hi there I am Christel from Diabetes Strong and today I'm going to walk you through my
experience with Afrezza the only available inhaled insulin so I'm going to walk you
through what is it, how do you use it, and what has been my experience with it the good and the bad
Afrezza is an ultra rapid-acting inhaled insulin and it's technically the same type
of insulin as the other rapid-acting insulins that we inject for meals and corrections such as like
a Humalog and Novolog, however, because it's inhaled it just works much faster in the body
once you inhale the Afrezza and I'll show you how to do that shortly but once you inhale Afrezza
it will hit the bloodstream in minutes and you can see a measurable impact on your blood sugars already
in 12 minutes and the beauty of this product is you'll be out of your bloodstream again already
after 90 minutes so remember your average rapid-acting insulin that you inject your Humalog
Novolog, once you inject it, it won't hit the bloodstream before after 15 minutes it will
peak or be at its maximum at 60 to 90 minutes and it will stay in your body for three to five
hours so comparatively Afrezza is a much faster, that's why it's called ultra rapid-acting, insulin
and just like if you use an injectable rapid-acting insulin you still need to inject a basal
insulin as well if you live with insulin-dependent diabetes another way that Afrezza is different
from injected rapid-acting insulin that is that it comes in set doses of 4, 8 and 12. So when
you get your Afrezza from the pharmacy you get an inhaler and you get your different doses you then
load your inhaler, and I'll show you how to do that shortly, and then you inhale the whole dose. So I
usually get a combination pack of 4 and 8 units but I was running low on the 4 units
so you can see that here so I just went and picked up just the 4 units so you can do that as well
4, 8, and 12 units of insulin might sound like a bit much however a unit of Afrezza
is not the same as a unit of injected rapid-acting insulin, it's different
so the lowest cartridge which is the 4 unit is technically
the equivalent of 2.6 units of injected rapid-acting insulin so let me show you how it works
okay so I showed you the pack that I just picked up this one has 90 cartridges and two inhalers
it looks mighty large so let's just look at it so when you open it up and this is 8 unit
cartridge pack there's going to be these packs in here, in those you'll have the blister packs
it's a little hard to get out of it here you go with the actual insulin, the Afrezza in here
let me show you what it looks like. So each blister pack looks like this. The blue is
the 4 units, the green I just showed you is the 8 units okay so I have these are the
cartridges these are used so the insulin is in here in the little plastic cube let's call it that
you just click this into the inhaler once the inhale is activated it will push that little
plastic bubble into the middle there's an opening and that's how it gets into the inhaler so let me
just show you, okay so this is a new inhaler it comes in this plastic let's just open that
You should change the inhaler fairly frequently, so this is inhaler okay and make sure that it's level
take off the mouthpiece so this is just protection this is where you're gonna
suck out the Afrezza, open it
here you go there are no mechanics in it
take your Afrezza cartridge, again this is empty this is just to show you, place it in here
you close it and now it's loaded okay so the way that I inhale it is simply
deep breath, all the air out
and there you go. I like to hold my breath for just two seconds more shouldn't be needed
once you're done, open up your inhaler take out the cartridge dump that in the trash
put back the little protection and you're good to go. And you can take as many cartridges as you need
so remember the 4 unit it's about 2.6 units of injected rapid-acting insulin
so if you technically need what's the equivalent of 5 units of rapid-acting injected insulin
you can just as well take an 8 unit cartridge. I know some medical professionals have been a little
hesitant to prescribe Afrezza. It could be because in studies 27 of people do report a cough
when they inhale Afrezza, however 94 percent of those were brief episodes of cough. It's not really
something I've been super bothered about but it's definitely, something to be aware of and keep
an eye on. Second, it's a relatively new product whereas injectable insulin has been around a long
time some medical professionals have expressed a little bit of concern about long-term effects
And it's just not a product that should be used by everyone. If you have asthma or COPD
or if you're a smoker or stop smoking within the last six months you should not be using Afrezza
in my experience, the pros of Afrezza are really really cool and the cons are, well they're the cons
but I would say the main benefit of this product is how fast it works and how effective it is so
if I'm eating a high carb meal or if I have like a really resistant high Afrezza can bring me
down into range super fast it's also really nice that it only stays in the body for 90 minutes
and then of course there's the no needles component of it. The cons however I'd say that
it doesn't really always work with high fat high carb meals, again because fat slows down
the release of the glucose into the bloodstream, often meaning that I'll need several doses
of Afrezza or it can be a little bit hard to manage. Also given that Afrezza comes in
set units, so the 4 the 8, and the 12, it can make it a little harder to find adjust and I
can't use it for like minor corrections. Again remember a 4 unit cartridge is equivalent
of 2.6 units of rapid-acting insulin. If I only need a unit or I only need half a unit, Afrezza
won't work. I'd also say that I've had some really really nasty lows on Afrezza. The thing is, it's insulin
right if you take too much insulin you will have a low blood sugar and given that Afrezza works as
fast as it does having too much of Afrezza onboard can be a little terrifying, to be 100 percent honest, so
those would be my pros and the cons of a Afrezza. Afrezza is currently only approved in the U.S
If you do want to start on Afrezza, and you're in the U.S, you will need a prescription and you will
need training on how to use the product. So a good place to start is your doctor and then simply have
a conversation about Afrezza and how to get you started. If your doctor does not know anything
about Afrezza you can go to Afrezza's website and they can help you out. As for how much you're going to
end up paying for this product, it's covered by most of the commercial insurance plans so
you most likely will end up with a co-pay very much in line with what you're paying for your
injected rapid-acting insulin like you Humalog, your Novolog, your Fiasp. I
use their copay card. So the copay card, and I'll leave a link to it down below the video, the
copay card allows me to pick up my Afrezza for only 15 dollars. I get a whole pack of insulin for only 15 dollars
per prescription that's less than I'm paying for injectable rapid-acting insulin so
that's definitely an option. So in conclusion, I really do like my Afrezza. I don't use it
for everything but it's brilliant for those pesky highs or higher carb meals and I'll probably start
to use it even more once they have more than the 4, 8, and 12 units. Thank you so much for watching