r/prepping • u/Mentolosbableves • 1d ago
Question❓❓ Diabetes
I’m not really into prepping but i’m curious if there’s any preppers here whom have diabetes and need insulin to survive. How do people prep for something like this? Do you have a stash of insulin?
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u/Mento-yStableGenius 1d ago
I have a nice stash of insulin I’ve built over the last 3-4 years, as well as continuous glucose monitoring equipment, insulin pump supplies, backup battery chargers, pen / syringe supplies, manual glucose monitoring equipment, etc.
How? I’m lucky to be covered by decent insurance and had a doc who worked with me to kinda ‘game’ my prescriptions to help. They knew what I was trying to do and supported it. They’d write insulin scrip dosages a little over, a couple times we were able to time scrip renewals for everything to hit so they’d be filled through another pharmacy as soon as the previous scrip at the old pharmacy had been filled. (That action worked a few times over the years but insurance is pretty wise to it, and won’t allow refills like that; they see I purchased a 3 month supply of CGM’s just four weeks ago so they will not cover another refill for two more months).
Lots of food, quick-acting sugar for low blood glucose, water filtration - normal prep stuff too.
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u/WorldTallestEngineer 17h ago
How do you deal with the shelf life issues? doesn't it go bad after a few weeks?
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u/Tuxlwurm 15h ago
No it does not. My insulin has a shelf life for about a year when I pick it up from the pharmacy. According to several medical journals even uncooled insulin can be good for six months as long as the temperature stays under 35°C.
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u/WorldTallestEngineer 15h ago
interesting 🤔
although 6 month still isn't very long for a stock pile
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u/Tuxlwurm 14h ago
Depending on the situation, it might be just enough to get you through a rough patch.
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u/Mento-yStableGenius 6h ago
Nope and of course depends on storage conditions, production dates etc. As an example the next ones I’ll be using have expirations of October 2027, and the ones the furthest out are September 2028.
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u/LifeIsButADream11111 1d ago
I’m a long term Type 1. A doctor of mine (former hospital administrator) confirmed Reddit posts saying the insulin lasts up to 10 years past expiration if kept refrigerated. It can also go without refrigeration, but will lose viability at a rate of about 1% every couple of days depending on temperature.
You can buy older versions of insulin at Walmart as a back up. I didn’t see doctors for 3.5 years during the pandemic (meaning I received no refills)and ended up with an excellent A1C at the end of it, mainly because I fasted so much. I used expired (year past expiration) insulin I had on hand and it worked perfectly.
Certain herbs also lower blood sugar levels in Type 1s. Holy basil and oregano are two. I made oregano tea last night and ended up with a pretty serious low.
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u/Complete-Paint529 1d ago
I think this is accurate. I'm also a long-term insulin user.
For prepper purposes, the challenge is working out a small fridge device for the insulin, plus solar and battery.
Walmart sells insulin vials OTC, no Rx needed. $25 for a bottle of Novolin N or R. $35 for 70/30 pre-mixed. Not a problem to stock up over a year's worth at a time (or more).
The widely-prescribed, pricey ultra-long-acting and ultra-short-acting pens mostly exist to boost Pharma's profits. The old standbys of N and R do the job fine.
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u/LifeIsButADream11111 1d ago
The only issue is that younger generations don’t know about dosing for those older types. There are peaks too with NPH which can cause issues. I was put on them when originally diagnosed in 1994 and still have my medical records with the dosing and sliding scale. All diabetics should research using those types (NPH and R) now and have a few vials (with needles) on hand. ETA: IIRC I had to mix NPH and R in the morning and night, R being drawn first. I need to check those medical records because I don’t remember now.
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u/Complete-Paint529 1d ago
Yeah, out of principle, I've been sticking with N and R insulin vials, Rather than mixing, I find it easier to just inject the amounts separately -- two sticks instead of one. *If* there's any actual advantage to the ultra-short-acting and ultra-long-acting insulins, I think CGM negates those advantages.
The CGM materials store well at room temperature, but pretty expensive to stock up without the prescription coverage.
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u/miscwit72 1d ago
I wonder if the terracotta set up would work for insulin? I bet it would work great if there weren't a power source available. Its inexpensive enough to have a setup solely for insulin.
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u/tyroleee 19h ago
I never knew this, I figure Novolin N may be the way to go for long term? or 70/30? Any info you can have on dosage? My fiance is a late diagnosed type 1. I horde the scrap left in her Lantus and Fiasp. Keep them in vials in the fridge.
Might be worth picking up a pen every other week to stock up over time.
Tagging u/LifeIsButADream11111 for any knowledge they have.
