Living With Diabetes And The Importance Of Timely Insulinization

Blood sugar is a commonly underestimated component of our health. When it’s faulty over a long period of time, it could develop into diabetes, a disease which affects our body’s ability to produce or use insulin.

When left untreated, diabetes can lead to potential complications that include heart disease, kidney damage, nerve damage, and stroke. If you have diabetes, your pancreas either produces too little insulin or none at all. The insulin can’t be used effectively. Diabetes can be effectively managed when caught early through Insulinization, an efficient treatment for diabetics. However, timely insulinization is vital.

Some of us have relatives and friends who are living with diabetes. My mother-in-law is one. It started when she was 40 years old (she’s 63 years old now). Her doctor told her to use insulin when she was in her 50’s but she declined because she was scared. Instead, she opted to take lots of medicines in tablet and pill form. She was 55 when she finally decided to take insulin.

The doctor said that she didn’t have any choice because her diabetes was getting worse. Looking back, she regrets not taking insulin the earliest possible time and realized how important insulin is to a diabetic. If she took it earlier, it could have prevented her kidney from failing. Last November 2020, she started dialysis with twice a week sessions and eventually last March 2021, she had dialysis three times a week. Until now my mother-in-law still uses insulin as medication along with other medicines.

Many people may not know or have little knowledge about insulin. Insulin is a hormone made in your pancreas, a gland located behind your stomach. It allows your body to use glucose for energy. Glucose is a type of sugar found in many carbohydrates.

After eating, the digestive tract breaks down carbohydrates and changes them into glucose. Glucose is then absorbed into your bloodstream through the lining in your small intestine. Once glucose is in your bloodstream, insulin causes cells throughout your body to absorb the sugar and use it for energy.

Injections of insulin can help treat both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The injected insulin acts as a replacement for or supplement to your body’s insulin. People with type 1 diabetes can’t make insulin, so they must inject insulin to control their blood glucose levels.

Getting insulin treatment at the right time is really important because it improves a patient’s condition instead of him/her relying on taking many drugs. It’s a good thing that there are now a lot of new insulin products like the newly innovated second-generation insulins that will accommodate more patients. These products can now also be ordered through call and delivery, which makes it convenient for diabetes patients, especially during the pandemic.

You can get more information about second-generation insulins through Sanofi’s Health Speak webisode series: www.instagram.com/p/CPaQ6nAhVpT