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Information from Your Family unit Doctor

Diabetes: How to Use Insulin

Am Fam Physician. 1999 Aug 1;threescore(ii):649-651.

What is insulin, and why practise I demand it?

Insulin is a hormone that controls the level of blood carbohydrate (also called glucose) in your trunk. People with diabetes may non take enough insulin or may not exist able to use it properly. The carbohydrate builds upward in the blood and overflows into the urine, passing out of your trunk unused. Over time, high claret sugar levels can cause serious health issues.

All people with type i diabetes, and some people with blazon 2 diabetes, need to take insulin to help control their blood carbohydrate levels. (The box beneath lists the different types of insulin.) The goal in treating diabetes is to keep the blood sugar level within a normal range.

Practice I need to monitor my blood sugar level?

Yes. Yous need to check your blood sugar level regularly using a blood glucose monitor. Your doctor or the office staff can teach you how to utilise the monitor. You'll need to write down each measurement and testify this record to your dr., so your physician can tell yous how much insulin to take.

How often volition I need to take insulin?

Your doctor will give you a schedule. Nigh people with diabetes demand at to the lowest degree ii insulin shots a twenty-four hours. Some people need 3 or 4 shots for good blood sugar command.

When should I take insulin?

If you take Regular insulin or a longer-acting insulin, you should by and large have it fifteen to 30 minutes earlier a meal. If you take insulin lispro (brand name: Humalog), which works very speedily, you should more often than not accept it less than 15 minutes before you eat.

What is different most insulin lispro?

Insulin lispro is a new type of insulin. It starts working sooner than other insulin types. It also reaches peak activity faster and goes away sooner. Insulin lispro helps proceed your blood sugar level from going besides high after you consume. To proceed your claret sugar level steady, your medico will probably prescribe either a longer-acting insulin or some other drug for y'all to take each day in add-on to the insulin lispro.

If y'all demand to mix insulin lispro with a longer-acting insulin, it's best that yous mix insulin lispro simply with Humulin U or Humulin Northward, which are brand names for certain longer-interim insulins. Insulin lispro should always be drawn into the syringe get-go. This will keep the longer-acting insulin from getting into the insulin lispro bottle.

Types of insulin

Each type of insulin works at a dissimilar speed and lasts for a dissimilar length of time.

  • Quick-acting, such every bit insulin lispro (Humalog), begins to work very rapidly (5 to fifteen minutes) and lasts for 3 to 4 hours.

  • Short-acting, such as Regular (R) insulin, starts working inside 30 minutes and lasts about 5 to eight hours.

  • Intermediate-acting, such as NPH (Northward) or Lente (Fifty) insulin, starts working in 1 to 3 hours and lasts sixteen to 24 hours.

  • Long-acting, such as Ultralente (U) insulin, doesn't start to work for 4 to 6 hours, just lasts 24 to 28 hours.

  • NPH and Regular insulin mixture, two types of insulin mixed together in 1 bottle, starts working in 30 minutes and lasts 16 to 24 hours.

Source: Medicine for People with Diabetes. National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse, NIH Publication No. 98-4222, November 1997.

How practice I take insulin?

Insulin is normally injected under the skin with a very small needle. It can also exist taken with an insulin pen. Your doc volition teach yous exactly how to inject insulin, only here are the nuts:

  1. Wash your hands.

  2. Take the plastic cover off the insulin canteen and wipe the top of the canteen with a cotton wool swab dipped in booze.

  3. Pull back the plunger of the syringe, drawing air into the syringe equal to the dose of insulin that you are taking (measured in units). Put the syringe needle through the rubber top of the insulin bottle. Inject air into the bottle by pushing the syringe plunger forward. Turn the bottle upside down.

PICTURE one.

Pull back on the plunger to draw the insulin into the syringe.

  1. Make certain that the tip of the needle is in the insulin. Pull dorsum on the syringe plunger to depict the correct dose of insulin into the syringe (run across picture 1).

  2. Make sure there are no air bubbling in the syringe earlier you take the needle out of the insulin bottle. If there are air bubbles, hold the syringe and the canteen direct upwardly, tap the syringe with your finger and permit the air bubbles float to the pinnacle. Push on the plunger of the syringe to motility the air bubbles back into the insulin bottle. Then withdraw the correct insulin dose by pulling dorsum on the plunger.

  3. Make clean your skin with cotton wool dipped in alcohol (encounter picture two, acme). Catch a fold of skin and inject the insulin nether the skin at a 90-degree angle (encounter picture 3).

    Film 2.

    Clean the injection area using cotton and alcohol (elevation). Pinch an expanse of peel (bottom).

    Moving picture iii.

    Inject the insulin with the needle at an angle of about 90 degrees.

    If you lot're thin, you may need to pinch the skin and inject the insulin at a 45-caste angle (see film four).

    Movie iv.

    Thin people may find information technology easier to inject at an angle of 45 degrees.

Where on my body should I inject the insulin?

Ask your doctor which place you should use. Insulin injected near the stomach works fastest. Insulin injected into the thigh works slowest. Insulin injected into the arm works at medium speed.

What happens if I take likewise much insulin?

If yous take too much insulin it will lower your blood sugar level too much, and you may get hypoglycemia (also called an insulin reaction). When yous have hypoglycemia, you may feel cranky, more tired than usual, confused and shaky, and you may sweat more. You may get a headache, accept a rapid heartbeat, or feel more hungry. In serious cases, you can pass out or have a seizure.

Virtually people who take insulin take an insulin reaction at some time. Talk to your doctor about what to do if you have hypoglycemia. Your doctor may suggest that you ever take on hand a snack that has sugar in it, such as candy, fruit juice or regular (not nutrition) soda, to counteract hypoglycemia.

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This handout is provided to you past your family doctor and the American Academy of Family Physicians. Other health-related information is available from the AAFP online at http://familydoctor.org.

This data provides a general overview and may not apply to everyone. Talk to your family doctor to find out if this data applies to you and to become more information on this subject.

Copyright © 1999 by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
This content is owned past the AAFP. A person viewing it online may brand one printout of the material and may apply that printout merely for his or her personal, non-commercial reference. This material may not otherwise exist downloaded, copied, printed, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any medium, whether now known or later invented, except as authorized in writing by the AAFP. Contact afpserv@aafp.org for copyright questions and/or permission requests.

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