Why would I go on insulin therapy?
Insulin regulation is critically important to diabetes patients, with some using injectable versions and others taking oral meds that control levels. In this video, John Merendino, MD, an endocrinologist, discusses the options for insulin management.
Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING] JACK MERENDINO: Insulin is really properly used when it makes the most physiologic sense
to use it. [MUSIC PLAYING]
The general perception that people have is that you go onto insulin when your diabetes is very bad, in quotes, when your blood sugars are extremely high,
or whatever. And that's really not true at all, from the standpoint of somebody who specializes in diabetes management.
Diabetes is always the result of inadequate insulin action in the body. But that can be either the fact that there simply
isn't enough insulin in the system or that the body is not responding properly to the insulin that's there.
That latter condition is termed insulin resistance. You can improve your blood sugars by either increasing the amount of insulin that's in your body
or by improving the body's responsiveness to insulin that is lessening the insulin resistance.
And there are medications that do both. In order to increase the insulin in the body, there are oral medications that may help
the body make more insulin. But of course, if you give additional insulin, that's another way to do it. And a lot of patients can be very well controlled
on much less medication if they have insulin as a part of their regimen, if that's their pattern of glucose elevation.
diabetes
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