If you have been recently diagnosed diabetic, you are probably feeling overwhelmed with all that you have to do to manage your diabetes. In order to keep your blood glucose levels under control, you need to 1) check your blood levels at daily intervals prescribed by your health care professional and 2) maintain as normal a blood glucose levels as possible.
Using an insulin pump can help you manage your disease. Rather than constantly interrupting your life every time you need an insulin injection, using an insulin pump allows you more freedom to adjust your lifestyle, exercise routines and diet in a way that is more convenient for you. Insulin pumps can, with proper management, help you keep your blood glucose levels within your target ranges. People of all ages with Type 1 diabetes use insulin pumps; some Type 2 diabetics use them as well.
What Insulin Pumps Do
Insulin pumps continuously deliver short-acting insulin through a catheter placed under the skin. Insulin doses are separated into:
• Basal insulin, which is delivered continuously over 24 hours, and keeps your blood glucose levels controlled between meals and overnight
• Bolus doses, which cover carbohydrate in meals
• Correction doses
If you are using an insulin pump to control your diabetes, you will wear it 24/7, except when bathing, showering, swimming or, perhaps, during contact sports. About the size of a pager, it can be attached to a waistband, pocket or underwear. You can tuck any excess tubing into the waistband of your underwear or pants, and cases are available to fit the pumps.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using an Insulin Pump
Advantages of using an insulin pump instead of insulin injections include:
• Eliminating painful insulin injections
• More accurate delivery of insulin
• Improve A1C levels (a measure of long-term blood glucose)
• Fewer swings in your blood glucose levels
• Easier management of your diabetes
• More flexibility about when and what you eat and drink
• Being able to exercise without first needing to eat large amounts of carbohydrates
Disadvantages of using a pump include:
• Possible weight gain
• Increased possibility of diabetic ketoacidosis. If your catheter comes out, you may not receive insulin for hours without being aware
• Expensive
• Being bothersome, since you must be attached to the pump most of the time
• Time-consuming training period to learn to properly use the pump.
Although using an insulin pump has disadvantages, most pump users agree the advantages by far outweigh the disadvantages.
Insulin Pumps and Infants & Toddlers
For many reasons, it is difficult to achieve good blood glucose control in infants and toddlers with Type 1 diabetes; how the bodies of very young children react to insulin is still hard to predict, mainly due to their constantly changing patterns of eating and activity. Although there is very little information comparing traditional insulin injection therapy with insulin pump therapy, it seems like insulin pump therapy is safe, well tolerated and reliable for maintaining good blood glucose level control in toddlers and young children with Type 1 diabetes.
Insulin Pumps and Children
Recently, treating young Type 1 diabetics with insulin pump therapy has become more common. Some studies show that insulin pump therapy is better, at least in the short term, than traditional insulin injections, which requires multiple shots of insulin each day. In patients between 7 and 12 years-of-age who used an insulin pump, A1C levels were closer to normal and remained more stable than those children who took multiple daily shots of insulin.
Insulin Pumps and Senior Citizens
In the United States, over twenty percent of adults older than 65 years-of-age have diabetes. Both the American Diabetes Association and the American Geriatrics Society recommend that this population maintain a healthy A1C level. To date, studies have not looked at which type of insulin therapy - insulin injection therapy or insulin pump therapy- is safer and better for controlling blood glucose levels in older diabetic adults.
