Insulin For a Diabetic - Some Facts You Need to Know

For a person with type 1 diabetes, insulin is an important necessity and can even be considered as a savior for you. As for a person with type 2 diabetes, you may only need insulin late in the course of your disease. Insulin is a great drug. However it can only be taken through a needle at present. However, inventors have came up with many different ways to administer Insulin, and Insulin pens have been proven more popular than any other administering methods.

Most people who switched to the Insulin pen from the needle or syringe prefer the pen and stick to it since the change. Below we'll discuss the various forms and methods for administering Insulin. If you are still using the needle or syringe, you may consider switching to one of these methods are they are easier and possibly more accurate than the old way.

Forms of insulin

Insulin responses constantly to the ups and downs in the blood glucose of the human body. No simple device is currently available in the market now to measure the blood glucose and give insulin as the pancreas does. So as to avoid having to take many injections a day, forms of insulin were invented to work at different times. These forms of insulin include the following:

1. Rapid-acting lispro and aspart insulin: The newest preparations and the shortest acting, lispro and aspart insulin. They are called NovoRapid and Humalog respectively. This form of insulin lower the glucose level within five minutes after their administration, peak at about one hour, and are no longer active by about three hours. These fast-acting insulins are a great advance as they do not require the person with diabetes to take an injection just before he consumes. Previously, using the short-acting insulin requires the person to eat within 30 minutes or hypoglycaemia might occur. Lispro and aspart insulin do not cause hypoglycaemia as often as the older preparation as their activity begins and ends so quickly.

2. Short-acting regular insulin: This is the regular insulin that was used before meals to keep glucose low until the next meal. It takes 30 minutes to start lowering the glucose level of the diabetic, peaks at three hours, and is gone by six to eight hours.

3. Intermediate-acting NPH or lente insulins: These insulins lowers the glucose level within 2 hours of administration and continue their activity for the next 10 to 12 hours. They can be active for up to 24 hours. This insulin tries to provide a smooth level of control over half the day so that a low level of active insulin will always be in the body. This attempts to parallel the situation that exists in the human body.

4. Long-acting ultralente insulin: This insulin begins to act within 6 hours and provides a low level of insulin activity for up to 26 hours. It was invented to provide a smooth control of insulin by having only 1 injection a day. However, the result varies from person to person, looking more like intermediate insulin in some patients.

Do consult your doctor for professional help before making any decisions.

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