Diabetes: What Type Of Insulin Is Right For Me?

Rapid onset-fast acting insulin

Fast onset-fast acting insulin always looks clear. This fast acting and starts working within one to 20 minutes. It peaks about one hour later and lasts from three to five hours. When you use this type of insulin, you must eat immediately after you inject.

The two rapid onset-fast acting insulin types currently available are:

1. NovoRapid (Insulin Aspart)
2. Humalog (Lispro).

Short acting insulin

Short acting insulins always look clear. They begin to lower blood glucose levels within half an hour, so you need to have your injection half an hour before eating.



Short acting insulin has a peak effect at two to four hours, and lasts for between six and eight hours. Short acting insulin types currently available include:

1. Actrapid
2. Humulin
3. Hypurin Neutral (bovine - highly purified beef insulin).

Intermediate acting insulin

Intermediate-acting insulin always looks cloudy. They have either protamine or zinc added to delay their action. This insulin starts working about 90 minutes after you inject, peak at four to 12 hours, and last for 16 to 24 hours.

Intermediate-acting insulin currently available include:

1. With protamine added - Protaphane, Humulin NPH and Hypurin Isophane (cow).

preventing diabetes

You will need to monitor your blood sugar levels and taking medication for your diabetes for the rest of your life. If you do not have good control of your blood sugar will be at risk of damage to blood vessels and nerves, with problems such as decreased vision, stroke, kidney disease and infection

As your doctor has explained, carefully and diet pills are all that is required in most cases. If you are overweight, just eat less and lose weight can be sufficient to allow insulin to work more effectively.

Why Use Insulin Pump?

The number of people using insulin pump therapy to manage their diabetes developed rapidly; about 250,000 people around the world use an insulin pump. Their reasons for choosing the pump a lot, but generally "pumpers" all agree that it gives them tighter control and more flexible - both in terms of their schedule and lifestyle. This control and flexibility including benefits such as:

1. Eat what you want, when you want
2. Worry less about the low blood sugar ("hypoglycemia")
3. Living on your terms, not snacks and shot schedule

There are many scientific studies that show that the results of insulin pump therapy improved outcomes for adolescents and adults with type 1 diabetes. There are also studies showing that insulin pump therapy works well with toddlers and pre-school children.