Diabetes means that the body cannot use insulin properly, and once you have type 1 diabetes, your body simply cannot produce insulin properly.
Insulin therapy not only makes it safe and easy to manage diabetes, but it also provides the patient’s body with the blood sugar levels it needs to stay healthy.
Insulin cannot be taken orally; if it is taken orally, it is broken down in the stomach before it enters the bloodstream, so it must be injected directly into the bloodstream.
The most common tools used to inject insulin are:
- Syringe
- Insulin pen
- Insulin pump
- Inhaler.
Which one is best for you?
Janet McGill, MD, professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, says, “Most people make their decision based on the needle.”
In reality, Janet says, needles play only a small part in the decision, and it’s more important to think about how to incorporate treatments into your daily life.
Janet said, “Patients have to think about things like social discomfort, or whether they can give themselves insulin at the right time.”
The following detailed description of the various insulin delivery tools can help patients determine which device is best for them.
Benefits of syringes
- How it works: The syringe is a thin, hollow needle attached to a chamber with a plunger. The patient draws the desired dose of insulin from a vial, inserts the needle into the fatty part of the skin, and pushes the plunger.
- Benefits: The syringe is the best option if the budget is tight. “It’s the cheapest because a lot of insulin comes in a small vial,” says David Klonoff, MD, PhD, of the Mills Peninsula Health Services Diabetes Institute in San Mateo, California.
Disadvantages of the syringe
Multiple steps mean a higher likelihood of making mistakes, Janet says, and it’s easier to make mistakes if one is very young, or older, and has hand or eye problems, and some people may have eye problems that make it difficult to use the syringe to draw up insulin accurately.”
Trying to find a place where no one is looking to give yourself the treatment isn’t easy, either. Janet said, “One has to put the needle in a vial, pull it out, see if it’s drawing the right amount, and have to squeeze out the air bubbles and then inject yourself, not to mention that there isn’t always a private place to do these operations.”
How the insulin pen works
David says, “An insulin pen is a small device that looks like a writing pen, but instead of containing ink, it contains insulin.”
Fit the disposable needle to the pen, choose the dose, insert the needle into the skin, click the insulin pen, and you’re done with the insulin.
Pros and cons of insulin pens
Pros: Janet says there is not much preparation needed before using the insulin pen, which can reduce anxiety when patients self-medicate.
In addition, the needle is so small, only 4 mm long, and thinner than before, that you can’t see it unless you look closely.
David said the insulin pen is easy to use, all the insulin you need is in the pen, and the insulin pen is available in a portable form, so you can throw the pen away when you run out of insulin inside.
If the insulin pen is refillable, just insert a new insulin cartridge. Some insulin pens also have a memory function that shows the dose and time of the last injection.
Disadvantages: More expensive than syringes, but usually covered by insurance, insulin pens must be kept in the refrigerator until first use, thereafter, keeping at room temperature is fine
How an insulin pump works
The pump is about the size of a playing card and is attached to a thin tube called a catheter, which is inserted into the skin with a needle and then removed, and the patient can carry the pump in their pocket or hang it from a belt loop.
The pump delivers small doses of insulin to the patient’s blood throughout the day, and when eating, a button is pushed to increase insulin intake.
Pros and cons of insulin pumps
Pros: When used correctly, the pump works best. David says, “The difference between using a pump and giving yourself multiple injections is like the difference between driving a car and driving a Formula 1 car.”
Patients have to know how to use it properly, though, or it’s like driving a high-powered car that could crash.
The pump works for any time of day, even if there’s no time to stop and wash hands or remove supplies during the day, it helps with injections, and even if it’s busy, the pump keeps patients happy.
Cons: Pumps are expensive and cost a lot in supplies each month.
In addition, the patient’s body always has to be connected to the pump. Patients can be disconnected for short periods of time, but not for more than 1 or 2 hours.
How inhaled insulin works
Inhaled insulin is in powder form, and to use it, the patient just inhales it in a whistle-sized inhaler, and the cells in the lungs transfer the insulin into the bloodstream.
Patients usually need to use inhaled insulin before eating, David said, “It’s used during meals or snacks, or occasionally when blood sugar is too high and needs to be lowered.”
Advantages and disadvantages of inhaled insulin
Pros: It works quickly, David says: “It slows down the rapid rise in glucose, works quickly, and disappears quickly in the body, avoiding accidental overdoses that can lead to hypoglycemia 3 to 4 hours later.”
This helps blood sugar stay stable over time, it’s painless, and patients don’t need to use needles.
Disadvantages: The inhaler is not as precise in measuring insulin doses, so small doses cannot be given accurately, so patients also need a back-up regimen.
David said that patients also need to use another device to inject long-acting insulin between meals, and that inhaled insulin is not the only insulin that is part of insulin therapy and cannot be used as the only insulin therapy.
Injectable ports
The port uses a cannula like a pump, but the cannula is not connected to anything and the patient can use a syringe to inject insulin through the cannula into the skin when needed, and the patient needs to change the port every few days, with the advantage that the patient does not have to stick himself with a needle multiple times.
Jet syringe
The jet syringe uses a fine stream of insulin that is passed through the patient’s skin and into the body. Although there is no needle involved in using it, they are still quite painful to use and uncommon.
Janet said, “To some extent they are going away because people are adopting better needle technology as well as better insulin pens.”
She said, “Exciting diabetes treatment technologies are coming, including the “bionic pancreas” that is being tested now, and until then, the key to treating diabetes is to take control of your health, and behavior trumps everything, and if the behavior is right, but you’re not using the right values, you can fix that with a device. The problem.”