Did you know there are different types fast acting insulin? Yup, surprise! There are several kinds, and I have used several of them. Here I’m going to explain what exactly they are and the differences between the kinds I have used. Are you ready?
Disclaimer: Diabetic treatments should not be used for weight loss and prescriptions must be prescribed by your doctor.
So, as in the title, there are three different kinds that I have personally tried. They are Novolog, Fiasp, and Humalog. There are other names and types, but I have personally only tried the three that I’m going to be talking about in this post.
As always, your experience may be different from mine!
Table of Contents
Fast Acting Insulin Basics
All of the insulins have similar qualities, but are slightly different too. Think about the different types as somebody’s cookie recipe; you can add a little more of something [like chocolate chips!] or take away an ingredient you’re allergic to eating or don’t like. [There are very few cookie ingredients that I don’t like :P] Surprisingly enough, you can have an allergic reaction. I was allergic to Novolog, but I’ll tell you more about that in a minute.
Insulin comes in different forms for folks to use. I’m sure, if you have diabetes, you probably used a pen or syringe at some point in your diabetic “career.” These are basically the two ways we have to dose. If using a vial, you either use a syringe to give a shot or use the syringe to put it in a pump. A pen has a tiny needle that is super short, but it looks like an ink pen you could write with until you take the cap off. Either is an excellent option!
This type starts to bring your blood sugar down quickly. The only bad part is that it doesn’t last more than a few hours. Long acting works longer. Get it?
Time to move on to the different types that I have used. Here we go!
Different Types of Insulin
Novolog
Novolog is the one I started using first. Your parents may have something called medical insurance that is kinda like a coupon. For my family, Novolog was the cheapest when covered by our insurance [this may vary depending on where you are]. When you pick it up at the pharmacy, it must be refrigerated as soon as possible to keep it safe until you open it. I started on Novolog, which was the insulin the diabetic educators and my endo (diabetes doctor) decided would be best for me to use.
Fiasp
Another name you may hear is Fiasp. The same people who make Novolog also make Fiasp. It is supposed to start working on your BG levels more quickly than Novolog. How is it different?
Novolog can take about 15 minutes to work after you inject, peak in 1 hour (that means it helps the most at about an hour) and keep working about 2 to 4 hours after you take it. Fiasp begins lowering glucose levels [BG or blood sugar]in 15-20 minutes, works best at lowering glucose in about 1.5-2 hours, and returns to baseline BG numbers within 5-7 hours after dosing. That’s much longer than the Novolog! So, basically, it is supposed to work quickly and last longer, and it did both of those things for me.
Humalog
Humalog is considered short-acting and fast-acting. Humalog has a more aggressive attack when you have a shot of it. That’s what “short-acting” means! So, Humalog works very quickly to start bringing your blood sugar levels down.
For me, it work more quickly once injected than Novolog or Fiasp did because it is designed with some differences in the recipe. [Remember the cookie recipe I talked about?]. This is what I use now. If you’ve read a lot of what’s on our site, you will know that my BG constantly runs super high, so Humalog works best for me.
Your experience will probably be totally different than mine, but make sure you talk to an adult you trust if you aren’t feeling good. Sometimes switching the type of insulin you use can help!
Yup! I had a weird allergy.
I used Novolog for nearly 12 months when I realized I saw indentions, or little divots, in my stomach. I thought I was getting abs! I wasn’t. :[
I showed my parents and told my endo, and they helped me keep an eye on it for awhile. Turns out that I am in a small percent of diabetics that develop lipoatrophy. That is a big word! Diabetic lipoatrophy is extreme fat loss from specific body areas where pump sites are often placed. All the places I wore my insulin pump started to lose the layer of fat that is under the skin. Don’t worry! Not too many people have this reaction.
My lipoatrophy started from using Novolog in my pump. Since Fiasp is made by the same company, switching to Fiasp didn’t help prevent it either. We tried Fiasp, but Humalog finally solved the problem because my body didn’t experience lipoatrophy when I switched to it!
Finally…
Keep in mind that everyone’s different. Not everything will work the same for you as it does with me. If Novolog works great for you, that’s fine. You might need something to work faster or slower. These are all things that are personal to you. If you want to make changes or have a problem, talk to your parents and health care provider before making any drastic changes on your own!
I hope this helps you understand some of the names that diabetics talk about for treating diabetes. 😛
From your friendly neighborhood diabetic. ~ Milly
Well written and great info. Thank you. I think it’s great that you are putting this information together for people who may be overwhelmed or just not know where to start. Keep it up.
Thank you. There is definitely a learning curve. We try to answer the questions that we wanted to ask someone!