Insulin duration..

[christophe]

Been reading up as much as I can and I think it has helped me get a better understanding of what my injections are doing.. stuck on one thing, what happens to the insulin at the end of its life? Does it break down, wear out or get taken in to the body..
I used the old threads here to get a lot of answers..(As well as an awful lot of internet..) You people have covered some ground! Very happy to have found this forum, thanks to everyone that contributes.. sometimes even a phrase helps me think slightly differently and move on.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hello @christophe

I saw a presentation recently which compared the action of of the natural insulin produced in the body with the stuff we inject.

Essentially when injecting insulin we are putting it in completely the wrong place, with completely the wrong profile. Insulin was never meant to go anywhere near the skin/sc tissue. In the natural system 4x the proportion of insulin is directed to the liver as is found in peripheral tissue. With injected insulin the concentrations are much more uniform.

What they measure in terms of insulin action is its bio-availabilty. Some insulins (eg Lantus) form a depot of crystals at the injection site that are then very gradually absorbed into the blood stream - hence it's extended action. Other's use protamine zinc or other agents to slow down (or more recently speed up) insulin availability in the blood stream.

My understanding is that it takes a while for the insulin to make it from the injection site into the bloodstream (onset) once there it can begin to act (peak activity) and then gradually it's activity fades as the insulin is used/absorbed by the body (tail).

 

[christophe]

Thank you.
I saw a few images on different sites that illustrate the different properties of insulin, mostly too much information to handle for me unfortunately.. but yes, that was explained and I took what I needed from it. I was hoping for a bit of a dummies guide to be on line somewhere, I guess I need a dummies guide to finding things first..
Your last line is the thing I can't quite find the simple answer to.. does the insulin diminish through use and/or does it get broken down when in the body. Probably a bit of both ?

I get your point about putting the wrong stuff in the wrong place! That has a certain ring of truth about it.. better than nothing though, we learn to work around..

 

[trophywench]

We (the human race and it's understanding of the human body) have come a VERY long way since Messrs Banting, Best and McLeod messed about with animal pancreases in Canada, hasn't it?

Not quite yet 100 years since that happened!

 

[christophe]

I read just how recent some of the testing and injection methods are..
At diagnosis I had this image of glass syringes and long needles, I knew that I couldn't handle that.. and there are how many hundreds here alone that handled and got past it.
Let alone the conflicting advice and methods that were pretty much forced on people.. I have it easy I know.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Your last line is the thing I can't quite find the simple answer to.. does the insulin diminish through use and/or does it get broken down when in the body. Probably a bit of both ?

My understanding is that it gets 'used'. So in a person without D, insulin is released, does the thing it does (eg enables transfer of eergy into cells) and in performing that function is used up.

For us the insulin injected becomes 'available' in a delayed way and so is used to do insulin-y things over a longer period and is available for use more gradually. But it is still being used.

Having said that, I believe there is a (variable proportion) of injected insulin which never becomes available and is never used. So as you say... it's probably a bit of both.

 

[christophe]

I can relate to insulin-y behavior! The artificial stuff and the delivery means it's only ever going to be insulin-ish..
It helps me get a big-picture understanding of what I am doing or trying to do to myself. Something tells me if I can see where the variables are coming from then I can cope with the effects a bit better..

 

[mikeyB]

At least these days we're not injecting dead cows and pigs into ourselves, thus allowing vegetarians to become diabetic with a clear conscience.

Now I take Creon, made from dead pig pancreas, so that I can eat and digest fatty food like bacon.🙄

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

At least these days we're not injecting dead cows and pigs into ourselves, thus allowing vegetarians to become diabetic with a clear conscience.

Now I take Creon, made from dead pig pancreas, so that I can eat and digest fatty food like bacon.🙄

Yes pharma doesn’t seem to worry too much about animal products and people’s preferences. There are lots of meds where all the versions of tablets include gelatine. Vegetarians and vegans have no option but to take them anyway.

 

[SB2015]

We (the human race and it's understanding of the human body) have come a VERY long way since Messrs Banting, Best and McLeod messed about with animal pancreases in Canada, hasn't it?

Not quite yet 100 years since that happened!

.. and anyway we ‘will have a cure in ten years time’. Actually the research is quite exciting at present.