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Lisa Roekyen
Nov 19, 20232 min read

Insulin

Image Source: Health Central


(Colorless liquid in small bottle and a needle)








Overview:

As of June 2023, half a billion people worldwide are living with Diabetes. This disease is affecting people of all ages in every single country. Insulin is an essential hormone produced in the pancreas that regulates your blood sugar levels and also turns food into energy. People with diabetes are unable to produce insulin efficiently (type 1)  or use the insulin their bodies produce properly (type 2). Thus, human-made insulin is used to aid people with diabetes. 


Medical Uses: 

Insulin injections or pens are used to treat patients with diabetes to control their blood sugar levels. The injected insulin moves glucose from your bloodstream to the cells in your body. The cells then use glucose for energy. With insulin, the blood sugar level of patients can stay stable and prevent them from becoming too high. Many types of insulin can be prescribed for diabetic patients. 


Side-effects: 

  • Lumps, pits, swelling, redness, or itching at the injection site.

  • Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).

  • Weight gain

  • Dizziness

Dosing: 

Insulin dosage is different for each person. To calculate insulin dosage, doctors may use Insulin-to-Carbohydrate Ratio, or High blood sugar correction. For carbohydrate ratio, the amount of carbohydrates in each meal needs to be calculated and then the amount of insulin needed will be calculated correspondingly. For example:   

  • You are going to eat 60 grams of carbohydrate for lunch

  • Your Insulin: CHO ratio is 1:10

  • To get the CHO insulin dose, plug the numbers into the formula:

  • CHO insulin dose = Total grams of CHO in the meal (60 g ÷ grams of CHO disposed by 1 unit of insulin (10) = 6 units

  • You will need 6 units of rapid acting insulin to cover the carbohydrate.

For a high blood sugar dose, you have to calucalte the difference between actual blood sugar and target blood sugar. 

For example:

  • 1 unit will drop your blood sugar 50 points (mg/dl) and the high blood sugar correction factor is 50.

  • Pre-meal blood sugar target is 120 mg/dl.

  • Your actual blood sugar before lunch is 220 mg/dl.

  • 220 minus 120 mg/dl = 100 mg/dl

  • To get the high blood sugar correction insulin dose, plug the numbers into this formula:

  • Correction dose = Difference between actual and target blood glucose (100mg/dl) ÷ correction factor (50) = 2 units of rapid acting insulin

  • So, you will need an additional 2 units of rapid acting insulin to “correct” the blood sugar down to a target of 120 mg/dl.

 

Citation:

Clinic, Cleveland. “Insulin: What Is It, How Do You Take It, Side Effects.” Cleveland Clinic, 2022,


Rao, Hindu. “The 6 Most Common Side Effects of Insulin.” GoodRx, GoodRx, 3 Mar. 2023, 


“Calculating Insulin Dose - Diabetes Education Online.” Diabetes Education Online, 2 Apr. 2011,


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