jackson

3 years

I have been taking insulin for a long time

I have diabetes since small. I have been taking insulin for a long time. I see nowadays that there are diabetic medication in pills. I am sick of injection, can I take pills instead?

Dr Ramzdhan,

4 years

Hi there! This is a good question. The answer to this depends on your diagnosis. Are you aware if you have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes? Yes usually diabetes from childhood is Type 1 diabetes but on recent times even Type 2 diabetes occurs among children. Nevertheless, it is rare. Allow me to explain the management of both types of diabetes.

For Type 1 diabetes, the management is only Insulin. This is because in Type 1 diabetes, is a state where the body doesn’t produce insulin at all or at times, produces very little insulin l. Insulin is the key hormone that is involved in storage and release of energy from the glucose we consume. Since the body is not producing this key hormone, it has to be given externally, the synthetic insulin that we inject.

So to answer your question, Insulin is the sole treatment for Type 2 diabetes. The pills or tablet form medication is only applicable if you have Type 2 diabetes, which I shall explain further below. Type 2 diabetes is a state where the body doesn’t produce sufficient insulin (more severe than Type 1) or produces insulin that can’t be used by the body.

So in this case, the pancreas (the organ responsible for production of insulin) can be stimulated to produce more insulin. This is not the case for Type 1 diabetes, where no insulin is produced to begin with. So tablets/pills have various mechanism to help the pancreas produce more insulin. The most common drug is metformin. Metformin is the first line drug therapy. In conclusion, Insulin is the only lifelong treatment for Type 1 diabetes and in Type 2, insulin is the final option after drug therapy and lifestyle modification has fail.

Please click on this link (DoctorOnCall) to talk to us privately online and discuss further about your inquiries. Thank you.

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