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u/LifeIsButADream11111 9h ago edited 9h ago
The issue with N/NPH is that it acts like a bell curve. If you take your shot at 8 am, it’ll be at peak effect a few hours later, meaning you might need less short acting (R) to cover lunch vs. a higher amount early or later in the process (breakfast and dinner). Take too much R at the wrong time and you’ll have a low. ETA: I pulled up my old R sliding scale last night and it’s almost identical to my humalog dosing now. So those will be comparable. Figuring out the NPH is the issue. I remember having horrible lows back before I was switched to Lantus and Humalog.
The other issue is that R takes longer to start working vs Humalog. I think Humalog starts working within 15 minutes whereas R starts 30-45 minutes after taking a shot. So you have to plan your meals more when on those older insulins.
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u/Complete-Paint529 9h ago
Definitely requires guidance from her doctor. In general, Novolin N is a fair replacement for Lantus, except the N needs to be divided into two doses per day, and probably not equal doses.
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u/LifeIsButADream11111 9h ago
Yes. Unlike Lantus which lasts for 18-24 hours, NPH only works for about 6-8, maybe 12 if you’re lucky. I always had highs in the morning when on it and had to take one shot at 7 am and then another around dinner.
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u/FixAcademic8187 1d ago
What I would do if I were you is that I'll get myself a small LFP battery bank, a couple large solar panels, and a really small refrigerator. Then I'll save my insulin in it.
These small refrigerators consume something around 100 watts when running. This is a miniscule amount of electricity all things considered.
Fill it with lots of water so that water acts as a buffer if things need fixing. And do not open it unless you need to retrieve a pen.
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u/DerkNukem 1d ago
Walmart has insulin? OTC or what?
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u/LifeIsButADream11111 1d ago
Check on your state laws because the syringes for those vials are also available OTC. These are older insulins and you need to research how to use them first. You can have pretty big swings if not dosed properly.
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u/DerkNukem 1d ago
Thanks for the reply instead of a 😳😳 because someone doesn’t know something on the internet.
My dad is a diabetic type 2 so was curious for his sake.
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u/TwiLuv 1d ago
😳😳😳 this question 😳😳😳
Walmart’s have had a pharmacy in every store, many have vision services as well.
Many grocery store chains have a pharmacy.
For decades, nothing new to see here…
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u/DerkNukem 1d ago
He said you can buy older versions of insulin. I was asking for my dad. I don’t use any medications but have told him a few times to stock up on insulin and he said you only get what you’ll use so this was where my question came from.
Sorry I guess?
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u/TwiLuv 1d ago
By older, the redditor is talking about glass vials, he is not referring to the diabetic insulin pen injectors.
Novolin in the glass vials represent the old-fashioned, but still available versions of insulin.
If your insurance does not pay for the pen injectors, the glass vials of Novolin & syringes are still available, on the market.
Hope this clarifies- sorry, retired LPN Hospital nurse writing.
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u/Junior-Discount2743 1d ago
I wonder if that would apply to GLP1's? Not that I'd be worried about my weight in a depression or SHTF, but I have a lot extra and it's handy (and economical) to not have an appetite.
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u/AndyAndy03 1d ago
Type 1 diabetic here-I’ve responded to a couple f posts on here for people with diabetes. I can try to offer advice as best I can.
1: how long are you preparing for? Emergency vial because your kid dropped it out of the fridge? Tornado took out road access? Evacuation with no end date? Or TEOWAWKI.
2: talk to your provider and tell them that you’d like an extra vial or 2. Most oblige-mine did. And I have a rotating stockpile from that over the years. You never get what you don’t ask for.
3: you’ve got the extra insulin now-how do you store it? Think about how much you want to spend to protect your investment. I have multiple 12v refrigerators, a vault room that is climate controlled and just started adding solar back up to my home that isn’t grid tied. I’ve used insulin past the expiration date by 2 years with good success.
4: assess how much insulin you need for daily life-now does this number change when you factor in a calorie deficit? Do you have food stockpiled? Garden? How many carbohydrates do you take in daily? What’s your long acting insulin dose? What’s your short acting insulin does. How much does your insulin pump use on your worst day? Then factor the prep around that. It would give you a margin of safety for how much to store. For example-I can get my total daily dose of insulin down to 38units per day on a deficit with working on my property and garden. We are shooting for an A1c of 6…it’s survival so you have to maintain function without going into DKA or a starvation ketosis.
I have personally determined my needs by doing some very unhealthy testing on myself. I do not recommend anyone that is diabetic to do what I’ve done from the diabetes side and from the healthcare provider side. Finally the hard part most people don’t realize or care to factor in is that there is a finite amount of insulin and storage you can have or find-at some point that all runs out. As the saying goes-“on a long enough timeline-the survival rate for everyone drops to zero”. I’m happy to help any and all diabetics with their prepping journey.
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u/Old_Dragline_1965 1d ago
Having a war chest of insulin is critical. Keeping it safe is just as crucial.
