldn’t have too long a journey, which meant she could move his tablets rather than miss/add them] but it still seemed a bit extreme.

[Stephen]

The logic behind mine was if I didn’t skip a Lantus dose, I would of had three in 24 hours rather than two. Again bearing in mind I was trying to control my sugars with Novorapid boosts along the way ….. (epic fail though!)

Departing

10:30 UK (05:30 US) – Lantus (Morning) [UK morning shot]
22:30 UK (17:30 US) – Skip [UK evening shot]
03:30 UK (22:30 US) – Lantus (Evening) [US evening shot] – Transition to US time
15:30 UK (10:30 US) – Lantus (Morning) [US morning shot] – Now fully on US time

Return

10:30 US (15:30 UK) – Lantus (Morning) [US morning shot]
22:30 US (03:30 UK) – Skip [US evening shot]
05:30 US (10:30 UK) – Lantus (Morning) [UK morning shot] – Transition to UK time
17:30 US (22:30 UK) – Lantus (Evening) [UK evening shot] – Now fully on UK time

[Cecile]

Also Sprach ADA…and they presume you travel by plane, not TARDIS

[Anonymous]

I always just leave my phone on UK time and have it at the ‘normal’ time regardless of the new time zone. Is that wrong?!

[Anonymous]

@Hillary Having never travelled further than Italy I think that’s a very good idea. However i think any alteration just means more blood tests and again dare I say with” the pump” it would be a lot easier.

[Stephen]

@hils I wouldn’t say wrong, just depends on the distance really. As @mustard said, Europe is probably easy enough to leave it on UK time but states and or further could mean 3/4/5am wake ups for Lantus which isn’t too great in my mind.

I’m not sure if it would make it easier for pump users, maybe someone could pitch in with more knowledge than me?

If you are on a ;

[Anonymous]

We went to France Yes only an hour away but I just changed the clock on my pump same as when the hour went on. How it effects you with tiredness I don’t or wish to know. (God I’m old) As a student working till 4am building models I needed more insulin but it depends on what you are doing. Also if you travel to somewhere hot it zapps your insulin dose. In France I decreased my basal by 0.1 units every hour to accommodate the less stress attitude on holiday. Alison would be a good person to ask.

[Anonymous]

Sorry I’m a bit late to this post but I travel a lot for my job and have tried ;

[Author]

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