She stopped counting years with type 1 a long time ago. Natalie Bellini counts days... more than 20,000 of them. This week Neil finally gets his dream guest: Natalie Bellini, DNP, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, CDCES, nurse practitioner, assistant professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University, and program director for diabetes technology at University Hospitals in Cleveland. She has lived with type 1 diabetes for 55+ years, her husband has it too, and she still uses the word pre-bolus a dozen times a day with the people she treats.
This is the pre-bolusing conversation for the rest of us. Natalie breaks down why the two hours after each meal (that's six hours of your day) quietly decide your time in range, why even the best automated insulin delivery system can't catch a meal it never saw coming, and the baby-step way to start pre-bolusing when fear of lows has kept you on the sidelines. Then she gets real about the parts of care nobody talks about: meeting patients where they are, why having diabetes doesn't automatically make you a better clinician, and the screening mission she helped build with her own family's blood work.
In this episode:
- What pre-bolusing actually is in plain English... your carbs are fast, your "rapid-acting" insulin is not, and timing is how you stop the chase
- Why post-meal spikes are 25% of your number, and where pre-bolusing lands on Natalie's top-four list for a 20-minute appointment
- The baby-step method: pick one meal (breakfast is the easy win), start with 10 minutes, split the dose, treat the high first, and know when NOT to pre-bolus
- "Your diabetes is a two-year-old"... why AID pumps still need you to announce meals, and what a missed pre-bolus looks like on your CGM
- The rookie mistake that makes people quit (too much insulin up front, usually at a restaurant), and how little swings beat big ones
- Her screening passion: three blood tests at ages 2, 6, and 10 can catch 80% of kids on the path to type 1 before DKA ever happens
- True or False, a Diabetes Confession Booth for the ages (she borrowed her husband's insulin pump at dinner... it works), and a tie of the Fastest Five Minutes world record (29 answers!)
This Week's Challenge: Pre-bolus one meal. Pick a day you're not working, keep carbs within reach, treat the high first, and start with just a little insulin up front... even five minutes early counts. Trust the behavior, then watch the curve change. Slow and steady wins this race.
What is Your Best T1D Year?
Managing Type 1 Diabetes doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
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Hosted by Neil Greathouse, this Monday, Wednesday, and Friday podcast delivers quick, relatable episodes that make learning about T1D effortless - so you can build small wins that lead to big changes.
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