In People With Type 1 Diabetes
In a person with type 1 diabetes, your immune system begins attacking and destroying most or all of your beta cells. Every day, your body is trying to produce insulin via the beta cells from your pancreas. And every day, your immune system continues to destroy them.
When a person develops type 1 diabetes, they generally become very sick very quickly over the course of a few weeks or months as blood sugar levels rise to life-threatening levels.
People with type 1 diabetes must take insulin every single day either via an insulin pump or pod or via multiple daily injections with a syringe or insulin pen. Skipping an injection or a whole day of insulin could potentially be fatal.
Where To Inject Insulin
Insulin is injected subcutaneously, which means into the fat layer under the skin. In this type of injection, a short needle is used to inject insulin into the fatty layer between the skin and the muscle.
Insulin should be injected into the fatty tissue just below your skin. If you inject the insulin deeper into your muscle, your body will absorb it too quickly, it might not last as long, and the injection is usually more painful. This can lead to low blood glucose levels.
People who take insulin daily should rotate their injection sites. This is important because using the same spot over time can cause lipodystrophy. In this condition, fat either breaks down or builds up under the skin, causing lumps or indentations that interfere with insulin absorption.
You can rotate to different areas of your abdomen, keeping injection sites about an inch apart. Or you can inject insulin into other parts of your body, including your thigh, arm, and buttocks.
Disposing Of Needles Syringes And Lancets
In the United States, people use more than 3 billion needles and syringes each year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. These products are a risk to other people and should be disposed of properly. Regulations vary by location. Find out what your state requires by calling the Coalition for Safe Community Needle Disposal at 1-800-643-1643, or visiting their site at .
You arent alone in treating your diabetes. Before beginning insulin therapy, your doctor or health educator will show you the ropes. Remember, whether youre injecting insulin for the first time, running into problems, or just have questions, turn to your healthcare team for advice and instruction.
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Insulin Side Effects: What You Need To Know
For people with type 1 diabetes and for some with type 2, daily insulin injections are absolutely critical.
But insulin is a very complicated hormone, and taking it on a daily basis requires tremendous attention and management every day.
In this article, well discuss the potential side effects of insulin that anyone taking it should know.
Where Should You Not Inject Insulin
DONT: Inject insulin just anywhere. Insulin should be injected into the fat just underneath the skin rather than into muscle, which can lead to quicker insulin action and greater risk of low blood sugar. The stomach, thighs, buttocks, and upper arms are common injection sites because of their higher fat content.
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Insulin Injection Sites: Where And How To Inject
Overview
Insulin is a hormone that helps cells use glucose for energy. It works as a key, allowing the sugar to go from the blood and into the cell. In type 1 diabetes, the body doesnt make insulin. In type 2 diabetes, the body doesnt use insulin correctly, which can lead to the pancreas not being able to produce enough or any, depending on the progression of the disease insulin to meet your bodys needs.
Diabetes is normally managed with diet and exercise, with medications, including insulin, added as needed. If you have type 1 diabetes, injecting insulin is required for life. This may seem difficult at first, but you can learn to successfully administer insulin with the support of your healthcare team, determination, and a little practice.
Diabetes And Your Child: Giving Insulin Injections
The digestive system breaks down food, resulting in a sugar called glucose. Some of this glucose is stored in the liver. But most of it enters the bloodstream and travels to the cells to be used as fuel. Glucose needs the help of the hormone insulin to enter the cells. Insulin is made in the pancreas, an organ in the abdomen. The insulin is released into the bloodstream in response to the presence of glucose in the blood.
Think of insulin as a key. When insulin reaches a cell, it attaches to the cell wall. This signals the cell to create an opening that allows glucose to enter the cell. Without insulin, your child’s cells cant get glucose to burn for energy. This is why he or she may feel weak or tired.
The insulin your child is missing can be replaced with shots of insulin . Some children also use insulin pumps. Then your child’s body can burn glucose for energy. This helps keep your child’s blood sugar within a healthy range.
At first, injecting insulin may seem scary for both you and your child. But you will have help from your child’s healthcare provider, nurse, or diabetes educator. They will teach you how to give your child insulin injections. If your child is older, he or she can learn how to inject insulin. If so, you will still have to check the amount of insulin your child injects each time.
