It was my understanding that insulin is used after lifestyle changes and various other meds (mostly orals but maybe some injections now) stop controlling high blood sugar among diabetics.
What happens if the insulin itself stops working and a person still has high sugars? Is that a risk that the insulin will stop working (I had a coworker years ago who was diabetic mention that her insulin stopped working, but I don’t know what she tried instead)? If it is, what is the next line of treatment?
I don’t think insulin stops working, it’s still the same chemical.
Your body’s cells can develop ‘insulin resistance’, where they basically respond less to insulin. Treatment for this is :
While it’s not officially put out there as a treatment/cure, there are many scientific studies and anecdotal evidence to suggest fasting as a relatively quick and natural method of reducing your insulin resistance.
This is for type II diabetes, mind.
Of course everyone is different, and the effects will vary from person to person.
It’s worth researching anyway - it’s fascinating the ways fasting helps the body. I do 24 hour fasts (eat one large meal per day) regularly for lowering body fat, and regulating my energy levels.
Insulin doesn’t stop working. The body may become relatively resistant to insulin’s effects, but that resistance can be overcome with higher doses of insulin.
Of course, that’s not ideal, and the best thing to do is also implement schemes to reduce insulin resistance, like use of the medication Metformin, exercise, weight loss, and carbohydrate intake reduction.
If the insulin “stops working”, you have insulin resistance (as others have pointed out). The short answer is: more insulin.
Almost all insulin is in U-100 formulation (concentration). There are other, more concentrated insulins available to manage higher doses: U-200, U-300, and U-500.
One unit of 500 = five units of 100.
I know of two people who take U-500, one of whom is on a very large dose and still has trouble with hyperglycemia.
mmm
The entire mechanism of Type 2 diabetes is about insulin resistance, leading to pancreatic overproduction and eventual burn out and complete loss of production. So yes, more insulin, metformin, diet, weight loss, and exercise. Especially exercise, which can have immediate effects. But it’s damn hard to get a lot of very insulin-resistant diabetics to do any.