Insulin and medicines are a normal part of treating diabetes, along with healthy food and physical activity. The medicine you take varies by your type of diabetes and how well the medicine is able to manage your blood sugar levels. The other factors that help work out what you may need are your other health conditions, medication costs, and your daily schedule.
Type 1 diabetes: If you have Type 1 diabetes, you have to take insulin. This is because your body doesn’t make this hormone that’s needed to digest glucose. You’ll need to take it several times a day.
Type 2 diabetes: This can often be managed by making healthy food choices and being physically active. You may need medicines as well, like pills or medicines that you have to inject under your skin, like insulin. You may occasionally even need insulin.
Gestational diabetes: The first thing to do here is to make healthy food choices and get enough physical exercise. If you still can’t reach the required blood glucose target, you may be prescribed pills or insulin.
Sometimes you may also need to take medicines for blood pressure and high cholesterol as part of your diabetes care.
Insulin: There are several types of insulin available that work at different speeds (onset) and last for different amounts of time. Most types have a peak, i.e. when their effect is strongest. There is rapid-acting insulin with an onset of 15 minutes and a peak at one hour. Its effect lasts for a duration of 2 to 4 hours. Short-acting or regular insulin has an onset of 30 minutes, a peak of 2 to 3 hours, and a duration of 3 to 6 hours. Intermediate-acting insulin has an onset of 2 to 4 hours, a peak of 4 to 12 hours, and a duration of 12 to 18 hours. Finally, there’s long-acting insulin with an onset of several hours, no peak, and a duration of 24 hours or longer.
Remember always to follow your doctor’s advice on how often and when to take your insulin. Learn how to manage the units you need as well. Your doctor may recommend two different types of insulin better manage your condition.