What is Insulin Therapy?

Insulin therapy is a treatment primarily for type 1 diabetes. It compensates, fairly straightforwardly, for the body's inability to produce its own insulin. This well-known, main treatment for the disease can be administered in many different ways.

Insulin itself is a hormone normally produced by the body. It induces various tissues to absorb glucose and transform it into glycogen. The body normally uses insulin—and other hormones, most of which have the opposite effect— to regulate blood sugar. Factors like food intake and exercise are constantly changing both the amount of glucose available to the body and the amount it needs. These hormones are necessary to keep blood glucose in an acceptable range.

Type 1 diabetes is caused by the destruction of pancreatic cells that would normally produce insulin. Untreated, this condition results in high blood sugar, or hyperglycemia. In the short term, hyperglycemia causes a large range of symptoms, also unpleasant, including intense thirst, frequent urination, blurry vision, exhaustion, and confusion. Chronic hyperglycemia can cause severe damage to the body: most notably, peripheral neuropathy, or pain and tingling in the hands and feet. Insulin therapy can rapidly correct these problems by inducing the body's tissues to absorb the excess blood glucose.

Type 2 diabetes is caused by resistance to insulin rather than an inability to produce it. The problem is that cells do not react appropriately to the presence of insulin by increasing the absorption of glucose. Especially early in the trajectory of type 2 diabetes, the body produces its own insulin, and so insulin therapy is not especially useful or necessary. Doctors may still recommend this treatment for type 2 diabetics, either because amplifying the body's internal supply can overwhelm resistance or because a patient's body no longer produces enough insulin on its own.

Various different technologies can be used for insulin therapy. One of the most common ways to administer insulin is a self-administered injection with a syringe or pen. Self-administration allows people with diabetes to give themselves doses of insulin after measuring their own blood glucose. An insulin pump, by contrast, allows a more continual administration of the hormone. Various companies are competing to be the first to produce orally administered insulin, but none is on the market as yet.

Scheduling and dosage for insulin therapy vary from person to person. Everyone has different routines and unique diets. Different bodies also digest and metabolize at different rates. The correct way to administer insulin is determined through a long process of trial and error, along with medical consultation.

"Insulin therapy" can also refer to an outdated treatment for schizophrenia. Psychiatrists would inject extremely large doses of insulin into patients, who would then fall into a hypoglycemic coma. Most people now view this treatment as ineffective and bordering on torture.