Archive for April, 2011
Diabetic Information About Insulin Pumps – 10 Advantages & Disadvantages to Consider Before Using
If you are a Type 1 Diabetic chances are you have heard doctors, nurses, friends and family rave about how fantastic Insulin Pump Therapy would be for you. The brochures you picked up have happy smiling people in them. You’ve seen the DVDs extolling the benefits of wearing a pump. You have read all the statistics. Heard it is like a mechanical pancreas. Why wouldn’t you decide to do it? It is a no-brainer, right?
The truth is the decision to start using an insulin pump is not an easy one. And probably should not be an easy decision. There are many factors you must think about before making such an important decision. Deciding on insulin pump therapy is not like buying a watch. Where you buy the one you think looks the best and then just wear it and forget about it for the next several years. Many folks – friends, family and even Diabetics themselves – wrongly think of an insulin pump as a cure. Wear it and forget it. That is not the case. It is like car commercials. Big sales pitch to buy the biggest, coolest truck on the block. It will climb mountains, drive on sandy beaches, haul trailers and get through any snowstorm. What the ad does not tell you is that the big truck only gets 4 miles per gallon, is so big it will not fit in any parking space, and costs more than the mortgage on your house.
Tags: insulin information, insulin pumpsRelated posts
Child Diabetes
Diabetes is a condition in which the body is not producing enough insulin or the body cells do not respond properly which results in an elevated blood sugar level.
Diabetes is known as an illness for adults. But as years goes by and as the world develops, patients who have been diagnosed with DM is getting younger and younger.
Type 1 or Juvenile diabetes is the most common diabetes in children. Almost 90-95% at the age of below 16 has this type of diabetes. This is due to the failure of the pancreas to produce insulin. This type of diabetes where the immune system attacks one of the body’s own organ or tissue is classified as an autoimmune disease. Here, the insulin-producing cells which are found in the pancreas are being destroyed.
Child diabetes has the same symptoms as the adult have: thirst, weight loss, tiredness, and frequent urination. These symptoms tend to show on over a few weeks. Tummy pains, behavioral problems and headaches are some typical symptoms in children.
Tags: insulin information, insulin treatmentRelated posts
Is it Possible Inhaled Insulin Will Replace Painful Insulin Injections?
Diabetes researches hope to soon be able to deliver to the diabetic market, inhaled insulin products to replace painful injections. There have already been breakthroughs offering promise of insulin being delivered to the bloodstream without injection among those testing out these inhalers.
Insulin inhalers would seem to be the perfect delivery method. The concept is already working in many blood-active medications. Medication that is inhaled gets into the bloodstream very quickly, this makes it fast acting and less traumatic for patients. Inhaling insulin would be equally effective for diabetics, whether they have type 2 diabetes or type 1 diabetes. You may even find that the insulin you need is a lot more convenient on the go.
So far the insulin inhalants being developed are just the fast-acting insulin. Until a longer-term insulin can also be inhaled, a basal insulin injection will still be required each day. Generally, this will be glargine. It will probably be taken at night.
Side Effects of Inhaling Insulin
Current research shows no major side effects of inhaled insulin in the short term. But there hasn’t been enough time to study long-term effects. Only time will tell whether or not there are dangerous side effects to taking inhaled insulin long-term.
Research on the long-term side effects that may result from inhaling substances like insulin focus mainly on potential lung damage and on how effectively it can control blood glucose levels. The latter is concerned more with whether it can control type 1 diabetes than type 2 diabetes.
