Should I Inject Insulin Into A Vein?
I am 20 years old and have type 1 diabetes. When I am off the insulin pump, my blood sugar gets unstable and can take more than 48 hours to go down. Two friends told me that to handle this, they just inject a very small amount of insulin directly into the bloodstream. I know it sounds crazy, but this would save me time and money. Is it safe? Continue reading >>
The Insulin Response (video)
(YouTube link: This video is part of the interview I did for Open Water Source, but most of what I talk about will interest non-swimmers and non-athletes. (See the rest of the videos in this series.) Transcript Open Water Source: In simple terms, can you describe the insulin response? Peter Attia, MD: Sure. Insulin is a hormone secreted by an organ in our body called the pancreas. It’s the only organ that can secrete this hormone. The pancreas sits in an area called our retroperitoneum. It’s behind our stomach. This is probably the most important hormone when it comes to how we digest food, take food into ourselves, and how we regulate fat. When you eat something, it will stimulate insulin to varying degrees, depending on what’s in it. Carbohydrates stimulate insulin more than any other food. And even within carbohydrates, there are different amounts of insulin stimulus that result form it, depending on the simplicity of them. Proteins also stimulate insulin, but to a much lesser degree. And fat doesn’t stimulate insulin at all. So, here’s how it works. Let’s say you take a bite of your Corn Flakes. Those Corn Flakes get into your stomach. As it exits your stomach, it enters the first part of your bowel called the duodenum. And all of a sudden, it starts to get translocated and it starts to get absorbed into your bloodstream. So now, we have to get it into the cells of your body. That’s where you need that glucose. How does it get there? Well, that’s how insulin enters the equation. As sugar levels in your blood… And I’m going to use the word “sugar” and “glucose” interchangeably. I apologize for that. Glucose is a very specific type of sugar, and most people, when they hear the term “sugar” they think about table sugar. If I’m ever ref Continue reading >>
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You Asked: Do Sugar Substitutes Cause Type 2 Diabetes?
TIME Health For more, visit TIME Health. By now you’ve heard that sugary foods drive insulin resistance and type-2 diabetes. The more of the sweet stuff you swallow—whether it’s table sugar or organic honey—the more insulin your pancreas has to produce and release into your bloodstream in order to control your blood’s glucose levels. At some point, an overworked pancreas can become incapable of producing enough insulin to manage sugar loads in the blood, resulting in type-2 diabetes But what happens if you replace sugar with artificial sweeteners? The American Diabetes Association says on its website that sugar substitutes are safe by FDA standards, and “may help curb your cravings for something sweet.” But other experts are dubious. “The short answer is we don’t know what happens when you replace sugar with artificial sweeteners,” says Dr. Robert Lustig, an endocrinologist and sugar researcher at the University of California, San Francisco. “We have data nibbling around the edges, but we don’t have enough to make a hard determination for any specific sweetener.” People who consume diet soda on a daily basis are 36% more likely to develop metabolic syndrome and 67% more likely to develop type-2 diabetes than people who don’t drink diet or regular soda, found a 2009 study. That may seem damning until you consider that overweight or obese people—the groups most at risk for type-2 diabetes—may be more likely to drink diet soda in an attempt to lose weight than their slimmer pals. Newer evidence, though still far from conclusive, is more telling. A 2014 study from Israel found that artificial sweeteners changed the microbiotic makeup of rodents’ guts in ways linked to metabolic disease. For another recent study, researchers at Washington Un Continue reading >>
Diabetic Shock And Insulin Reactions
Severe hypoglycemia, or diabetic shock, is a serious health risk for anyone with diabetes. Also called insulin reaction, as a consequence of too much insulin, it can occur anytime there is an imbalance between the insulin in your system, the amount of food you eat, or your level of physical activity. It can even happen while you are doing all you think you can do to manage your diabetes. The symptoms of diabetic shock may seem mild at first. But they should not be ignored. If it isn't treated quickly, hypoglycemia can become a very serious condition that causes you to faint, requiring immediate medical attention. Diabetic shock can also lead to a coma and death. It's important that not only you, but your family and others around you, learn to recognize the signs of hypoglycemia and know what to do about them. It could save your life. Hypoglycemia is a low level of blood sugar. The cells in your body use sugar from carbohydrates for energy. Insulin, which normally is made in the pancreas, is necessary for sugar to enter the cells. It helps keep the levels of sugar in the blood from getting too high. It's important to maintain the proper level of sugar in your blood. Levels that are too high can cause severe dehydration, which can be life threatening. Over time, excess sugar in the body does serious damage to organs such as your heart, eyes, and nervous system. Ordinarily, the production of insulin is regulated inside your body so that you naturally have the amount of insulin you need to help control the level of sugar. But if your body doesn't make its own insulin or if it can't effectively use the insulin it does produce, you need to inject insulin as a medicine or take another medication that will increase the amount of insulin your body does make. So if you need to me Continue reading >>
- This Will Shock You, But This Juice Successfully Prevents Cancer, Diabetes, Gastritis And Lowers Blood Pressure
- This Will Shock You – The Juice That Kills Cancer Cells, Treat Diabetes, Gastritis and Lower Blood Pressure !
