Myth #1: Insulin injections mean diabetes is serious
Diabetes is a serious disease in its own right, regardless of how it is treated. The disease is very “deceptive” in the sense that in the early stages of the disease, patients feel nothing; in fact, chronic high blood sugar can have a serious toxic effect on the body, damaging vital organs such as the heart, kidneys, eyes and nerves. Early insulin therapy can also prevent complications, allow oral medications to work better, and extend the duration of their effects.
Myth 2: You can’t stop using insulin
Not necessarily. Some people with type 2 diabetes may need insulin temporarily, such as when they develop diabetes during pregnancy. And some people with diabetes who successfully lose weight may find that they no longer need insulin. The need for insulin depends a lot on how much damage diabetes has done to the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.
Myth 3: Insulin injections can be addictive
Never. In the strictest sense, insulin is not a chemical drug, but a physiological hormone secreted by the body itself. In fact, everyone can’t live without insulin, and without it, the body would not be able to complete its metabolism and life would be unsustainable. Diabetes is the result of absolute or relative insulin deficiency. The actual fact that some diabetic patients can’t stop after using insulin is entirely required by their condition, not by any means by insulin addiction.
Myth 4: Insulin injections can be painful
In fact, most patients will feel more pain from the tingling of the finger used to measure blood glucose levels than from insulin injections. In addition, insulin injections do not require a large needle syringe. There are several types of pen syringes on the market that allow patients to control the dose of insulin, and choosing a tiny needle is usually not intensely painful.
Myth #5: Insulin can cause dangerous hypoglycemia
This is possible, but not necessarily true. people with type 2 diabetes are at a lower risk of hypoglycemia than people with type 1 diabetes. A prolonged episode of hypoglycemia can lead to loss of consciousness or coma. However, most people with type 2 diabetes can easily recognize the symptoms, which include anxiety, trembling hands, sweating and a desire to eat. At this point, eating a little sugar or drinking a glass of juice can quickly relieve the symptoms of hypoglycemia.
Myth 6: Oral medications are more effective than insulin
Today, the use of oral medications to treat type 2 diabetes is working quite well. Many patients have been taking oral hypoglycemic drugs for years to control their sugar with safe efficacy, such as metformin. However, oral medications are not appropriate for all patients with diabetes. For some patients, if their own pancreatic function cannot synthesize insulin, only exogenous insulin is an option. For some patients with type 2 diabetes, the addition of basal insulin can also be effective in controlling blood glucose and reducing complications when oral hypoglycemic agents fail to control blood glucose.