January 28, 2004
Insulin
Question from Lohja, Finland:
I’ve had type 1 diabetes since 1986. When I eat, my blood sugar goes high because the insulin effect starts 30 minutes after injection and blood glucose isn’t normalised until two hours after injection. So if I eat five times each day, my blood sugar is high for ten hours each day. Could we inject insulin straight into the circulation (intravenous), perhaps by an automatic machine? Then we would get faster blood sugar response to insulin.
Answer:
My best recommendation would be to make sure you are using one of the insulin analogs, such as insulin lispro (Humalog) or insulin aspart (NovoLog). These insulins achieve very rapid absorption from the time of injection so that you have better coverage surrounding your meal. They are superior to regular insulin which can take 30 minutes or more to be absorbed into the systemic circulation. With such a rapid absorption rate, you do not need an intravenous access to administer insulin.
JTL