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Handling A Diabetes Emergency
Emergencies can happen at any time, so it's best to be prepared and know what to do if an emergency occurs. Talking with your veterinarian is a crucial part of being informed and prepared to handle emergencies. Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) The most common side effect experienced with insulin therapy is hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia can be caused by: Missing or delaying food. Change in food, diet, or amount fed. Infection or illness. Change in the body's need for insulin. Diseases of the adrenal, pituitary, or thyroid glands, or progression of liver or kidney disease. Interaction with other drugs (such as steroids). Change (increase) in exercise. Signs of hypoglycemia may occur suddenly and can include: Weakness Depression Behavioral changes Muscle twitching Anxiety Seizures Coma Death See below for a list of other side effects. What to do If your pet is conscious, rub a tablespoon of corn syrup on his or her gums. When your pet is able to swallow, feed him or her a usual meal and contact your veterinarian. If your pet is unconscious or having a seizure, this is a medical emergency. CONTACT YOUR VETERINARIAN. In the meantime, you should immediately treat your pet rather than delaying management. Pour a small amount of a sugar solution (eg, corn syrup) onto your finger and then rub the sugar solution onto your pet's gums. The sugar is absorbed very quickly and your pet should respond in 1 to 2 minutes. The sugar solution should never be poured directly into your pet's mouth since there is a risk that the solution will be inhaled into the lungs. Once your pet has responded to the sugar administration and is sitting up, it can be fed a small amount of its regular food. Once the pet has stabilized, it should be transported to your veterinarian for evaluation. Your pet's diet Continue reading >>
Prediabetes & Insulin Resistance
What is insulin? Insulin is a hormone made in the pancreas, an organ located behind the stomach. The pancreas contains clusters of cells called islets. Beta cells within the islets make insulin and release it into the blood. Insulin plays a major role in metabolism—the way the body uses digested food for energy. The digestive tract breaks down carbohydrates—sugars and starches found in many foods—into glucose. Glucose is a form of sugar that enters the bloodstream. With the help of insulin, cells throughout the body absorb glucose and use it for energy. Insulin's Role in Blood Glucose Control When blood glucose levels rise after a meal, the pancreas releases insulin into the blood. Insulin and glucose then travel in the blood to cells throughout the body. Insulin helps muscle, fat, and liver cells absorb glucose from the bloodstream, lowering blood glucose levels. Insulin stimulates the liver and muscle tissue to store excess glucose. The stored form of glucose is called glycogen. Insulin also lowers blood glucose levels by reducing glucose production in the liver. In a healthy person, these functions allow blood glucose and insulin levels to remain in the normal range. What happens with insulin resistance? In insulin resistance, muscle, fat, and liver cells do not respond properly to insulin and thus cannot easily absorb glucose from the bloodstream. As a result, the body needs higher levels of insulin to help glucose enter cells. The beta cells in the pancreas try to keep up with this increased demand for insulin by producing more. As long as the beta cells are able to produce enough insulin to overcome the insulin resistance, blood glucose levels stay in the healthy range. Over time, insulin resistance can lead to type 2 diabetes and prediabetes because the bet Continue reading >>
Human Growth Hormone And Insulin Are Friends
Hormone balance, and the cycle by which our hormones are regulated, is very complicated. That’s why we have doctors who specialize in endocrinology. This article is intended as a basic explanation of the function of a few hormones and their interactions within the human body, as well as how nutrition/exercise affect their production and utilization. That said, hormone manipulation through diet and exercise does NOT account for a great deal of your results – you should focus on getting better at exercise, eating enough, and recovering properly before you lose sleep over whether or not you have optimal HGH or insulin levels. Insulin vs. HGH I’ll get down to brass tacks and make myself clear: insulin and growth hormone play antagonist roles against one another. When one is elevated, the other will be low. That does not, however, mean that their functions are all that dissimilar; they’re both responsible for growth in different ways and looking at them as synergists is much more productive. We want to find a way to make the best of insulin’s ability to pull nutrients into cells, but we also want to elicit the muscular, skeletal and neurological growth that (as the name implies) growth hormone is responsible for. Intraday nutrient cycling is the best way to do this. Understanding why is complicated as all heck, but we’ve tried to make it easy to digest (Get it? Digest? Haha?) Before we continue, I am going to ask that you take a look at our articles on insulin and leptin, as well as the sleep tutorial. They’ll help you understand some of the terms in this section and get a better idea of what’s really going on behind the scenes. Growth Hormone and IGF-1 Growth Hormone (GH) is a hormone responsible for cellular growth in the human body. Throughout the day, GH Continue reading >>
What Is Hypoglycemia?
