TAKING COMMAND OF YOUR DIABETES: INSULIN

admin — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 09:28:55 +0000

There is now a huge range of insulins for you and your doctor to choose from. Each doctor knows a few insulins well and tends to use them, but it is important to remember that you do not have to stay on your current insulin regimen if you do not feel that it is suiting you. You need to know as much about your insulin as possible – its name, species, who makes it, how soon it starts to act after an injection, how long its best effect lasts and when its action is finished. Learn what these factors are thought to be by the manufacturers and then find out what happens in your case.
80 per cent of people who take insulin are now using human insulin. Most of this is made by bacteria or yeasts genetically programmed to produce human insulin, but some is made by modification of pork insulin. It is extremely pure and is the same as the insulin non-diabetics make in their bodies. The older beef and pork insulins are still available and pork insulin is highly purified. There has always been concern that animal insulins are more likely to cause antibodies to form in the body. It has been suggested that antibodies may be involved in the development of some tissue damage and that they could, in theory, harm the foetus in utero. Such concerns have not, however, been confirmed in large scientific studies. Antibodies can form to human insulin but this is probably less likely than with insulin from a “foreign” species.
There has been recent concern that people taking human insulin are more likely to experience hypoglycemia, and that their hypoglycemic warning symptoms are reduced or altered compared with animal insulin. Human insulin is absorbed more rapidly from the injection site than animal insulin and many people find that they can inject it just before their meal rather than waiting 20 minutes before eating. While there do seem to be some differences in the symptoms of hypoglycemia in some people, studies have not shown a consistent difference between human and animal insulins. The matter is still under scientific review. If you are worried about your insulin, discuss it with your diabetes doctor straightaway. Your problem may have a simple solution unrelated to your insulin, but if you are still unhappy about being on human insulin then ask to change. It would seem sensible to keep a careful diabetes record before and after such a change so that you can see for yourself whether there has, in fact, been any improvement. (There was a very careful study of people who claimed that their warning symptoms of hypoglycemia had vanished on human insulin and reappeared on animal insulin. It showed that there was no difference between their symptoms, hormone responses, or other body responses when made hypoglycemic on animal and human insulins, on separate occasions under laboratory conditions. The subjects could not tell which insulin was which.) Both human and animal insulins lower the blood glucose effectively and the important issue is whether you feel confident about your insulin treatment.
It certainly seems logical to use human insulin injections to replace missing insulin in humans who cannot make it, rather than injecting foreign insulin from another species. The real problem is that the body “expects” its insulin to arrive in exactly appropriate amounts for the current blood glucose concentration. It “expects” this insulin to be released exactly when needed from the pancreas deep in the abdomen, not gradually trickling into the peripheral circulation from a leg or an arm. It also “expects” insulin release to be reduced as the blood glucose levels fall. But once insulin has been injected into the subcutaneous tissue it will be released into the circulation regardless of blood glucose concentrations. For me, the wonder of insulin treatment is that we can control the blood glucose as well as we can, given the difference between the sophistication of nature and the simplicity of current insulin treatment methods.

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THE LOW G.I. FOOD GLOSSARY

admin — Fri, 08 May 2009 14:04:40 +0000

This glossary describes of some of the key foods that can form part of a low G.I. diet.

Apples (G.I. of 38) • Easy-to-incorporate into the diet as a low G.I. food—an average apple will add 3 grams of fibre to your diet. They are also high in pectin which lowers their G.I. factor. Apple juice (G.I. of 40) • The main sugar occurring in apples is fructose (6.5 per cent) which itself has a low G.I. The high concentration of sugars is known to slow the rate of stomach emptying, hence slowing the absorption and lowering G.I.

Apricots (G.I. of 64, canned; 31, dried) • Apricots are an excellent source of 6-carotene and dried apricots in particular are high in potassium. Like apples, they are high in fructose (5.1 per cent) which lowers their G. I.

Barley (G.I. of 25) • ‘Pearled’ barley, which has had the outer brown layers removed is most commonly used, it is high in soluble fibre which probably contributes to its low G.I. Available in supermarkets.

Basmati rice (G.I. of 58) • Has a low G.I. attributable to the type of starch it contains (high amylose starch). Available in supermarkets. The only Australian-grown species of rice with a high amylose content is Doongara.

Breakfast cereals • The high degree of cooking and processing of commercial breakfast cereals tends to make the starch in them more rapidly digestible, giving a higher G.I. Less processed cereals (muesli, rolled oats) tend to have lower G.L values. Guardian™ (G.I. of 42) and All-Bran™ (G.I. of 42) (Kelloggs) although processed are not made from milled starch but large flakes of raw bran.

Buckwheat (G.I. of 54) • Buckwheat is available from health foods stores and some supermarkets. It can be cooked as a porridge or steamed and served with vegetables, in place of rice. It can also be ground and used as flour for making pancakes and pasta. Buckwheat in this form is likely to have a higher G.I. than when whole.

Bulgur (burghul) (G.I. of 48) • Is made by roughly grinding previously cooked and dried wheat. Most commonly recognised as a main ingredient in tabbouli. The intact physical form of the wheat contributes to its low G.I.

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Health News and Information » Diabetes

TAKING COMMAND OF YOUR DIABETES: INSULIN

THE LOW G.I. FOOD GLOSSARY