Knowing the characteristics of the types of insulin available is very important!

Types of insulin used in the treatment of diabetes, will depend greatly on the level of the blood glucose of the diabetic individual. This is extremely important because it is essential that they receive the right insulin type for their diabetes treatment.

Type 1 diabetes usually require an initial treatment of two injection of insulin per day, of two more types of this essential hormone. Thus it is vital that the characteristics of each is known. Your physician will be instrumental in helping you choose the right one/s for you.

Recognizing the characteristics of Insulin

There are three main characteristics that diabetics should be familiar with when it comes to the various types of insulin. These characteristics are as follows:

• Onset which represent the length on time before the insulin gets into the blood stream to begin lowering the blood glucose.
• Peaktime. This represent the time in which the hormone is at its maximum strength, to begin lowering the glucose level in the blood of the individual.
• Duration. This is how long the insulin continues to work to lower the blood glucose in the individual.

Basically there are four types of insulin that are used in the treatment of diabetes mellitus today.

These include:

• Rapid acting insulin which begins to work about five minutes after the initial injection. This type of treatment reaches its peak about an hour later and continues to work for up to an additional two to four hours later.
• Regular or short acting is another form of insulin treatment that usually take about thirty minutes to reach the blood stream of a diabetic patient after they have been injected. This insulin type reaches its peak between two to three hours and its effectiveness is about 3 to 6 hours.
• Intermediate acting. This form of diabetes treatment normally takes about 2 to 4 hours to reach the blood stream to begin its work of glucose lowering after its initial injection. The peak time for this type is between 4 to 12 hours and its effectiveness is between 12 to 18 hours.
• long lasting, also called Ultralente. With this form of insulin diabetes treatment, blood glucose lowering usually starts about 6 to 10 hours after a diabetic patient has been injected with the treatment. Reason for this, is due to lengthy time it takes for the hormone to get into the blood stream. Its effective time is about 24 hours after the initial treatment.

All types of insulin come in liquid form but their strength varies. However in the United States U-100 is the strength that is commonly used. U-40 is only used in Europe and Latin America. Which means for diabetics that are travelling , it is your job make sure that you match your require insulin strength and dosage by your syringe.

Every form of insulin, have other ingredients added to them to prevent the contamination of bacteria and to help in maintaining a neutral balance between the acids and the bases. In the case of Intermediate and long acting, they have other additives that aid in their actions.

Some diabetics may experience some reactions but they usually occur in rare cases. Many people with diabetes have been using insulin treatments that have been made from the pancreas of pigs and cows. However in the United States today, manufacturers have been using a lab setting to develop or produce the various types of insulin.

Tools for proper diabetes management

As a diabetic patient, it is a must that you have all the essentila tools needed for you to carry out proper diabetes management. Find what you need at my diabetes store

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Diabetes is everybody's problem! Know the facts.