Lots of people wonder if they have hypoglycemia (pronounced: hy-po-gly-SEE-mee-uh), but the condition is not at all common in teens. Teens who do have hypoglycemia usually have it as part of another health condition, such as diabetes. Hypoglycemia happens when a person's blood sugar levels are abnormally low, and it's a potentially serious condition. If you know someone who has diabetes, you may have heard them talk about "insulin shock," which is the common name for a severe hypoglycemic reaction. The body's most important fuel is glucose, a type of sugar. When you digest most foods, sugar is released, and that sugar ends up in your bloodstream as glucose. Your body, particularly your brain and nervous system, needs a certain level of glucose to function — not too much, and not too little. If your blood glucose level isn't right, your body will react by showing certain symptoms. People with diabetes may experience hypoglycemia if they don't eat enough or if they take too much insulin — the medicine most commonly used to treat diabetes. What Are the Symptoms? Some symptoms of hypoglycemia are caused when the body releases extra adrenaline (epinephrine), a hormone that raises blood sugar levels, into the bloodstream to protect against hypoglycemia. High blood levels of adrenaline can make the skin become pale and sweaty, and a person can also have symptoms such as shakiness, anxiety, and heart palpitations (a fast, pounding heartbeat). Other symptoms of hypoglycemia are caused when not enough glucose gets to the brain; in fact, the brain is the organ that suffers most significantly and most rapidly when there's a drop in blood sugar. These symptoms include headache, extreme hunger, blurry or double vision, fatigue, and weakness. At its most severe, insufficient gluco Continue reading >>
Type 1 Diabetes
Overview Diabetes is a lifelong condition that causes a person's blood sugar (glucose) level to become too high. The hormone insulin, produced by the pancreas, is responsible for controlling the amount of glucose in the blood. There are two main types of diabetes: type 1 – where the pancreas doesn't produce any insulin type 2 – where the pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin or the body's cells don't react to insulin These pages are about type 1 diabetes. Other types of diabetes are covered separately (read about type 2 diabetes, and gestational diabetes, which affects some women during pregnancy). Symptoms of diabetes Typical symptoms of type 1 diabetes are: feeling very thirsty passing urine more often than usual, particularly at night feeling very tired weight loss and loss of muscle bulk The symptoms of type 1 diabetes usually develop very quickly in young people (over a few days or weeks). In adults, the symptoms often take longer to develop (a few months). Read more about the symptoms of type 1 diabetes. These symptoms occur because the lack of insulin means that glucose stays in the blood and isn’t used as fuel for energy. Your body tries to reduce blood glucose levels by getting rid of the excess glucose in your urine. It's very important for diabetes to be diagnosed as soon as possible, because it will get progressively worse if left untreated. Find your local GP service Read about how type 1 diabetes is diagnosed. Causes of type 1 diabetes Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition, which means your immune system attacks healthy body tissue by mistake. In this case, it attacks the cells in your pancreas. Your damaged pancreas is then unable to produce insulin. So, glucose cannot be moved out of your bloodstream and into your cells. Type 1 diabetes is o Continue reading >>
Do Artificial Sweeteners Cause An Insulin Spike?