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Different Types Of Insulin Therapy
People with diabetes have a choice of options for administering insulin:
- Insulin syringes combined with smaller and finer needles
- Insulin pens these combine a fine needle and insulin cartridge in one unit making it easier to use than a syringe and are the most common method of administration in Canada
- Insulin pumps these dont use needles and deliver insulin continuously into the skin, day and night
Talk to your diabetes healthcare team together about the type and pattern of injections that will work best for you. Also discuss how you can identify good injection technique and how to examine the injection site for any problems that may affect the action of the insulin.
If you would like to hear from a group of people regarding their experience starting on insulin,.
Rash And Allergic Reaction
Less than 4 percent of people with diabetes have a hypersensitivity or allergy to insulin, but if youre one of those 4 percent, its a significant challenge.
Its believed that a persons allergic reaction is in response to additives and peptides within commercially manufactured insulin.
The symptoms of an insulin allergy include:
- Swelling at the injection site
- Intense rash, hives, and itching
- Low blood pressure
- Swelling within your throat and mouth
- Difficulty breathing
Insulin allergies can be local or systemic, as well as immediate or delayed, explains a 2016 study. The underlying mechanisms of insulin-associated allergy can be divided into three types: type I , type III , and type IV hypersensitivity. Type I hypersensitivity, which manifests as local edema, itching, wheals, and flares, is the most common form.
To date, there is no single treatment method that has proven effective enough to be widely used.
Various treatment options, ranging from symptom relief using simple antihistaminics to more complicated insulin desensitization therapy, have been advocated for managing allergic reactions to insulin, explains the study.
While steroids can also significantly help with the allergic reaction, they create tremendous insulin resistance and make blood sugar management very difficult, so its not a realistic long-term solution.
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Burning Sensation After Injecting Insulin
Hello. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced a burning sensation after injecting their insulin? My dad and I both have this happen to us. It stings pretty bad, sometimes you can rub it out and others you can’t. We both primarily use our abdomen as injection sites, it seems to hurt less 🙂
do you keep your insulin in the fridge? i’ve only had a weird feeling when i kept my insulin in the fridge and would use it straight from the fridge only.
Yes, I keep my insulin in the fridge but even if I leave it out for a while I still get the burning. It doesn’t happen everytime though. I had heard that before about using cold insulin, just wasn’t sure if it was true or not. I keep forgetting to ask my endo. Thank you for your reply. 🙂
When i was on shots i used to feel a burning sensation i would roll it in my palms to warm it up a bit that used to help. have you tried that?
You know, i had this issue too and when i went to my Endo. He just told me that some people have sensitive bodies. and when a foreign object is thrust into it, it makes you feel as though you have been hurt to alarm you that something isnt right…. hope that helps 🙂
no but I will give it a try, thanks. I just took my bedtime shot so I’ll try it in the morning. 🙂
I know the explaination dosen’t help take away the pain, but at least I now understand WHY it causes the “ow, ow, OW OW OW” while I am giving her her Lantus shot.
I take humalog and levemir by syringe.
I’lll let you know the results.
What Is Insulin And Why Do You Need It
First of all, lets make sure we all understand what insulin is and why it is a crucial part of what keeps you healthy and alive. Without any, you will die. Without enough, you will get very sick and eventually die.
Insulin is a peptide hormone produced by the beta cells of the pancreas. Its secreted when the GLUT2 transporter detects a change in the serum glucose level.
In other words, as your blood sugar starts to rise, your pancreas secretes more insulin to ensure that your blood sugar doesnt get too high. The insulin takes the glucose in your bloodstream and carries to cells throughout your entire body that uses it for energy.
Your pancreas also secretes a steady drip of insulin 24 hours a day to meet your background insulin needs. Your body needs insulin every hour of every day in order to maintain normal blood sugar levels and function properly.
Even your brain relies on a second-by-second delivery of glucose in order to function without insulin, your brain cannot make use of the glucose sitting in your bloodstream.
Even if you eat zero sugar or zero grams of carbohydrates, your body still needs insulin to survive.
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Do You Have To Pinch The Skin When Giving Insulin
Insulin shots should go into a fatty layer of your skin . Put the needle straight in at a 90-degree angle. You do not have to pinch up the skin unless you are using a longer needle . Small children or very thin adults may need to inject at a 45-degree angle.
How To Inject Insulin
Before injecting insulin, be sure to check its quality. If it was refrigerated, allow your insulin to come to room temperature. If the insulin is cloudy, mix the contents by rolling the vial between your hands for a few seconds. Be careful not to shake the vial. Short-acting insulin that isnt mixed with other insulin shouldnt be cloudy. Dont use insulin that is grainy, thickened, or discolored.
