.gif "IP Gear")
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2012
- Messages
- 1,391
When dieting down for my recent competition, I noticed an odd thing. A considerable amount of body fat, in a really odd formation, on only one side of my belly button.
Now, I know that we don't always distribute body fat perfectly symmetrically, but this couldn't be explained as normal.
It was as though there was a bulb of fat just sitting there, regardless do the fact that the rest of me was the leanest and hardest that I've ever been.
I tried to think of ANYTHING that could have explained that discrepancy between sides.
The only think I could think that I consistently did to that area was inject my insulin (I do GH IM).
So I Googled "fat accumulation at insulin injection site".
The search returned numerous articles and entries on Lipohypertrophy.
====================================================================================================
"Lipohypertrophy[1] is a medical term that refers to a lump under the skin caused by accumulation of extra fat at the site of many subcutaneous injections of insulin. It may be unsightly, mildly painful, and may change the timing or completeness of insulin action. It is a common, minor, chronic complication of diabetes mellitus.
Typical injection site hypertrophy is several inches or cm across, smoothly rounded, and somewhat firmer than ordinary subcutaneous fat. There may be some scar tissue as well, but the major component is adipose tissue, as insulin exerts a hypertrophic effect on adipose cells. To avoid lipohypertrophy, persons with diabetes mellitus who inject insulin daily for an extended period of time are advised to rotate their injections among several areas (usually upper, outer arms, outer thighs, abdomen below and around the umbilicus, and the upper parts of the buttocks. Rotation charts are often provided as part of diabetes education to help prevent lipohypertrophy.
Lipohypertrophy usually will gradually disappear over months if injections in the area are avoided.
It is a common misconception that the lump is largely scar tissue, as injection site hypertrophy is much rarer and milder with injections of other hormones and medications which lack the specific ability of insulin to stimulate adipose hypertrophy.
In a sense, the "opposite" of injection site lipohypertrophy is injection site lipoatrophy, in which the subcutaneous fat around an injected area "melts away" over a few weeks or months, leaving unsightly, well-demarcated depressions in the skin. The mechanism of this local lipoatrophy is not understood and may involve autoimmunity or local inflammation."
==================================================
==================================================
I had never heard of such a thing, but it makes perfect sense.
Several medical/diabetic/syringe-producer sites also warned of the condition and recommend rotating injection sites.
Personally, I'll be doing my insulin IM from now on. I'll have to learn new timing, as I'm sure it'll hit faster IM than Sub-Q.
This may be useful or useless, I don't know. But I'd have liked to been made aware before I spent so much time injecting the same area just because of convenience!
I'm interested to hear if anyone lease has experience with this particular blunder and how long it really does take to return to some kind of normalcy.
Now, I know that we don't always distribute body fat perfectly symmetrically, but this couldn't be explained as normal.
It was as though there was a bulb of fat just sitting there, regardless do the fact that the rest of me was the leanest and hardest that I've ever been.
I tried to think of ANYTHING that could have explained that discrepancy between sides.
The only think I could think that I consistently did to that area was inject my insulin (I do GH IM).
So I Googled "fat accumulation at insulin injection site".
The search returned numerous articles and entries on Lipohypertrophy.
====================================================================================================
"Lipohypertrophy[1] is a medical term that refers to a lump under the skin caused by accumulation of extra fat at the site of many subcutaneous injections of insulin. It may be unsightly, mildly painful, and may change the timing or completeness of insulin action. It is a common, minor, chronic complication of diabetes mellitus.
Typical injection site hypertrophy is several inches or cm across, smoothly rounded, and somewhat firmer than ordinary subcutaneous fat. There may be some scar tissue as well, but the major component is adipose tissue, as insulin exerts a hypertrophic effect on adipose cells. To avoid lipohypertrophy, persons with diabetes mellitus who inject insulin daily for an extended period of time are advised to rotate their injections among several areas (usually upper, outer arms, outer thighs, abdomen below and around the umbilicus, and the upper parts of the buttocks. Rotation charts are often provided as part of diabetes education to help prevent lipohypertrophy.
Lipohypertrophy usually will gradually disappear over months if injections in the area are avoided.
It is a common misconception that the lump is largely scar tissue, as injection site hypertrophy is much rarer and milder with injections of other hormones and medications which lack the specific ability of insulin to stimulate adipose hypertrophy.
In a sense, the "opposite" of injection site lipohypertrophy is injection site lipoatrophy, in which the subcutaneous fat around an injected area "melts away" over a few weeks or months, leaving unsightly, well-demarcated depressions in the skin. The mechanism of this local lipoatrophy is not understood and may involve autoimmunity or local inflammation."
==================================================
==================================================
I had never heard of such a thing, but it makes perfect sense.
Several medical/diabetic/syringe-producer sites also warned of the condition and recommend rotating injection sites.
Personally, I'll be doing my insulin IM from now on. I'll have to learn new timing, as I'm sure it'll hit faster IM than Sub-Q.
This may be useful or useless, I don't know. But I'd have liked to been made aware before I spent so much time injecting the same area just because of convenience!
I'm interested to hear if anyone lease has experience with this particular blunder and how long it really does take to return to some kind of normalcy.
Last edited:
