Do you have specific questions about what to do about your diabetes or are you unsure whether you are injecting insulin correctly? Then go to your doctor. He or she can watch it with you.
Administering insulin in type 1 and type 2 diabetes
There is a big difference between diabetes that starts at a young age:
>Also called childhood sugar or type 1 diabetes (not reversible)
And diabetes that starts at an older age:
>Also called old-age sugar or type 2 diabetes (reversible)
With juvenile sugar, the pancreas no longer produces any insulin at all. As a result, the food you eat can no longer be properly digested. The sugars in your food are not removed from your bloodstream. They accumulate and that is harmful to the body.
With old-age sugar, the pancreas still produces some insulin, but it is not enough or your body is no longer sensitive to it. As a result, not all sugars are removed from your bloodstream and this is also harmful to the body. The consequences of certain types of diabetes are therefore the same.
Important information
Someone with childhood diabetes should immediately start injecting insulin after diagnosis. Without insulin, you will not get rid of the sugars in the bloodstream, with all the consequences that entail. But someone with old-age diabetes can often do without insulin for a long time. Most patients use a combination of medication (in the form of tablets), exercise, and diet. If you do not control this diabetes, you will eventually have to inject insulin.
And that brings me to my main point:
#1 Insulin injection is reversible
Do you have type 2 diabetes? And do you have to inject insulin?
Then you must be happy to hear that type 2 diabetes is curable. And that will not happen by injecting insulin.
Most people with this form of diabetes do not need to inject insulin.
When the pancreas produces little or no insulin, the syringe emerges. Or when their bodies have become so insensitive to the insulin that higher and higher doses are required.
Now the question is: what makes many patients manage without insulin injections?
Very simple: type 2 diabetes occurs when you continuously have high blood sugar or when you make it very difficult for your body to deal with it. Both are due to poor nutrition (80%) and lack of exercise (20%).
You can continue to mess with insulin injections for the rest of your life. But that's symptom control. If you continue to eat poorly, you will only make the situation worse and you will continue to artificially solve it by administering a drug.
The risk of complications is very high and your life expectancy decreases.
You can also choose to put your shoulders to the wheel and improve or completely cure your diabetes.
In that case, you will never have to inject insulin again. And you will not suffer from the complaints associated with a lifetime of diabetes.
The basics of healthy eating
My main tips are:
Stop eating sugars. These are addictive but you don't actually need them
Stop drinking sugars. Both fruit juices and soft drinks were invented to make you addicted by nefarious food scientists
Eat more vegetables and whole grains. These make you feel full so you eat less and the sugars in your food are broken down more slowly
lose weight. Not by exercising hard, but above all by eating healthy and exercising in a way that you enjoy. Fifteen minutes of walking a day are often enough to help with weight loss
Read This what is meant by prediabetes
#2 You have to inject more and more insulin
If you decide not to take any action, the insulin injection situation will continue to get worse. You need a higher dose each time to control your sugar level.
That's because any weight gain above a healthy weight makes your body less able to handle insulin.
The sugars you eat are broken down even more slowly. You enter a vicious circle where you become increasingly unhealthy and have to administer more and more medicine to stabilize your blood sugar.
You can live well with type 2 diabetes, even if you don't make an effort to cure it. It's not a very nice life and I wouldn't advise anyone to voluntarily go through that agony... but it's possible.
Beware
However, you cannot live well with type 2 diabetes if you continuously gain more weight and rely only on medication and nothing else. Then you will get sicker and sicker and feel worse. With all its consequences.
#3 You can't take insulin
It would be easy if you could get tablets with insulin.
But unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.
You will have to inject insulin or put it into your bloodstream with a pump. M aagzuur makes the hormone insulin inactive.
Enzymes in the stomach completely break down the substance
Scientists have been working for some time to develop a pill that delivers the insulin into your body without it being destroyed by your stomach acid. But the development is so complicated, costs so much money, and is so detrimental to the pharmaceutical industry that progress is very slow.
injection sites insulin
So you will have to inject insulin.
There are several injection sites you can use.
See the picture opposite for the injection sites on both the front and back of your body.
It is best to alternate these spots because otherwise, the pricking will be very painful.
#4 You can get a hypo
It will not surprise you but too much insulin is not good for you.
As you know, there is always sugar in the blood (blood sugar). A healthy value is between 4 and 8 mmol/l. Your body can regulate this very well.
Insulin is the substance that ensures that a surplus of sugars can be removed from your bloodstream. This happens especially after a meal. Then your body releases insulin so that your blood sugar returns to between 4 and 8 mmol/l.
