My insulin Log

Insulin is a hormone that has many functions in the body, but its main function is to control and regulate the levels of glucose in your blood. Without insulin, the blood sugar builds up in the body to such dangerously high levels that it begins to impact the functionality of some of the body’s major organs.

The process by which insulin works is relatively simple. Ordinarily, when we’ve finished a meal, the digestive system will break down the carbohydrates that you have consumed into glucose. Glucose, in addition to other nutrients, feeds into the blood stream. In non-diabetics, the glucose triggers the pancreas to release insulin. The insulin flows into the blood stream where it controls the amount of glucose that is allowed to enter into the various cells of the body where it provides the cells with sustenance and energy. The energy will either be used immediately by the cells or stored for future use as glycogen (i.e. stored glucose). The excess glucose or stored glycogen will remain in the body until needed where it will then be broken down into glucose to be used by your body.

In a person with diabetes, however, the pancreas is either unable to secrete insulin at all or unable to secrete enough to handle the amount of glucose in the bloodstream. Without the insulin, or security guard, the glucose is refused entry into the body’s cells. Since the body cannot use the glucose, it treats it as waste and excretes it from the body in the form of urine. The result is that the body’s cells eventually starve and the person experiences weight loss, hunger, and thirst. Eventually, without nourishment, the person will exhibit nerve and cardiovascular damage as major systems of the body begin to shut down and fail. Without intervention, the person dies.

In the case of diabetics where the body’s glucose management has gone wrong, patients will have to get the insulin from elsewhere. Doctors will attempt to mimic insulin’s role in the body by artificially introducing it into the body. Today’s doctors do this in one of three ways – by injections via syringe, by means of an insulin pump, or via the more recent insulin jet injector. The insulin jet injector is a high-pressure device that releases a stream of insulin under high pressure through the gaps between the body’s skin cells.

Fortunately, for many people that fear injections, many forms of oral diabetes medications are being developed. With these, a person can control his or her blood glucose levels easily without injections. Until recently, the problem with oral forms of insulin was that the body’s stomach acids would break them down and not enough of the insulin would actually make it into the bloodstream. One company that seems to have made a breakthrough, however, is Generex, a biotech company that produces an oral insulin spray and shows promising results.

Currently, there are over twenty types of insulin in the market. They vary in how long it takes before they start to work, how long they last in the body, and when they are most active in the bloodstream. The main goal of your doctor is to mimic as closely as possible the effects of natural insulin in your body. To that end, the type that you take will depend on the doctor’s personal preference as well as his evaluation of your blood