Inhaled insulin showing mixed results

Inhaleable insulin, a major diabetes breakthrough heralded as the ‘holy grail’ of diabetes management by many healthcare experts, has in fact been recording mixed results. The insulin is taken pre-prandially (before a meal) in place of or in conjunction with injected insulin.
A recent review of published research focused on some of the key issues that are a concern when it comes to inhaled insulin. The review also investigated how inhaled insulin compared to injected insulin. The effectiveness was also compared to oral antidiabetic drugs.
Hypoglycaemia was found to be a major problem with inhaled insulin. John Buse, the president-elect of the American Diabetes Associatio, reportedly commented: “Insulin is associated with hypoglycaemia. That is its most common and potentially serious complication in all of its formulations.”
The authors reportedly concluded: “the evidence regarding inhaled insulin for patients with type 2 diabetes is still insufficient to answer many key clinical questions. One detail to note about inhaled insulin the dosing is not as precise as with injections because specific increments in doses are not as precise.”