I have a friend in Brazil (where I am originally from) who has a child with diabetes, and she heard about a new type of insulin that is supposed to be better than the traditional one. However, Brazilian doctors are still conservative about it, and the Brazilian association has not approved it. She also heard that here in the US, this type of insulin is much more accepted and has been used for a long time. Do you know something about this? She is very concerned she is not giving the best possible medication to her child.

I think that the name of the new insulin to which your friend was referring was probably Lantus (insulin glargine). The principal characteristic of this product is that it is released very evenly over the whole twenty four hours. It is usually given at bedtime with the dose calibrated to the morning fasting blood sugar levels. It cannot however be mixed with other insulins. Usually, it is also part of a diabetes regulation program that includes using a very short acting insulin like Humalog or NovoLog given just after meals so as to account of appetite, the premeal blood sugar and the ‘carbs’ actually consumed. Another advantage of Lantus is that it seems to reduce the incidence of nocturnal hypoglycemia.

DOB

[Editor’s comment: At the present time [early 2003], Lantus is only available in Germany, the US, the UK, and Ireland. It should be more widely available later this year.

WWQ]