Diabetes Medication Article

Insulin

Like oral diabetes medications, insulin is an alternative for some people with noninsulin-dependent diabetes who can't control their blood glucose levels with diet and exercise. In special situations, such as surgery and pregnancy, insulin is a temporary but important means of controlling blood glucose. A section of this booklet called "special situations" discusses insulin use during pregnancy and surgery.

Points to Remember

  • Insulin may be used when diet, exercise, or oral medications don't control diabetes.

  • Weight control is important when taking insulin.

  • Insulin is taken in special situations such as surgery and pregnancy.

Sometimes it's unclear whether insulin or oral medications are more effective in controlling blood glucose; therefore, a doctor will consider a person's weight, age, and the severity of the diabetes before prescribing a medicine. Experts do know that weight control is essential for insulin to be effective.

A doctor is likely to prescribe insulin if diet, exercise, or oral medications don't work, or if someone has a bad reaction to oral medicines. A person also may have to take insulin if his or her blood glucose fluctuates a great deal and is difficult to control. A doctor will instruct a person with diabetes on how to purchase, mix, and inject insulin.

Various types of insulin are available that differ in purity, concentration, and how quickly they work. They also are made differently. In the past, all commercially available insulin came from the pancreas glands of cows and pigs. Today, human insulin is available in two forms: one uses genetic engineering and the other involves chemically changing pork insulin into human insulin. The best sources of information on insulin are the company that makes it and a doctor.

Diabetes Testing Center
Heart News Center
Hot Home Gym Reviews
The Secret Wisdom You Have Inside
Get Rid of Your Belly fat

Diabetes Medications News


Diabetes Medications

Go to the new RSS page and renew your subscription.]]>

Read more



IMPORTANT: Bing News RSS feed has moved!

Millions of people taking statin medications to lower their cholesterol are at a slightly higher risk of diabetes, a new study suggests. Study authors advise patients not to stop taking their medications without talking to a doctor, because ...

Read more



Statins linked to diabetes in women

Food restrictions, medications, more exercise tough but it sure beats letting Type 2 kill you Part of living with diabetes means Bill Spurr must check his own blood sample once a day to monitor blood sugar levels. (CHRISTIAN LAFORCE / Staff) The call from ...

Read more



Diabetes diagnosis scary but manageable

Having pharmacies blow the whistle when patients' diabetes medication adherence sagged was helpful in keeping them on the right track, according to a study published in the diabetes-themed January issue of Health Affairs. The same pharmacy-based alerting ...

Read more



Pharmacies Can Help Keep Diabetes Patients on Track

In response, Osama Hamdy, M.D., Ph. D., Medical Director of the Obesity Clinical Program at Joslin Diabetes Center and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School stated, "Saying that physicians should stand by and allow patients to proceed ...

Read more



Joslin Diabetes Center Champions Diabetes Prevention

Explaining the reduced risk of type 2 diabetes among coffee drinkers is an ongoing effort, according to Vivian Fonseca, MD, president for medicine and science for the American Diabetes Association. He is a professor of medicine at Tulane ...

Read more



Why Coffee May Reduce Diabetes Risk

Those patients with moderate diabetes and some residual beta cell function (Group ... and colleagues reported online in BMC Medicine. Patients with more severe disease and no residual beta cell function (Group B) also showed improvement at every follow ...

Read more



Stem Cells May Help in Type 1 Diabetes

Experts advise patients to not stop taking their medications without talking to a doctor, because statins' proven power to prevent heart attacks and strokes outweighs any potential increase in diabetes risk. Patients also should ask their ...

Read more



Heart drugs tied to diabetes

Chinese and U. S. scientists and doctors reported one of the first successful reversals of diabetes using stem cells in the January, 9, 2012, open access journal BMC Medicine. The new technique called Stem Cell Educator therapy exposes lymphocytes (white ...

Read more



Diabetes reversed by stem cell therapy

Complete remission is the return to normal measures of glucose metabolism without taking diabetes medications at least one year after weight loss surgery, according to a definition developed by a group of experts recently brought together by the ...

Read more


Diabetes Medications Links