Insulin: Which Type Of Insulin And How Much Insulin You Need?

The goal of diabetes treatment is to keep the blood sugar level as close as possible to the blood sugar level of people without diabetes. This requires the person with diabetes to match the insulin patterns that occur in people without diabetes.

To achieve this goal, you now have to do what your body once did automatically. This means injecting insulin at least two and usually several times a day. You must also test your blood sugar regularly, and adjust your insulin and food when your test results show that this is necessary. Keeping your blood sugar close to the ideal will help prevent long-term complications of your diabetes.

Good diabetes care will also make you feel good.

Your doctor and the diabetes care team will tailor your treatment to your needs. This cannot be done without your help. Together with your diabetes care team, you can work out the treatment that best fits your lifestyle and maintains control of your diabetes.

During the first months of treatment, your doctor and other members of the diabetes care team may make frequent changes in your treatment. It takes time to find the treatment that is right for you. Your diabetes team will make the changes when your blood sugar tests show that a change is needed. It is important that you know how your daily life affects your blood sugar in order to correctly adjust your dose of insulin.

Insulin: Which Type Of Insulin And How Much Insulin You Need?

Each person is different. People differ in how much insulin they need, when they need to take insulin, how many times a day they take insulin and which types of insulin they need.

This article addresses the following questions about insulin:

1. How much insulin do you need?
2. How many injections of insulin should you take each day?
3. Which types of insulin are available?

How much insulin do you need?

The amount of insulin you need depends on:

• your weight
• your body's composition of muscle and fat
• how hard, how long and when you exercise
• how much do you eat, what do you eat and when do you eat
• the level of stress you experience
• whether you are healthy or ill
• whether you are pregnant
• medicines you take for conditions other than diabetes

A change in any of these conditions may affect how much insulin you need. Before you make any dose adjustment, you should study your blood sugar testing records. Your blood sugar testing records can help you to see patterns for which an insulin adjustment is necessary. Blood sugar testing records can also tell you what worked in the past. Dose adjustments should be based on your results.

Any change in your insulin treatment should be made cautiously. Discuss how to make day-to-day adjustments in your treatment with your doctor and other members of the diabetes care team. You can learn to make insulin dose adjustments safely and effectively.

Elsewhere in this program you will find more information about how your insulin dose requirements are affected by various circumstances and when to adjust your dose of insulin.

How many injections of insulin should you take?

People differ in how many injections of insulin they need every day. Few people can control their blood sugar with only one daily injection of insulin. A single daily injection works only for people whose beta-cells still produce some insulin. Most people take two or more injections of insulin every day. A few people use an insulin pump, which delivers insulin continuously. Your diabetes care team will help you decide what treatment is right for you.

One schedule of insulin injections followed by people with diabetes is called intensified treatment. Intensified treatment includes rapid-acting insulin analogue or short-acting insulin before each meal and longer-acting insulin at bedtime. This treatment tries to imitate the insulin pattern of people without diabetes. Development of insulin pens and other insulin devices have made it more convenient to follow this treatment plan. Taking insulin continuously by using an insulin pump is another option. Treatment with an insulin pump can also imitate the pattern of insulin in a person without diabetes. Use of a pump, however, is not without its problems.

Following an intensified insulin treatment plan makes it easier to change your insulin dose when this is needed. It also gives you more flexibility with regard to meals and exercise, while keeping your blood sugar under better control. Better diabetes control improves your chances of avoiding long-term complications.

Any change in your insulin treatment should be made cautiously and only on the advice of your doctor. If you do change to an intensified insulin treatment program, your blood sugar level will be lower and more even. Because of this, it will be necessary to test your blood sugar frequently to avoid hypoglycemia. You should also be aware that the character and intensity of the early warning signs of hypoglycemia may change after achieving tighter blood sugar control.

Which types of insulin are available?

Most people need more than one type of insulin. Insulin preparations differ in:

• how fast they start to work
• when their action peaks
• how long they work

Each of these characteristics of insulin preparations also differs from person to person. Average times of action are presented in this section. Each type of insulin may act somewhat differently in your body.

There are three main types of insulin:

• Rapid-acting insulin analogue.
• Short-acting insulin.
• Longer-acting insulins.
• Pre-mixed insulins.

Rapid-acting insulin analogue.

Rapid-acting insulin analogues have been designed to start working very soon after injection. This means that you do not need to wait between injecting your insulin and eating the meal - in fact you should inject immediately before the meal. The effects last for 3-5 hours, long enough to control your blood sugar after a meal.

Short-acting insulin.

Short-acting insulin is called Soluble or Regular insulin. It starts to work within a few minutes of injection.

It is most active from 1 to 3 hours after injection, and will be effective for up to 8 hours. You should have a meal within 30 minutes of injecting your dose of short-acting insulin.

Longer-acting insulins.

NPH, Lente and Ultra Lente are examples of longer-acting insulins. People without diabetes make a small amount of insulin between meals and during the night. To mimic this pattern most effectively, you need a low level of insulin in your bloodstream to control blood sugar between doses of short-acting insulin. This is accomplished with a longer-acting insulin taken before breakfast, before dinner or at bedtime.

There are several kinds of longer-acting insulins. They all start to work somewhat later than the short-acting types. Their action also peaks later and lasts for a much longer time. For example, the action of NPH insulin begins within one and a half hours. NPH insulin has its greatest effect from 4 to 12 hours after injection, but will continue to have some effect for up to 24 hours after you've taken it. If you take the longer-acting insulin at breakfast, it will be most active in the afternoon. Longer-acting insulin taken before dinner will have its maximum effect during the night.

You may take a small fraction up to almost half of your total insulin dose as long acting. The remaining dosage of insulin is short-acting that is split among the three injections before meals.

Pre-mixed insulins.

Pre-mixed insulins are ready-made mixtures of Soluble and NPH insulin. They can be mixed in different ratios. For example, 30/70 means that 30% of the mixture is Soluble and 70% is NPH. Other mixtures, such as 10/90, 20/80, 40/60 and 50/50 are also available in some countries.

Pre-mixed insulins combine the effect of both types of insulin. They prevent the rise in blood sugar after meals and control the blood sugar between meals and during the night. The Soluble insulin in the mixture starts to work quickly. The NPH begins to act later, when the effect of Soluble is declining.

Using pre-mixed insulin makes it easier to obtain an accurate dose of insulin compared to withdrawing insulin with a syringe from two separate bottles of insulin. The effect on your blood sugar is more predictable when using pre-mixed insulins.

If you take insulin twice a day, you will probably use one of the mixtures of short-acting and longer-acting insulin. You may take 2/3 of your total insulin dosage in the morning and 1/3 at dinner.

See Also:

Jump to >> Control Diabetes With Naspal

Jump to >> Best Ayurvedic Medicine For Diabetes

If you want to get rid of insulin, WATCH THIS VIDEO: https://bit.ly/HerbalNaspal