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Insulin and Type 2 Diabetes: What You Should Know

The decision to start taking insulin isn't easy. How do you know if you need it? And if you do, what's the best way to start? Before you and your health care provider make a decision, learn the latest on insulin.

By Hope S. Warshaw, R.D., CDE, 2011

Insulin and Type 2 Diabetes

If your health care provider offered you a medication to help you feel better and get your blood sugar under control, would you try it? If so, you might be ready to start taking insulin.

Does insulin immediately make you think of type 1 diabetes? Think again. Between 30 and 40 percent of people with type 2 diabetes take insulin, according to research by the Roper Center. Experts believe even more people with type 2 should be taking insulin to control blood sugar -- and the earlier, the better.

"If you live long enough with type 2 diabetes, odds are good you'll eventually need insulin," says William Polonsky, Ph.D., CDE, assistant clinical professor in psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego; founder and president of the Behavioral Diabetes Institute; and author of Diabetes Burnout: What to Do When You Can't Take it Anymore (American Diabetes Association, 1999).

Next Page: Producing Less Insulin Naturally Over Time

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