Re: If insulin gets hot is it okay to use?

I'm sure this has been asked but I'm too tired to look...

I normally keep my insulin in the fridge, but when I go somewhere I throw it in my purse and take it with me.

There has been a few times when my insulin has gotten very hot. I have never noticed a difference, but does anybody know if it's safe to take it once it has reached a certain temperature?

I always carry it in my purse..well in a cosmetic bag i use for my needles and such. it's okay at room temperature, but anything over that i think is suppose to be bad if it's exposed to that for a while? where i am, it's recommended to carry it with an ice pack to keep it cold during heat waves. i think the warmer it is, the less effective it's suppose to be?

do you have a endo or diabetic educator? i'd give them a quick call and ask :)

If the insulin reaches a certain temperature, it will spoil.  However, I cannot tell you what this is.  Think about it, if you are using a pump and are outside or wear it next to your body, it gets REALLY hot.  So, you just have to keep a check on your blood sugars and if you notice a pattern of them being high, then your insulin is probably gone bad.  This really sucks since it doesn't have a sensor on the insulin to tell you if it is bad.  But, I live in the south and temps have been around 112 degrees all summer and I haven't had mine spoil.  This doesn't really help but that is all I can tell you!

Whats going on Nicole!

As everyone has stated, your best bet is too check with your personal educator or endocrinologist, however just too reference as several others have done. I live in Northwest Arizona, and we have not had a temperature below 115 during the day, nor below 100 at night in over 3 months, and I wear a pump which frequents the river and jacuzi with me. I have never had my insulin go bad on me either, however I know that it definately can! Ive left it in the car at the river before and had this problem way back when U ised too actually use NPH...

Overall its not necessarily the temperature that is bad for the insulin in the first place, but the length of exposure to these elevated temperatures!

:D    HOOVER

Soooo, I actually did an experiment with some old pens I had from before I went on the pump. I left them in my purse and watched to see what would happen. Mind you, I never actually used the pens. After about 6 months of leaving the pens in my purse they started to get cloudy (Sep-Mar). I live in Maryland, our weather fluctuates so much so we never consistently have very hot days in the summer or consistent cold days in the winter. Now because this summer has been a bit hotter than normal here I've seen that in recent months they have become even more cloudy and seem to be clouding up faster then they did in the winter, which makes sense!

I don't see a problem if you are keeping it in the fridge most of the time, if it's in the heat for a few days I don't know how I'd feel about using it. A prolonged exposure to the heat is going to make it less effective, but like i said if you're putting it in the fridge every night or something I think you should be okay.