Diabetics take insulin to control their blood sugar or glucose. It cannot be taken orally as it is destroyed by digestion. Insulin shorts are taken by diabetics through pens, jet injectors and pumps.
Background Information
The food eaten is broken in to compounds of glucose among others. Body cells use glucose as a source of energy for movement, growth, repair and other functions. Before using glucose, the cells have to move away from the blood stream in to the individual cell that requires insulin.
Beta cells produce insulin in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. When glucose enters the blood stream the pancreas should produce the right amount of insulin, by instruct, to move glucose in to the cells. People with Type 1 diabetes produce no insulin. In Type 2 diabetes enough insulin is not produced. The insulin used by people is taken from either pigs or cows or manufactured in labs, similar to human insulin.
Types
The available products are of more than 20 types. Each has a different time and duration of action. The insulin a person should use depends on the individual?s life style, the doctor?s first choice and knowledge and the person?s blood sugar levels. Among the parameters of choice of insulin are(1) how soon it starts to work(onset) (2) when it works to the maximum level (peak time) (3) how long it lasts in the body (duration).
Types of delivery
Syringes are needles attached to hallow barrels that diabetics use to inject themselves with insulin. Syringes are small with sharp points and coated with a substance to help needles enter the skin painlessly. Pens look like pens but the cartridges are filled with insulin. They can substitute the needles.
Jet Injectors
These are good for people who dislike using needles. Compressed air is used to send a spray through the skin. The injectors have no needles.
Pumps are small pumping devices worn outside of the body, connecting the catheter by tubes, located under the skin of the abdomen. It is programmed to dispense the necessary amount of insulin.
It is hoped that some day the diabetic will not need any needles. Constant research is going on to find new ways of getting insulin in to the blood stream.