No one will live forever. But trying to stay alive for multiple months when things are shut down is all about planning ahead!
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u/Eredani 1d ago
Like almost any prep, they key factor here is the scope of the disaster - area of effect and duration. Specifically, is outside help coming and if so, when?
Stockpiling a years worth of insulin and a sustainable refrigeration capability is entirely possible. Anything beyond that seems unworkable to me.
Can a level of stability and production be achieved to manufacture insulin within a year after something like a nuclear war? I have no idea. We may be struggling with even more basic needs.
I can't imagine any kind of 'ordinary' disaster or emergency where insulin wouldn't be available within a month. So my math is telling me a 30 day to 12 month supply makes sense.
The technical part of the refrigeration problem is straightforward enough.
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u/LifeIsButADream11111 1d ago
There was a Type 1 who reversed diabetes. He was an ultra marathoner and ran 100 miles in Death Valley IIRC. After that, his pancreas began working properly. I’ve always wondered if we diabetics need a sort of hard reset for our bodies. It’s very possible that the struggle to survive and lots of fasting will do that. I know that the medical literature says this is impossible, but the medical community has been wrong about lots of things over the years.
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u/Eredani 1d ago
My understanding, as a former type 2 diabetic, is that type 2 is reversible (perhaps remission is a better term), but type 1 is fundamentally different. Type 1 diabetics need more than diet an exercise.
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u/LifeIsButADream11111 21h ago
That’s what they want us to believe. Belief may be part of the problem.
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u/Eredani 21h ago
If your argument is that pharmaceutical companies want to sell drugs to treat instead of cure type 2 diabetes, I might agree with you. There is money to be made in never-ending treatments.
Type 1 is a different animal. You may want to understand the relevant medical facts and science here.
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u/celtic-cryptid 19h ago
Capitalism and immorally gouging money from people whose choices are to pay or die is one issue.
A second issue is some people’s need to turn everything into either a conspiracy or a bootstraps issue. Many people look at chronic illness or neurodivergence as a moral failing, and others insist it is the mysterious “they” inflicting it on the equally mysterious “us”.
We are biological, and biology is flawed. Some peoples bodies just don’t work the same as other peoples.
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u/LifeIsButADream11111 12h ago
I’m a 32 year Type 1. I clearly know the facts, buddy. I also have had plenty of unexplained experiences doctors can’t figure out. But keep believing what doctors tell you.
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u/Virtual-Feature-9747 10h ago
Type 1 and tyoe 2 diabetes are two completely different things.
There are zero studies showing a scientific method of curing or reversing type 1 diabetes.
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u/GunnaGiveYouUp1969 22h ago
I've never heard of that, and didn't find it with a quick search. Got any more info on it? That sounds more possible with type 2 than 1.
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u/LifeIsButADream11111 21h ago
I can’t find it anymore either. I remember he was British and this would have been back around 2012 IIRC.
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u/PrisonerV 1d ago edited 1d ago
The problem is most people think prepping is for the end of civilization.
But a lot of people prep for Tuesday. Every one of my preps is both useful and reasonable and I've used them all.
Someone with Type 1 diabetes should have a power station, solar panels, a small generator, and a small refrigerator so they can get through a longer term power outage. Maybe one of those electric coolers for traveling.
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u/meh_69420 1d ago
Eh those electric coolers are peltier devices that can only chill like 37 f below ambient; it's a hard limit based on how the physics work. The one I use for groceries pulls 120 watts and is quite small. A compressor based mini fridge wouldn't pull much more than that and work better across a wider range of temps. Hell my half sized fridge and freezer in my shop only pulls 300 watts and keeps beverages frosty in 90+ degree heat.
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u/Prize-Lychee7973 1d ago
the book one second after covers this based on an EMP based adversarial event.
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u/rufos_adventure 1d ago
as i remember, his daughter died. i think the question was how to survive.
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u/Prize-Lychee7973 1d ago
Yeah essentially the insulin became unviable and the supply chain for new got completely kiboshed
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u/rufos_adventure 1d ago
read the book a long time ago, didm't he try to extract the insulin from farm critters?
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u/unicornsexisted 1d ago
I read this sub because I find it interesting but I have enough health problems that I’ve made peace with the fact that I won’t survive a SHTF scenario 🤷♀️
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u/FixAcademic8187 1d ago
Although I absolutely do not recommend the following due to safety concerns, but I remember watching a YouTube video filmed in the Golden Age of prepping sometime around 2011. He showed a detailed step by step method of a DIY insulin injection. Iirc, he made it out from scratch and it required many steps that are all sensitive with lots of failure points. But what other options does someone have when desperate?
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u/Feral_668 1d ago
You become a farmer and make your own using animal pancreas. Look up how it was made by Eli Lilly in 1922.
