Common Insulin Pen Errors: Diabetes Questions & Answers

Q. I recently switched from using syringes to inject insulin to using an insulin pen, and it seems like I need to inject more insulin with the pen to counter the same blood glucose level. The length of the needle seems to be the same, the pen is primed, and yet the pen injection has less of a blood-glucose-lowering effect. What could be going on here?
A. The insulin contained in vials and pens is identical. So if you’re using your pen correctly, there should be no change in the effectiveness of the insulin on your blood glucose levels. It’s not unusual for people to be educated on how to use an insulin pen and to believe they are injecting with proper technique but to make one or more minor mistakes that affect the amount of insulin being injected. I recommend that you make an appointment with your diabetes educator or health-care provider and have that person observe you injecting a dose of insulin to see what, if anything, might be going wrong.
Here are a few examples of common errors that can occur when administering insulin with a pen:
A person may dial in the correct dose, put the needle into the skin correctly, but instead of pushing the button at the end of the pen to inject the insulin, dial the dose back to zero. This would result in no insulin being injected. Once the dose is dialed, the button has to be pushed in all the way — you should hear a series of clicks as you push — and then the pen must be held against the skin, needle inserted, for 6–10 seconds.
Some people know that they need to push the button to deliver the insulin, but they don’t push i Continue reading

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Diabetes mellitus cured - George's experience

7 Long Wheat Mash Diet Regimen (LWMDR)
7.3 Duration required for diabetes cure
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Diabetes is considered a syndrome rather than a disease by modern medicine. It remains a companion to the grave - once diabetic always diabetic is the order of the day. Due to different reasons the Beta cells of Pancreas get impaired and adversely affects the quality or quantity or both of Insulin being produced in the body - partially in case of Type 2 & totally in case of Type 1 Diabetes. Due to the insufficiency or inefficiency of insulin produced by pancreas, blood sugar levels go up degrading strength & health of human body by starving all cells. Damaging vulnerable organs like Kidney & Heart makes diabetes fatal; whereas impairment of Retina of eye, cerebral haemorrhage/stroke, gangrene of foot/lower-leg etc make rest of life miserable.
Diabetes is seen to be progressive, degenerative & incurable. This is because the cause (impairment of pancreas) is never treated; only its effect (blood sugar increase) is looked into and taken care of.
The author hence left the beaten track when he was diagnosed diabetic & took a drastically different approach i Continue reading

Long-Acting Insulins Useful Tools in Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes

Researchers have augmented insulin's effectiveness with several rapid and long-acting analogues and new delivery systems such as insulin pens and insulin pumps. Biosynthetic preparations with various pharmacokinetic profiles somewhat mimic the steady insulin release from a normal pancreas. Long-acting insulins create unprecedented prescribing flexibility, as prescribers can tailor patients' regimens to their individual activity levels, eating habits, and responses to insulin.
Insulin is a necessity for patients who have type 1 diabetes (T1D). For many people who have type 2 diabetes (T2D), insulin can improve glycemic control significantly. Still, many clinicians are reluctant to initiate injectable glucose-lowering therapies in T2D. They often perceive, rationally or irrationally, that patients will have difficulty understanding complex regimens. Many clinicians also report that they are less proficient than they would like with insulin, creating discomfort with diabetes management.1 And they perceive that multidose insulin regimens may be associated with increased episodes of hypoglycemia, though they are not.2 However, today's long-acting insulins such as insulin detemir, insulin glargine (IGlar), and insulin degludec (IDeg) offer convenience that increases adherence significantly (Table 13-7). They also tend to have fewer adverse effects, which can simplify patients' regimens and improve control.3-7
Designing a Regimen
For most patients, designing an optimal insulin regimen is a continuing process that may require formulation changes, dose-related fine tuning, and intro Continue reading

Cholesterol Drugs (Statins) Linked To Diabetes, Brain Damage & Much More

What’s the deal with Cholesterol? Good, bad, both, myth? Perhaps it is a myth, something that’s been made into a problem so pharmaceutical companies can keep raking in the cash? Statins alone generate billions of dollars a year. The important point to take note of is the fact that Statins, drugs designed to lower ones cholesterol, are one of the biggest drugs prescribed to patients, and one of the biggest earners for pharmaceutical companies, which is concerning.
Why is it concerning? Because over the years, it’s become more and more difficult for people to trust pharmaceutical companies for several different reasons. Whether it’s about studies that continue to expose the harmful effects of various drugs, or the chief editors of Major Medical journals like Dr. Richard Horton (editor in chief of the Lancet )”blowing the whistle,” so to speak, there is large . (1)(2)(3)(4)
Now, a new study recently published in the American Journal of Physiology, states that statins the adverse effects of statins advance the process of aging, and points out that long term use of stats have been associated with several serious adverse health effects including myopathy (skeletal muscle weakness), neurological side effects and an increased risk of diabetes.”
The study outlines the negative effect statins have on mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), and how they also impaired the expression of DNA repair genes which, the authors believe, proved a “novel explanation for their adverse clinical effects.”
We know that that the ability of these cells to differentiate isn’t good, and stat Continue reading

Do You Know Your Insulin Level?

People often keep close watch on their glucose numbers. But how many of us know our insulin level? Dr. Joseph Mercola says fasting insulin is “the number that may best predict your sudden death.” Sounds important. But what does it mean?
Our bodies need some circulating insulin at all times, even when we don’t eat. Otherwise, our livers keep making glucose and dumping it into the blood. Livers do this to prevent blood glucose from going too low.
So a fasting insulin level should never be 0, which it might be in a person with untreated Type 1. It shouldn’t go below 3. But a high insulin level is just as problematic. A high insulin level is a sign of insulin resistance or prediabetes. It can also signify early-stage Type 2.
According to Dr. Mercola, too much insulin promotes weight gain by storing fat. It promotes insulin resistance, lowers magnesium levels, and increases inflammation. It also tends to lower HDL (“good”) cholesterol and raise levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol.
All of these increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease. It may be that high insulin levels come before insulin resistance and help cause it.
If you already have diabetes, why should you know your insulin level? Mainly, it helps diagnose what is happening with you. Your blood glucose may be high, but how much of the problem is too little insulin? How much is insulin resistance?
A fasting insulin level test is valuable in several situations:
• Diagnosing prediabetes and metabolic syndrome. “Prediabetes” is one result of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance causes high choleste Continue reading