November 7

Today, I was going to go over insulin!

Fun fact... the term "insulin" originates from insula, the Latin word for islet or island.

In the picture, I have my vial of insulin- I use Apidra- and a syringe with a little drop of insulin at the tip. The amount in that little drop is about half a unit.

Insulin is a hormone that is normally produced in the body from cells on the pancreas. They are called Beta-cells from the Islets of Langerhans. The alpha cells produce glucagon which is essentially the opposite hormone from insulin. Insulin and glucagon work together to keep the blood sugar at a perfect level. As blood sugar goes up, insulin is released to bring it down. When blood sugar drops, glucagon is released to bring it back up. It's a cycle constantly working in a normal persons body!
Insulin is made of proteins and is used to get glucose (sugar) from the blood stream into cells to be used as energy.

In Type 1 Diabetes, the Beta-cells are destroyed (and usually alpha cells too to some degree-this hasn't been studied enough yet) so the body will not make insulin.
I need my insulin via injection or by my pump now.

In 1922, Mr. Banting was able to extract insulin and purify it to be used to treat those dying from Type 1 Diabetes. I have him and many other scientists to thank for my life today!
The first insulins were extracted from animals like cows or pigs. Many people had issues with allergic reactions. Then scientists were able to genetically engineer "human" insulin using E. coli (a bacteria) that was called Humulin. Scientists are now trying to produce human insulin via plants to reduce the cost!

There are many kinds of insulin on the market.
Rapid Acting, Short Acting, Intermediate Acting, Long Acting are all the different types you can get.
Rapid Acting insulins have a quicker onset time (how soon it starts to bring blood sugars down) depending on the brand (Humalog, Novolog or Apidra). My Apidra takes about 10-30 minutes to start working, peaks (where the insulin is the most active) at about 30 minutes to 3 hours and will stop working from 3-5 hours.
Short Acting, Regular (R) insulin, onsets at about 30 minutes to 1 hour, peaks at 2-5 hours and ends up to 12 hours.
Intermediate, NPH, starts at 1.5 to 4 hours, peaks from 4-12 hours and stops up to 24 hours.
Long acting, Lantus and Levemir, onset at around 1-4 hours and has virtually no peak with it lasting up to 24 hours.

[My pump just reminded me to do a blood sugar test as I am writing this since it's been 2 hours since my last dose of insulin! This allows me to see if my dose of insulin worked and if I need to do more insulin.]

I have been on all of these insulins at some point in the 14 years besides Levemir. Before the pump, I was on Apidra and Lantus. Being on the pump allowed me to stop using Lantus. I now only use a fast acting insulin that better resembles how your pancreas would release insulin.

Too much insulin will make my blood sugar drop too low, so I need to fine tune how much insulin I get so that I don't go too low. When I say "going low" the technical term is hypoglycemia. High blood sugars is hyperglycemia. I'll talk more about both in other posts.

I know it's a long post, but I'm very passionate about my life saving medication!
Without this little vial... I would die.