Follow these steps for safe and proper injection:
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Some Injection Aid Tools That May Help Lessen Injection Discomfort:
How To Maintain Steady Insulin Levels
Maintaining blood sugar levels is the key to weight loss and fat burning as it keeps your energy levels constant, it prevents hunger pangs and it allows your body to access its glycogen stores as a source of energy when needed.
To maintain your blood sugar levels you need to eat foods which will not spike your blood sugar levels and consequently, your insulin levels. The key culprit that affects blood sugar levels is carbohydrates. However, there are good types of carbohydrates and bad types.
Foods high in slow releasing carbs , such as whole grains and vegetables, should be an important part of your diet. Whereas foods high in sugars , such as cakes, sweets and refined foods like white bread, white pasta and white rice should be avoided as these foods could spike insulin levels.
You may have heard of the term low GI and high GI?
GI referrers to the glycemic index which ranks carbohydrates according to their effect on blood sugar levels. Low GI foods are burned steadily throughout the day to give you a constant supply of energy. High GI foods can spike insulin levels and are also readily transported to fat cells if you dont burn them off quickly.
To read more about the glycemic index click here to read an in-depth article about carbohydrates.
Eating Protein rich meals helps keep insulin levels steady
Proteins steady release of energy means its sustained and doesnt cause your blood sugar and therefore insulin to spike like carbs, so you get fewer craving.
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Tips For More Comfortable Injections
The following are recommendations to make injecting insulin more tolerable:
- Before each injection, the site should be inspected and gently massaged. Hair roots, moles, scars or infected areas should be avoided. Avoid injecting through clothing so the site can be seen.
- Rotate sites as advised by the diabetes healthcare team.
- A new needle should be used each time.
- Use room temperature insulin.
- If using alcohol, inject once the alcohol has fully dried
- Insert the needle through the skin using a quick, smooth movement without excess force.
- Inject the medication slowly and evenly. Ensure that the pen knob has been depressed fully.
- In some cases, the insulin dose should be split into 2 injections at 2 different sites, since discomfort at the injection site may decrease when doses less than 50 units are used .
- Higher-concentration basal and mealtime insulins are now available in Canada, allowing for higher doses to be administered in smaller volumes than was previously the case.
You should follow the specific recommendations given by your healthcare professional. For example, injections in different parts of the body can affect blood glucose levels.
Todays Needles Are Shorter And Narrower
Needle technology has come a long way in recent years. Todays needles are smaller and finer than ever before, making injections as painless as possible. Research no longer supports the use of needles longer than 8 mm for most people. Many are able to use needles as short as 4mm. These shorter needles have not impacted the efficacy of insulin and cause less tissue trauma and more accurate delivery to the subcutaneous tissue . The subcutaneous tissue is recommended for injection since it provides the most reliable and stable absorption. In addition, needle tips have improved in design which require less penetration force. The combination of shorter needles, thinner needles and improved needle tips have all contributed to better injection comfort.
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Can Insulin Syringe Be Used For Intramuscular Injection
Impact of Needle Length Insulin should be administered into the subcutaneous tissue without reaching the muscle layer. Intramuscular administration, which more often occurs when administering insulin in the thigh, should be avoided to prevent the risk of rapid insulin absorption, which may result in hypoglycemia.
How To Give A Painless Injection
How to give a painless injection? Theres a simple technique to make injecting yourself with insulin easy and pain-free. The basic steps are to locate a fatty site so that you can inject the insulin into a layer of fat under the skin hold the needle like a dart and pierce the skin rapidly speed is key!
If you have Type 2 diabetes, sooner or later you may require insulin injections, either temporarily or permanently. This is nothing to be afraid of, even though many people with long-standing Type 2 diabetes literally spend years worrying about it. I usually teach all my patients how to inject themselves at our first or second meeting, before theres any urgency. Once they give themselves a sample injection of sterile saline , they find out how easy and painless it can be, and they are spared years of anxiety.
If youre anxious about injections, after you read this section, please ask your physician or diabetes educator to allow you to try a self-administered injection.
Insulin is usually injected subcutaneously.
To show you how painless a shot can be, your teacher should give himself or herself a shot and leave the syringe dangling in place, illustrating that no pain is felt. Your teacher should next give you a shot of saline to prove the point.
Now its time for you to give yourself an injection, using a syringe thats been partly filled for you with about 5 units of saline.
How to give a painless injection step by step
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