178 Comments The notion that artificial sweeteners (and sweet tastes in general) might produce an insulin response is one of those murky memes that winds itself around the blogs, but it’s never stated one way or the other with any sort of confidence. I briefly mentioned the possibility of non-caloric sweeteners influencing satiety hormones in last week’s diet soda post, and a number of you guys mentioned the same thing. Still, I’ve never seen unequivocal evidence that this is the case. This whole idea first came to my attention some time ago when my dog Buddha got into a bottle of “alternative sleep assists” which contained, among other things, 5 HTP (version of l-tryptophan) and xylitol (sugar alcohol). Long story short, dogs can’t take xylitol because it causes a spike in insulin, which then severely depletes blood glucose. Buddha got past this with a trip to the vet’s at 10:30 Sunday night (thanks, Dr. Dean). But it occurred to me that the same effect might be seen in humans, which is why I pose the question today… Do artificial sweeteners induce insulin secretion (perhaps via cephalic phase insulin release, which is sort of the body’s preemptive strike against foods that will require insulin to deal with)? One of the reasons a definitive answer is rarely given is that the question is improperly framed. Artificial sweeteners is not a monolithic entity. There are multiple types of sweeteners, all of them chemically distinct from each other. A more useful question would be “What effect does [specific artificial sweetener goes here] have on insulin?” So let’s go around the circle and ask. Does aspartame (aka Equal and Nutrasweet) affect insulin? Aspartame is pretty gross stuff, what with its awful taste and hordes of people who get terrible react Continue reading >>
How Different Types Of Insulin Affect Your Body
All insulin is not alike. You may already have heard of long-acting and short-acting insulin, but there are several other varieties too. Each has a specific role to play in helping regulate blood glucose (blood sugar) levels. Different insulins or combinations of insulin suit different people's unique needs, and many people who use insulin require two or more types to achieve their blood sugar goals. Your doctor determines which insulin to prescribe. But by learning more about how the different types of insulin work, you will be better able to monitor your response to your insulin. Then you can work together with your doctor to adjust your treatment plan to achieve and maintain the best possible control of your diabetes. What is insulin? Insulin is a hormone made in the pancreas and used every day in the human body. Whenever you eat, the food breaks down into sugar that moves into your bloodstream. Insulin is required to move that sugar from your blood into cells throughout your body so they can use it for energy. Think of insulin as the key that opens cell doors to let blood sugar in. Without insulin, all that sugar has nowhere to go, so it sits in your blood until it can be excreted, creating the high glucose levels that are the bane of people with diabetes. Traditionally, insulin was only used to treat people with type 1 diabetes, whose bodies no longer make enough insulin. But insulin has also proven to be an excellent therapy for a growing number of people with type 2 diabetes, whose bodies make some insulin but struggle to use it effectively. Insulin is also sometimes used to treat other lesser-known forms of diabetes. All popular types of prescription insulin must be injected into your bloodstream. If you swallowed insulin in a pill, the acid in your stomach woul Continue reading >>
Soaring Insulin Prices Have Diabetics Feeling The Pain
Insulin price spike leads to lawsuitInsulin is fast becoming a medication that only the well-insured or well-heeled diabetic can afford. With the price of insulin more than tripling in a decade, some diabetics are having to make tough choices about how to pay for the medication. In some cases, diabetics are cutting back or even going without the drug. Many of the 26 million Americans with diabetes must use insulin daily to treat the disease, or else risk illnesses such as kidney failure and disabilities such as blindness. While American diabetics may have faced monthly costs of $100 to $200 several years ago, some are now grappling with costs of $400 to $500 per month. Insulin prices for American patients are far higher than in other countries, a recent survey of patients from the advocacy group T1International discovered. American diabetics said they pay $13.47 per milliliter for Eli Lilly’s (LLY) Humalog insulin, the highest price among the countries surveyed and about four times more than what Canadian diabetics pay. “People are suffering a lot,” said Allison Bailey, a college student in Iowa with Type 1 diabetes. “There are no generics. We have to go through these big companies, and they charge so much.” Bailey said she paid about $130 for several vials of Eli Lilly’s Humalog in 2010. This year, her insulin prescription has a price tag of about $495. She noted that she switched from using pump therapy in 2010 and now injects insulin with a pen, and that while the prices aren’t apples-to-apples, costs have overall sharply increased. She said she should go back to pump therapy, but she doesn’t believe she can afford it given the higher cost of insulin as well as the expense of a pump, which can cost more than $5,000. Others are also caught in a bind. B Continue reading >>
Insulin Resistance Is Good? – T2d 7
