I am Christel from Diabetes Strong in this video I’ll be talking about Afrezza
which is inhaled insulin so I’ll be talking about what it is
what is my experience using it and how you can get it as well
managing diabetes is a full-time job
and highblood sugars can be incredibly frustrating and mentally taxing
if you use insulin you know that injected insulin takes time to work
regardless of what type of injected rapid-acting insulin you use
but did you know that there's another rapid-acting insulin option that works
really fast and that can start lower blood sugar levels in as little as 12 minutes
let's talk more about it
I was compensated by Mankind to share my experience using Afrezza
my thoughts and opinions are my own individual results may vary
a lot of people don't know that inhalable insulin
has been available in the US for years
Mannkind Pharmaceuticals got FDA approval for their inhalable insulin
which is called Afrezza already back in June of 2014
Afrezza is a dry powder meal time insulin that you inhale
and it has ultra rapid absorption so it lowers blood sugars rapidly
similar to the insulin response in a person who do not live with diabetes
so that's kind of unique and cool
Afrezza comes in three different doses, it comes in a four unit Afrezza dose
in an eight unit Afrezza dose and in a twelve unit Afrezza dose
an Afrezza dose is not equivalent to an injected rapid-acting insulin dose though
so if you're used to injected rapid-acting insulin
you will have to convert your doses to a Afrezza doses
you should work with your medical professional to get
to your accurate dose for you however let's just go over it high level
it's fairly straightforward let's look at this together
this is the meal-time Afrezza starting dose conversion table let's make it big
so as you can see here to start with you'll take your typical injected insulin dose
and round up to the nearest Afrezza units and then titrate to effect
based on clinical trials it might take 1.5 the amount of Afrezza to
achieve the same blood sugar control as injected insulin
once inhaled Afrezza gets in the bloodstream in less than a minute
and it will start lowering blood sugar levels in as little as 12 minutes
and because it's fast you can take Afrezza at the beginning of your meal
so that might be a little different from what you're used to
but let's just look at exactly how fast it works
so let's look at the insulin profile of Afrezza so what you see marked here in
blue is the time to first effect and that is how quickly Afrezza reaches the
bloodstream and starts lowering blood sugars
and you can see it is as quickly as 12 minutes
next we have the time to peak effect again marked here in blue
so that is the time until Afrezza is working at its maximum strength
and you can see here that if you inhale a four unit of Afrezza dose it peaks already
after 35 minutes whereas if you inhale at 12 unit Afrezza dose it's 45 minutes
and then we have average duration of effect again marked here in blue
and that is how long Afrezza continues to lower blood sugars and I think it's really
interesting because as you can see the duration is one and a half to three hours
depending on the strength of Afrezza you take
so I’d say it's very much what I would call a fast-in-fast-out insulin which again is
very similar to the insulin response in a person who do not live with diabetes
so now you know what I think are the most important things
to know about Afrezza but if you have more questions
there's a lot of information on their website
but now let's switch gears let's talk about my Afrezza experience
I’ve been using Afrezza for years it's not the only meal time insulin that I use
but it's an important part of my diabetes tool kit what I appreciate most about
Afrezza is how fast and how effectively it works for me to lower high blood sugars
let me show you an example
I went to lunch with a dia-buddy who wears an insulin pump that she loves
and I think it's absolutely amazing that she has an option that really works for her
but she was telling me about how she had been struggling with high blood sugars
due to a bad infusion site, it happens, so I told her about Afrezza and how I love
how fast it can lower my blood sugars for example when I find that they get stuck
it's kind of, it's what I call sticky highs, that's not a medical term,
but it's how I describe those blood sugars
that just seem to stay high and not want to budge
I’m not sure she quite believed me but that night after our lunch
my blood sugars went a little crazy so I clearly hadn't calculated
my meal time insulin correctly so I took a dose of Afrezza and look at that
this is my CGM graph, so my blood sugars and
the response I had and of course I sent that to my friend right away
this was my personal experience and results will vary
as I said I don't use Afrezza for all meals and corrections
but I wouldn't want to be without it
I mainly use it for situations where I want my insulin out of my system within
90 minutes to two hours, for spontaneous meals, and for corrections
and I just find that it works really well for me
I've met others who use Afrezza as their only rapid-acting meal-time insulin
and you can do that and I think it's a great option for some
that's just not how I use Afrezza
okay now that I have your attention let's talk about how you can get started with
Afrezza as well as the cost of Afrezza you do need a prescription for Afrezza
and you need to get trained on how to use the product
and how much you should take, so a good first step is to talk to your doctor
once you have your prescription you'll have to get your Afrezza through a pharmacy
since I’ve been using Afrezza for years I already have an active prescription
however, I just moved to a new state meaning I got new insurance
and this time around my doctor did have to complete a prior authorization
in order for me to fill my prescription using my new insurance
I’m not saying that's going to happen to you my last insurance did not require that
they just cover Afrezza but it might
how much you're going to pay for your Afrezza is going to depend on if you have
insurance and if you do what is your plan's copay
nationally over 70% of patients with commercial insurance have access
to Afrezza and many patients with Medicare insurance
also have access Afrezza depending on state and plan
I pick up Afrezza at my local pharmacy and I use the Afrezza copay card
so I’ll link to that up here if your co-pay is more than $15 and you have commercial
insurance I highly recommend that you use that as well because with the copay
card you can pay as little as $15 per prescription
but Mannkind also offers other options to help with the cost
if you do not have insurance or if your insurance won't cover Afrezza
just go to their website or call the support line this is the number for the support line
thank you so much for watching this video about Afrezza
the only inhalable insulin available
so what do you think is it something that you want to try
or are you already a happy user let me know, leave me a comment below
and while you're at it if you did like this video please give it a like
thank you so much for watching
Afrezza® is a rapid-acting inhaled insulin used to control adult diabetes.
Afrezza® can cause serious side effects including sudden lung problems and low
potassium. Afrezza® is not for patients with chronic lung disease such as asthma
or COPD. 2.) Tell your doctor if you smoke, recently stopped smoking, have ever had
kidney or liver problems, a history of lung cancer, or if you are pregnant
or breastfeeding. 3.) Most common side effects are low blood sugar, cough, and
sore throat. 4.) Severe low blood sugar can be fatal. Do not replace long-acting
insulin with Afrezza®. Afrezza® is not for use to treat diabetic ketoacidosis.
5.) Do not take Afrezza® if you are allergic to insulin. 6.) Talk to your doctor before
changing your Afrezza® dose.
Blood sugar may need to be checked more frequently.