How do diabetics calculate the insulin needed?

Question

I’ve encountered a number of books where the main character is diabetic, and has to do math in order to calculate the insulin they need based on their current blood sugar levels. It’s never explained what this math is – probably because explaining it would require 1. the authors to actually understand it themselves and 2. to go on what’s probably very boring/long diatribe.

But I would like to know. Can someone in simple terms my fever-ridden brain can understand explain what this equation diabetic characters I’m reading about in books are doing?

In: Biology

Answer 1

There’s a dosage chart:

|Blood Sugar|Units|
|:-|:-|
|120 to 170 mg/dL|1|
|170 to 220 mg/dL|2|
|220 to 270 mg/dL|3|
|270 to 300 mg/dL|4|

There’s a *bit* more to it than that, but the basic idea is that 1 unit of insulin lowers your blood sugar by about 50 mg/dL.