With the advanced technology you may find various options which are specially created for curing diabetes. Diabetes can be cured with the help of insulin pump or injections. However, these days many arguments have taken place on whether insulin pump or injection is better. In some cases, it is said that insulin pump therapy shows more improvement in glucose control with less hypoglycemia. In case of children it becomes difficult to treat with insulin pump especially during type 1diabetes.
Even though maximum percentage of people have been showing good results with insulin pump, still 20% of people have achieved their daily goal with usage of regular injection. Patients who use insulin pump had faced the problem of reduction in glycated hemoglobin level, as compared to people who received daily injections.
In this article you will come to know the exact difference between insulin pump and injection, and how they help to give effective results to the people with diabetes. Even though insulin pump is advised by many health care experts, the best candidate for using such pump is the one who takes two or more insulin injections everyday
a. Insulin pump
Advantages
- The pump continuously gives an effective insulin throughout the day. This helps in balancing the body’s glucose level.
- The delivery of insulin is right and precise.
- As compared to injection, it can deliver insulin in better way.
- The pump helps in improving A1C.
- It can make diabetes management easier as compared to other therapy. You can easily come to know how much insulin you will need by knowing whether the glucose level is high or you feel hungry.
- After eating junk food like pastas and pizzas, chances of glucose level can increase. Hence, you can easily extend the insulin level for a certain period of time by using pump.
Disadvantages
- Wearing it every time can be irritating sometimes especially while taking a shower or during football.
- There can be pump malfunctions sometime like crack on the screen or tubing kinks or computer glitch.
- You will have to change the catheter which is inserted below the skin into the subcutaneous fat.
- You have to keep checking on the functioning of the blood and pay more attention to the blood sugar, as the changes of pump malfunctions are more.
- Make sure you have a backup plan in case the pump breaks.
- You will also require extra supplies like tubing, catheres or insulin.
The bottom line
There is a high risk of having a diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), with such pump even if it can be prevented. Hence, patients are advised to test the level of blood glucose level frequently. The pump is attached to you every day that acts as reminder that you have got the problem of diabetes.
b. Injections
In case of infection, you don’t have to be trained and educated to operate the functions like that of pumping therapy. Most of the people are prone to high risks due to failure of the amount of work involved with pumps. To operate pump, you will need professional training whereas this is not truly applicable in the case of injections.
Advantages
- It does not include the problem of equipment malfunction.
- It is cheaper as compared to pump therapy.
- It is done with the use of neat insulin pens like inject or dial up the dose.
- It acts as long acting insulin.
- It involves less daily routines like running out of insulin in pump or problem of alarms.
Disadvantages
- You will have to plan far before and know how much you can eat so that you will not have to take more than one insulin injection.
- It is not so flexible and needs to be given with proper precautions
- It gives a quick acting insulin especially before meals it is more effective.
- You will have to still check the blood sugar level at least 4 times a day.
The bottom line
Even if the injections can be better option, still the problem of low blood glucose level can occur if you are using different types of insulin. Your health care expert will advise whether insulin pump is effective or injection is better, depending on your resistance level.
