Want more iVillage? Sign up for our
Newsletters
Type 1 Diabetes: Living With the Disease - Medications
SYMPTOMS & TREATMENTS
- Topic Overview
-
Health Tools
- Cause
- Symptoms
- What Happens
- What Increases Your Risk
- When To Call a Doctor
- Exams and Tests
- Treatment Overview
- Prevention
- Home Treatment
- Medications
- Surgery
- Other Treatment
- Other Places To Get Help
- Related Information
- References
- Credits
Everyone with type 1 diabetes needs to take insulin. You are probably taking more than one type of insulin, either as an injection or by using an insulin pump.
The amount and type of insulin you take will likely change over time, depending on changes that occur with normal aging, changes in your exercise routine, and hormonal changes (such as during rapid growth of adolescence or pregnancy). You may need higher doses of insulin when you are ill or experiencing emotional stress. A woman needs much more insulin than usual during the last part of pregnancy.
You should:
- Know the dose of each type of insulin you take, when you take the doses, how long it takes for each type of insulin to start working (onset), when it will have its greatest effect (peak), and how long it will work (duration).
- Never skip a dose of insulin without the advice of your doctor.
Medication Choices
- Insulin
- Amylinomimetics, such as pramlintide (Symlin)
What To Think About
You may need other medicines at some point in your life.
- If small amounts of protein are found when your urine is tested (microalbuminuria), you may be in the early stage of diabetic nephropathy. You may be given an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB). An ACE inhibitor may reverse early kidney damage.15
- If you have had a heart attack, stroke, or other large blood vessel disease, you need to take aspirin, unless there are health reasons why you cannot. If you are age 40 or older and are at risk for heart and blood vessel disease, you also may want to take aspirin to help prevent these complications.12 Do not give aspirin to anyone under 20 years old, because it has been linked with Reye syndrome.
- If you have high blood
pressure or
high cholesterol, you may need other medicines to
treat these conditions. Adequate treatment may help prevent complications from
diabetes. You may need one or more medicines to lower blood pressure. You also
may need to take
statins to lower your cholesterol. Statins are
medicines that can reduce LDL levels and the risk of heart disease in people
who have diabetes.8 They also have been shown to
reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke by one-third in people with
diabetes, even those who do not have high LDL levels or existing heart
disease.16
| Author: | Caroline Rea, RN, BS, MS | Last Updated: October 3, 2008 |
| Medical Review: | Caroline S. Rhoads, MD - Internal Medicine Matthew I. Kim, MD - Endocrinology & Metabolism | |
© 1995-2009 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
Welcome to Care Circle, an exclusive tool to help you take care of yourself and your loved ones. Here's how it works:
- Create profiles for yourself and your loved ones.
- Select the topics and conditions that interest each of you.
- Get customized news updates, original content, tools, and expert advice for each Care Circle member delivered directly to your personalized homepage.
The information you input is strictly private; you choose who has access to your Care Circle.
How do I add myself or someone else to my care circle?
Click on "Add someone." Fill out the short profile. Choose an avatar. Select the topics and conditions that interest this person from the pulldown menu. You can select as many as you want, but you must choose at least one. Click on "Add Someone" again. You should start getting updates immediately.
How do I save content to my Care Circle?
Click on "Manage My Care Circle." Select the tab of the person for whom you're saving content. Put your cursor over the piece of content that you want to save; a disk icon will appear in the righthand corner. Click on the disk and the piece of content will be moved to a save folder.
How do I add additional topics and conditions for someone in my Care Circle?
Click on "Manage My Care Circle." Select the tab for the person whose preferences you'd like to update. Under "Add More to Follow," select additional topics and conditions.
How do I delete topics and conditions for someone in my Care Circle?
Click on "Manage My Care Circle." Select the tab for the person whose preferences you'd like to update. Under "Follows," scroll over the topic or condition you want to delete. An "X" should appear on the righthand side. Click on the "X" and the topic or condition will be deleted from the list.
To manage your Care Circle, Please
Sign In.
