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A type 1 diabetic needs to put insulin into their body to offset the lack of it being
generated by the body. Insulin becomes a necessity and a close friend to the type 1
diabetic. In some cases, the type 2 diabetic may have to have insulin shots later in
their treatment.
For most diabetic people, insulin is put into their body by using a needle. Many
different inventors have tried to develop a method to get insulin into the body without
a needle. For most diabetics, however, the needle shot is typically the most effective
and common way to inject insulin.
Animal Insulin
Insulin, until a few years ago, was obtained by taking it from a cow’s, fish, or
pig’s pancreas. In general, this was a reasonable way to get the insulin needed by
humans. It was not perfect because an animal’s insulin is not an exact match of human
insulin.
As a result, some diabetic human patients had bad reactions due to the differences
between the animal and human insulin. Skin reactions resulted in the immune system
reactions. In an effort to eliminate these reactions, the animal insulin was put through
a purification process. However, some impurities still managed to sneak through.
Human Insulin
After significant research, a process was discovered in the 1970s that produced human
insulin by manipulating bacteria. Human insulin is currently 99% obtained through this
new process.
U40 and U80 Insulin Measure
The strength of an insulin injection used to be based on either a U40 or U80 measure.
This meant that the injection was either 80 units per milliliter or 40 units per milliliter.
This could be very confusing if the wrong syringe was used for the insulin injection.
U100 Insulin Measure
As a result, a law was implemented that standardized the insulin injections. A new
measure was developed that made all injections based on the U100 measure or 100 units
per milliliter. Insulin shots are now performed using the U100 syringe.
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