Insulin (medication) cover meals (bolus also known as mealtime or prandial insulin). Maintaining the basal rate and the bolus rate is a continuous balancing act that people with insulin-dependent diabetes must manage each day. This is normally achieved through regular blood tests, although continuous blood sugar testing equipment (Continuous Glucose Monitors or CGMs) are now becoming available which could help to refine this balancing act once widespread usage becomes common. A long-acting insulin is used to approximate the basal secretion of insulin by the pancreas, which varies in the course of the day. NPH/isophane, lente, ultralente, glargine, and detemir may be used
Insulin glargine help offer moderate control of serum glucose levels. In the absence of endogenous insulin—type 1 diabetes, depleted type 2 (in some cases) or latent autoimmune diabetes of adults in late stage—insulin glargine needs the support of fast acting insulin taken with food to reduce the effect of prandially derived glucose (from food). The long-acting insulin class, which includes insulin glargine, do not appear much better than neutral protamine Hagedorn (NPH) insulin but have a significantly greater cost making them, as of 2010, not cost effective for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. It is unclear if there is a difference