by Charles Roring
Patients of type 1 diabetes will absolutely need insulin injection. Their beta cells in the islets of Langerhans cannot produce insulin hormone anymore. Therefore, for the rest of their lives, they have to get insulin therapy to overcome high blood glucose. If the injection of insulin is stopped, patients will experience acute complications which will further lead to fatal outcome.
In type 2 diabetes, if diet control and exercises have been carried out in combination with oral medicine, but the result has not been optimum, patients will need insulin therapy. In certain cases of type 2 diabetes such as patients who are pregnant, or patients with stroke, kidney failure, or other complications; when undergoing surgery, patients will need insulin injection to control their blood glucose.
Insulin injection for the treatment of diabetes is called insulin therapy. The objectives of this therapy are:
- to maintain blood glucose in or closer to normal level.
- to lower the possibility chronic complications which may occur in people with diabetes.
The success of insulin therapy depends on whether the patients have controlled their diet properly and exercise regularly.
The development of insulin
The treatment of diabetes has been getting better since the invention of insulin in 1921. Blood glucose level will go down if patients receive insulin injection. Their complaints are also lower. Thus, many acute diabetes complications can be avoided. However, when the lifespan is longer, the possibility of chronic complications in eyes, nervous system, heart, and kidney is rising.
In the beginning, insulin which had been used was taken from animals i.e., cow (bovine insulin) and pig (porcine insulin). Now, insulin is getting more pure. This can reduce allergy, and excessive reactions against animal or human insulin. The current pure synthetic insulin is called human-component (HM) insulin.
In the past, there had only been insulin whose reaction was fast. Now various insulin have been developed. Some can work in just a few minutes or hours while others can work up to 24 hours.
