A team of MSU researchers has written an article on the risk of mistakes in insulin dosage due to time change published in a journal of the American Diabetes Association.
“My hope is to get rid of daylight saving time altogether.”
Dr. Saleh Aldasouqui is a professor in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at MSU and a practicing physician. He and his co-author Dr. Howard Teitelbaum, studied the issue after a colleague resetting her insulin pump for daylight saving time accidentally shifted the setting from AM to PM.
“If Katie didn’t catch the error, she would have received higher insulin at night and that would have caused hypoglycemia which is a dangerous or serious situation.”
And she is not alone in resetting errors. An estimated 400,000 people in the U.S, with Type 1 diabetes use an insulin pump and both researchers have had patients struggle with issues related to time change. Even a one-hour difference in timing can lead to health issues.
“This may result in getting, for example, the breakfast insulin dose at lunch or something like that and, you know, that’s a potential risk.”
Aldasouqi is calling for legislators in Michigan to end daylight saving time, which has been proposed several times previously but failed for various reasons.
He also believes manufacturers should be required to equip insulin pumps with available technology to automatically update for daylight saving time changes and time zone changes during travel.
