Type 1 Diabetes Treatment
How to treat type 1 diabetes
Treatment can help you live a full and active life with diabetes. Diabetes treatment aims to control your blood glucose levels, prevent diabetes complications and protect your health.
However, good diabetes treatment should be holistic, supporting your physical and emotional health and general wellbeing. Living with a chronic condition can be stressful. Your diabetes team can help you become the expert in managing your own health so that you can control your diabetes instead of letting it control you.
Type 1 diabetes treatment
When you have type 1 diabetes, your body cannot produce insulin. You will need to take replacement insulin to enable your cells to use glucose energy to live and work.
You can’t take insulin by mouth because the stomach breaks it down before it can work. Instead, you need to inject it into the layer of fat beneath your skin. You can inject insulin with a fine needle and insulin syringe, but people usually use an insulin pen or an insulin pump because they’re more manageable and discreet.
Insulin injections for type 1 diabetes
Insulin pens are sleek, pen-shaped devices. You load them with insulin, so they’re ready to use. You can inject quickly, easily and discreetly. There are many different insulin formulations, which act rapidly or more gradually to control your blood sugars throughout the day. You will usually need a mixture of different insulins to control your blood sugars effectively.
Basal or background insulin works all day. You inject it once or twice a day to provide a relatively steady supply of insulin. Fast-acting insulins work rapidly and should be injected just before or after meals.
Insulin pumps and type 1 diabetes
Insulin pumps are portable electronic devices that deliver a steady stream of insulin into your body twenty-four hours a day. Insulin pumps administer fast-acting insulin.
The pump dispenses a basal level of insulin around the clock. You can add a bolus of extra insulin with meals to balance the carbohydrates in your food without having to inject yourself.
Insulin pumps more closely match the pattern of your body’s natural insulin release. The right pump can offer greater flexibility around mealtimes and exercise, improve diabetes control, and prevent night-time hypos which can be a problem with longer-acting insulin formulations.
Glucose monitoring for type 1 diabetes
Blood sugar monitoring is key to staying healthy and preventing long term complications. To manage your diabetes well, you need to know your glucose levels and understand how they respond to food, exercise, illness, and stress.
There are several ways of monitoring your sugar levels. These include:
- Finger-prick testing: The most straightforward method involves pricking your finger to get a blood droplet, then using a small hand-held device to measure the blood glucose at that time. If you have type 1 diabetes, you should check at least four times a day
- Flash glucose monitoring: Flash glucose monitors like the FreeStyle Libre system assess your glucose levels day and night, without finger pricks. A sensor scans, measures, and stores glucose readings automatically. It connects to a smartphone APP so that you can see your results and monitor changes and patterns
- Continuous glucose monitors (CGM): Implanted monitors measure your blood glucose levels every few minutes, around the clock. They give detailed information about your blood sugars, even when you are asleep. Some have alarms to alert you if your glucose is going too high or too low
- HbA1c: You should have regular HbA1c blood checks. It reflects your average blood glucose over the previous 2-3 months
Support Plans
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Carol Willis - Diabetes Clinic Facilitator
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