Inhaled Insulin

What is Inhaled Insulin?

Inhaled insulin is the most modern method of taking in insulin. Researchers have found how to get the insulin to the back of the nasal passages where it can be absorbed. The inhaler is short-acting insulin. Short acting insulin is generally used around a mealtime. Some times it is taken prior to 30-35 minutes a meal, and it peaks out in two or three hours. It can remain up to six hours in some individuals.

Intermediate-Acting and Short-Acting Insulin

In order to make the body absorb the insulin slower, intermediate-acting insulin is mixed with another material. It remains longer in your body but it takes longer for it to take affect. Ever lasting insulin will stay in your body for up to 20 hours but takes anywhere from four to ten hours prior to it starts. Either morning or in the evening, most Type 1 diabetics will take an insulin injection of either long-acting or intermediate acting, and take short-acting insulin injections before each meal.

Research on Inhaled Insulin

Confining to this routine is a tough time for Type 1 diabetics. That is many shots and can be intimidating to continue with so many shots regularly. For delivering long-acting or intermediate-acting insulin, as well as short-acting Insulin Researchers were in the hunt for an easier method of delivering. They wanted to discover that in order to regulate the diabetes, whether inhaled insulin with the injected shots of intermediate or long-acting insulin would be successful.

First Group Participants

Participants in the inhaled insulin study were patients who had been consuming two or more insulin shots each day for at least two months before the study began. The group was divided into two groups, with one group taking intermediate-acting shots and supplemented with inhaled short-acting insulin.

Second Group Participants

The other half of the group consumed the same shots, but injected short-acting insulin typically before each meal. The inhaled insulin was delivered through a device that looks like an asthma inhaler. The participants of the study were taught to gauge their blood levels prior to every meal, two hours after a meal, and before they went to bed every evening.

Inhaled Insulin: End Results

At the end of six months, both groups had lowered their long-term glucose control to levels that were analogous. There is a slight difference between the two groups when blood levels are measured after a meal. The differences occur when blood sugar levels were measured before bedtime. The group who were consuming the insulin inhaler had lower blood sugar levels at bedtime.

The group who used the inhaled insulin was found to have hazardous low blood glucose levels similar to an insulin reaction more often. There were variations in the study, but that is because the patients in the study took their own blood glucose measurements and regulated the insulin they gave themselves. Since this was a short study, long-term reaction of the lungs to this inhaled insulin needs to be studied.

The results confirm that those patients with Type 1 diabetics, who often wouldn’t take their injections ahead of meals, would gain from the inhaled insulin. This indeed may be the forward step to help those with Type 1 diabetes control their disease.