Injecting insulin for diabetes
In diabetic patients who inject insulin, the body can not regulate this itself. So if you inject too much insulin, too many sugars will be removed from the blood and the value will fall below 4 mmol/l.
In such a case you will suffer from hypoglycemia. This means "too little blood sugar".
The symptoms of this are very unpleasant:
Fatigue
Headache
Difficulty talking
heavy sweating
Confusion
Pass out
Pale skin
Spasm
Coma
Hypodiabetes
Of course, you don't immediately fall into a coma if your blood sugar is slightly lowered. But if it drops too quickly and stays that low for a long time, it's very dangerous. You should therefore always keep an eye on how your blood sugar is. If you see that it is getting too low, you need to eat something.
To check you have to draw blood and measure the sugar level. That's the only way to avoid getting a hypo.
That and administering the right dose. But you'll hear more about that soon.
What if you injected too much insulin?
If you think something is really wrong, you should immediately contact a doctor. He or she can then help you further.
If you can see that you have injected too much insulin because the sugar levels in your blood are falling too far, take some sugars as soon as possible. This is the only time when it is advisable to get fast sugars. Think of:
A glass of orange juice
A glass of soft drink
Dextrose tablets
So it's always handy to have something sugary on hand in case of an emergency.
Read This how to reduce high blood sugar
#5 You need to use the right form of insulin
Your doctor will give you a prescription for insulin that suits your situation. He does this on the basis of the information he has about:
>The level of your blood sugar
>Your body's ability to regulate your blood sugar.
Different types of insulin
One form of insulin is not the other. This is how a distinction is made between:
Fast-acting insulin. It works from 15 minutes after the first injection and the effects last between two and four hours. This is often used before a meal when the blood sugar would otherwise become too high
Intermediate-acting insulin. This variant works for five to eight hours and works 30 to 60 minutes after you put it in. Also good for a big meal
Long-acting insulin. It can run for 24 hours but is slow to start. It can just take up to two hours for it to work
Whichever form you take: it is important that it is prescribed by the doctor. Do not experiment yourself. And if in doubt, you can always ask him for advice.
#6 You can choose a pump
Insulin was discovered in 1922. Before that, people with diabetes were dying. Without insulin, their blood sugar could not be adequately controlled. Insulin has therefore been a life-saving invention.
Additional information
The pharmaceutical industry has not been idle. Instead of educating people on how to reverse diabetes, they have looked for easier ways to administer medication. An insulin pump is such an invention. It makes the lives of many diabetes patients easier.
insulin pump
A pump ensures regular insulin delivery and keeps track of how much you have received. That is all automatic.
You no longer have to think about dealing with your insulin needles yourself.
An insulin pump is therefore easy. Especially for children, pregnant women, and people who often forget their insulin dose.
The new generation of pumps can even be inserted into the skin surface. Then you don't have to disconnect the pump when you go swimming or have to shower.
Beware
But beware, because a pump is also symptomatic. Insulin should be produced by your pancreas. It is always better to put your time, energy, and money into something that solves your problem than something that perpetuates your problem but makes living with it easier.
#7 You have to give yourself an injection in the right place
In principle, you can give yourself an injection anywhere in your body. The most used places are:
>Belly
>Upper arm
>Thigh
The top of your buttocks (doing it on the bottom can irritate the injection site or cause problems with absorption)
There are two types of places to avoid:
>Lower leg
>Forearm
It takes longer for the insulin to reach your entire body from these places. This makes timing your injection more difficult.
In addition, you should stay away from scar tissue. At least by 5 centimeters. Around this tissue, the insulin cannot be absorbed, so that your elevated blood sugar cannot be cleared.
By varying the size of the injection, you prevent skin thickening/scar tissue.
#8 You need the right dosage
How much insulin do you inject?
What your doctor prescribes depends on how your body responds to blood sugar and insulin.
If your diabetes is severe, you need more insulin to keep things under control.
Also important is:
>How much do you weigh
>What you eat
>How much do you eat
>Whether you do exercise
The doctor or pharmacist takes all factors into account and gives you a prescription based on this.
Amount of insulin
Some people need one dose a day. Others have to spray three or four times. And the timing and type of insulin can also differ. Just before dinner or in the evening before going to sleep? If necessary, ask for an explanation from your doctor.
#9 You don't have to disinfect your skin with alcohol
In the past, it was said that before injecting insulin, you should disinfect the site of the injection. This happened with a little alcohol.
Research shows that soapy water works better. And more importantly:
the risk of infection is minimal in a normal environment.
Are you in a place with a lot of germs like a hospital? Or do you have reason to think that there are germs on your skin? Then it's a different story. But when you are at home it is enough to use a clean needle or pin.
0 Comments