Types of Insulin

Not every insulin is the same, there is a group of how long they work in the body, there are 5 different types from regular, rapid to long-acting; some of them look clear while others are cloudy. Also, you have to know that glucose is not stable, it changes day by day and also hour by hour from which we will need different amounts of units during the day. When we eat we need insulin to act quicker, and when we are not eating we need it to work at a slower mode. Everyone with or without diabetes needs insulin to live and avoid high glucose levels. A person living with diabetes will need to give the body insulin through injections or insulin pumps according to their specific needs. There are 5 types of insulin:

1. Rapid-acting Insulin: It takes 15 minutes to start working and it lasts from 2 to 4 hours. Rapid-acting insulins are: Insulin aspart (Novolog), Insulin lispro (Humalog), Insulin glulisine (Apidra).
2. Regular Insulin: It takes 30 minutes to start working and lasts from 3 to 6 hours. This type of insulin is Insulin regular (Novolin R).
3. Intermediate-acting Insulin: It takes 1 to 2 hours to start working and lasts to 12 hours. This type of insulin is NPH (Novolin N)
4. Long-acting Insulin: It takes 2 to 4 hours to start working and lasts to 24 hours. Those are Insulin detemir (Levemir) and Insulin glargine (Lantus, Basaglar)
5. Ultra-long-acting Insulin: It takes 6 hours to start working and lasts 36 to 42 hours. Those are Insulin degludec (Tresiba) and Insulin glargine U300 (Toujeo)

The moment that we need insulin is different for each person; only our doctor can tell us when and the number of units, and also to make a schedule for every intake.

The thecnique of genetic engineering to obtain human insulin is called Recombinant DNA. This type of insulin is equal to the one build in humans, althoug is not obtained from someone else, it is a copy to make the functions as the one produced by the body.

The doctor will prescribe insulin when we need it! It’s just another tool for diabetes management and this could be from our debut or sometime later.