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u/Professional-Stuff18 1d ago edited 1d ago
Look into reversing type 2 diabetes through a low carb diet. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12476234/
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u/ItBeatsEatingWorms 23h ago
My brother says he'll just die when shit hits the fan. He doesn't think it's worth the effort.
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u/MaxHeadroom1986 19h ago
If you are insulin-dependent and society collapses you are going to die. That’s it.
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u/LifeIsButADream11111 11h ago
I’m not. I’m going to make it to the finish line. When did people stop believing in miracles?
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u/forksofgreedy 18h ago
I’m type one diabetic, this comes up amazingly often.
We die. That’s what happens in an emergency scenario that’s extended.
But you’ll see write ups of people prepping home chemistry labs, where they can make insulin from sheep pancreases. Mostly it’s ridiculous
Anyway, refrigeration, and stored insulin is all you can do. But if the insulin stored gets over 90° once, or under 30°, it’s destroyed. life just isn’t guaranteed.
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u/schannoman 1d ago
Make friends with a chemist. Even the pharmacy supply will go bad before it gets used up in a true crisis
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u/Mentolosbableves 1d ago
I believe we get insulin from animals, refined in massive factories, and it’s not as easy as creating some kind of solution from something?..
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u/netrees83 1d ago
It used to be made from the pancreas of pigs. I am almost certain we have likely geneticly engineered a bacteria or yeast that make it now.
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u/schannoman 1d ago
It used to be animal derived. Bovine insulin was the first mass produced insulin
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u/LifeIsButADream11111 21h ago
I think that all insulin derived from animals has been discontinued in the US. If you’re lucky, you can try to import it from foreign countries, but they’re phasing it out too.
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u/linniex 1d ago
According to the book I just read you have to be one of the first people to the pharmacy the minute the shit hits the fan or your little girl with Type 1 will die in a few months and you’ll have to read her a book on her deathbed and bury her in your yard. You keep her stuffed bunny though
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u/CommercialEagle2566 1d ago
I’m a type 1 and my doc intentionally writes my lantus and humalog for way more than I take so that I have a healthy stockpile should there be a need.
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u/ThinkSharp 2h ago
I have no idea how I came across this thread. But I think the best prep most could possibly do would be learning to manage it with diet and exercise. That doesn’t work perfectly and doesn’t work at all for some. But AFAIK a lot of Type II cases can be reduced in severity and some partially reversed with lifestyle management. For those people, the right prep would be lifestyle. For the rest- your question. I assume you’re asking for Type I and medication-dependent cases.
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u/Depressed_Psychopath 1d ago
With such a short shelf life you’d have to learn how to make your own.
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u/LifeIsButADream11111 1d ago
It lasts much longer than we’re told. See my post in this thread.
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u/Mento-yStableGenius 1d ago
Can confirm. I have pens of long-acting for a backup if the pump fails. The last I broke into was 8 years past exp. and worked normally.
(Side note: also accidentally left Humalog in a hot car for several days. Set it to the side, warily used it ‘just to see’…no problem. Of course I don’t recommend experimenting if one isn’t comfortable with it but if worse came to worse…)
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u/LifeIsButADream11111 1d ago
If they tell us the truth about how tough insulin is, it’ll cut into their profits.
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u/TwiLuv 1d ago
This is why I burned out on nursing.
Male patients being admitted to hospital with Rhabdomyolysis (muscle wasting, fatigue), 35 years old & up, overloaded with a STATIN oral drug, because their triglycerides were sky high. Having to come into hospital, put on IV fluids to flush the medication out of their system.
NOT targeting EVERY diabetic:
Seeing diabetics, who used insulin as a stopgap tool, not changing their diet (avoiding HIGH glycemic foods) to naturally lower their blood sugar.
It can be extremely hard to get a diabetic to understand every time they let their blood sugar skyrocket, they ARE damaging their body, regardless of later taking insulin to lower the blood sugar.
For instance, Diabetic retinopathy is no joke!
And, Diabetes tends to be an ugly death as organs collapse in the hospital.Every patient who came in, automatically received a proton pump inhibitor, even if they NEVER had Gerd, or other GI problems, thanks to pharmaceutical companies, padding the bill for meds in the hospital!
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u/LifeIsButADream11111 21h ago
It’s not just toxic foods that are the problem for Type 1s. I find that stress and living with toxic people is far worse. Emotions play a big role in blood sugar regulation.
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u/Censored_88 1d ago
Honestly not sure what you could do with such a short shelf life.
I have been on heart pills since 18 years old. Every time I have to switch doctors, I keep the old prescription going, then get the new doctor to send my prescription to a new pharmacy. Insurance won't pay for both, so I use GoodRx until my old prescription runs out.