Everybody says that insulin resistance is bad. Very bad. It’s the root cause of type 2 diabetes (T2D), and metabolic syndrome, isn’t it? So, if it is so bad, why do we all develop it in the first place? What’s the root cause? My friend Dr. Gary Fettke from Tasmania wrote an illuminating book called ‘Inversion’ where he describes how you can learn a lot from looking at things from another perspective. Invert (turn upside down) your perspective, and see how your horizons are immensely broadened. So let’s look at why we develop insulin resistance. Why is it good? Root Cause Analysis What is the root cause of insulin resistance? Some people say inflammation or oxidative stress or free radicals causes insulin resistance. Those are total cop-out answers. Inflammation is the body’s non-specific response to injury. But what causes the injury in the first place? That’s the real problem. The inflammation is only the body’s response to whatever is causing the injury. Think about it this way. Suppose we are battlefield surgeons. After decades on the job, we decide that blood is bad. After all, every time we see blood, bad things are happening. When we don’t see blood, bad things are not happening. It must be the blood that is dangerous. So, deciding that blood is what is killing people, we invent a machine to suction all the blood of people. Genius! The problem, of course, is what’s causing the bleeding, rather than the blood itself. Look for the root cause. Bleeding’s only the response, not the cause. Bleeding is a marker for disease. So is inflammation. Something causes bleeding, the body’s non specific response. Something causes inflammation, the body’s non specific response. Gunshots cause bleeding, knife wounds cause bleeding, and shrapnel causes bl Continue reading >>
Insulin
Drug Name: Insulin Common Name: Vetsulin®, Humulin®, PZI Vet®, Novolin®, Iletin®, Velosulin® Drug Type: Synthetic hormone Used For: Diabetes mellitus Species: Dogs, Cats Administered: 40units/ml, 100units/ml, and 500units/ml Injectable How Dispensed: Prescription only FDA Approved: Yes General Description Insulin is used in the treatment of diabetes mellitus in dogs and cats. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that helps convert your pet’s food into energy by allowing the uptake of sugar by cells. By allowing this uptake and use of sugar, insulin decreases the blood glucose concentrations in the body. When you pet does not produce insulin, sugar can’t enter cells, your pet’s body cannot create fat, sugar, or protein. This also results in a dangerously high blood glucose level. How It Works Insulin replaces the insulin that your pet’s body does not produce. The type of insulin you give to your pet is a synthetic hormone derived from pigs or cows. Storage Information Some forms of insulin need to be refrigerated, pay close attention to the manufacturer’s label. DO NOT FREEZE. Protect from heat and sunlight. Do not use if past the expiration date. Insulin must be given to your pet by an injection 1 to 2 times a day. Because it is a protein, the acids in the stomach would digest it if you were to administer it orally. The proper dose of insulin is determined by your veterinarian through a series of glucose level tests. It is best to give this drug to a pet with a full stomach. It is best to give insulin right after a meal. DO NOT SHAKE THE BOTTLE OF INSULIN Proper handling of insulin: Be sure you have the appropriate size syringe for the concentration of insulin you are using. Variations include: U-40, U-100, and U-500 syringes which go to their c Continue reading >>
Questions & Answers About Diabetes In The Workplace And The Americans With Disabilities Act (ada)
INTRODUCTION The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which was amended by the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 ("Amendments Act" or "ADAAA"), is a federal law that prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities. Individuals with disabilities include those who have impairments that substantially limit a major life activity, have a record (or history) of a substantially limiting impairment, or are regarded as having a disability.1 Title I of the ADA covers employment by private employers with 15 or more employees as well as state and local government employers. Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act provides similar protections related to federal employment. In addition, most states have their own laws prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of disability. Some of these state laws may apply to smaller employers and may provide protections in addition to those available under the ADA.2 The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces the employment provisions of the ADA. This document, which is one of a series of question-and-answer documents addressing particular disabilities in the workplace,3 explains how the ADA applies to job applicants and employees who have or had diabetes. In particular, this document explains: when an employer may ask an applicant or employee questions about her diabetes and how it should treat voluntary disclosures; what types of reasonable accommodations employees with diabetes may need; how an employer should handle safety concerns about applicants and employees with diabetes; and how an employer can ensure that no employee is harassed because of diabetes or any other disability. GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT DIABETES Diabetes is a group of diseases characterized by high blood glucose or sugar levels Continue reading >>
