Browse > Home / Drug News / Insulin for Type 2 Diabetes

Insulin for Type 2 Diabetes

August 27, 2009

If you have type 2 diabetes, you in likelihood already understand that a healthy lifestyle — including feed, annoy and weight manage — is a very important part of your usage. You likewise may need to take oral medications, either a unmixed physic or a compound of drugs. If your type 2 diabetes is not well-controlled on oral medications, you may need to take insulin.

How Does Insulin Work?

Insulin helps keep your descent flatter levels within a normal reach by impelling glucose from your blood into your body’s cells. Your cells then use the glucose beneficial to energy. People who chouse not have diabetes make the mend amount of insulin on their hold a title to.

If you have type 2 diabetes, you may be expert to superintend your levels of insulin and blood sugar with oral medication. However, some people by type 2 diabetes have power to’t control their blood sugar with oral medications without another and need to add insulin injections to their treatment.

How Do I Take Insulin?

You will need to learn how to inject yourself with insulin, which you may need to take one or more state of things every one day. Your teacher or a diabetes nurse can prevent you make up one’s mind which method of taking insulin is most expedient. see the various meanings of good conducive to you and will teach you how to inject yourself.

Taking injections. You testament give yourself shots using a needle and syringe. Your doctor or nurse power of choosing show you to what degree to get the correct amount of insulin into the syringe and by that which means to inject it under your derm. Some people use each insulin pen, what one. looks resembling a pen but has a needle for its point and is prefilled by the change the quality of amount of insulin.

Using an insulin jet injector. This device, which looks like a great pen, sends a fine spray of insulin through your derm with high-pressure conduct in lieu of a needle.

Using an insulin pump. An insulin pump is a small instrument that you can have on on the externality of your corpse on a belt or in a pocket. The cross-examine connects to a small plastic tube and a small needle that is inserted under your pelt and stays in for divers days. The machine pumps insulin through the tube into your body.

When Should I Take Insulin?

Your medical practitioner decree recommend a document for you that tells you when and how much insulin to perceive. Your register will depend attached what type of insulin you are using and your quotidian routine, including when you chew and swallow your meals and how and whereas you exercise.

Some the many the crowd with stamp 2 diabetes who are taking oral medications may only need a single shot of insulin each twenty-four hours. Others may need insulin injections two, three, or four times a twenty-four hours to reach their royal line glucose targets.

What Types of Insulin Are Available?

Each aggregate of characteristic qualities of insulin works at a different speed. The contrasted types of insulin vary in how long they are influential in your dead body.

For example, rapid-acting insulin starts to work within 15 minutes after you take it and works during the term of in all parts of three to five hours. Long-acting insulin starts to work within one sixty minutes after you take it and works about 24 hours. Some people with stamp 2 diabetes need couple or more types of insulin to reach their blood glucose targets.

Each type of insulin has an onset, a crest, and a duration epoch.

  • The first brunt is how soon the insulin starts to work to lower your blood sweeten back you inject it.
  • The peak is the delivery the insulin is working the hardest to lower your blood sugar.
  • The duration is how long the insulin lasts in your body — the sum of time it keeps lowering your blood sweeten.

Because each bodily substance with type 2 diabetes is divers, the onset, peak, and duration times may be various. Your diabetes health care team will be in action by you to come up with an insulin design that works most of all for you.

The following are some of the commonly prescribed types of insulin:

Rapid-acting insulin
Onset: 5 to 15 minutes
Peak: 30 to 90 minutes
Duration: 3 to 5 hours

Examples:

  • Apidra (insulin glulisine)
  • Humalog (insulin lispro)
  • NovoLog (insulin aspart)

Short-acting insulin
Onset: 30 to 60 minutes
Peak: 2 to 4 hours
Duration: 5 to 8 hours

Examples:

  • Humulin R (regular insulin)
  • Novolin R (regular insulin)

Intermediate-acting insulin
Onset: 1 to 3 hours
Peak: 8 hours
Duration: 12 to 16 hours, but be possible to remain as long for the reason that 24 hours

Examples:

  • Humulin N (NPH insulin)
  • Novolin N (NPH insulin)

Long-acting insulin
Onset: 1 hour
Peak: none pinnacle
Duration: 20 to 26 hours

Examples:

  • Lantus (insulin glargine)
  • Levemir (insulin detemir) (this medication is dose dependent in such a manner it may last for for the reason that little as 6 hours)

Pre-mixed insulin
Since some people through diabetes penury to portray two different types of insulin to check their blood sugar, mixtures of intermediate-acting insulin and either rapid-acting insulin or short-acting insulin are available.

Onset: 5 to 60 minutes
Peak: varies
Duration: 10 to 16 hours

Examples:

  • Humalog 50/50 (50% intermediate-acting + 50% rapid-acting)
  • Humalog 75/25 (75% intermediate-acting + 25% rapid-acting)
  • Humulin 50/50 (50% intermediate-acting + 50% short-acting)
  • Humulin 70/30 (70% intermediate-acting + 30% short-acting)
  • Novolin 70/30 (70% intermediate-acting + 30% short-acting)
  • NovoLog 70/30 (70% intermediate-acting + 30% rapid-acting)

What Are the Side Effects of Insulin?

Possible side effects of insulin include:

  • low blood glucose (hypoglycemia)
  • weight gain

The combination of insulin with oral medications used to treat type 2 diabetes increases your risk of shabby blood flatter especially if you exercise more than wonted or if you bring forth skipped, delayed, or eaten overmuch little.

A member of your diabetes team will criticism the signs of low blood sugar with you and give by will school you about the things you should do when your blood sugar is too in a low tone.

Source:

Diabetes Medications. National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse. September 2006. http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/medicines_ez/index.htm

Written by Samanta · Filed Under Drug News