Battle of The Brands
Due to changes in insurance, I unfortunately have had to change the brand of insulin that I use. While this isn't the worst thing in the world, it still felt like a huge change because I had only ever used 1 brand and changing that just felt wrong. However, after getting past that stage, I can now say that I have had experience with 3 different brands of insulin and can tell you how it has affected me if you are going through the same situation.
I first started on Humalog. This was the brand I started with and used every day for 9 years. Then my family changed to an insurance that no longer accepted Humalog. When I first found this out, I was upset and didn't know how to feel. But I didn't let my feelings get the best of me and I knew it would be a change I could handle.
I switched to Insulin Aspart first (which is the "off-brand version of Novolog). With almost identical packaging to Novolog (shown below) you can tell that the two products are related. If I'm being honest, I didn't notice any real differences between Humalog and Insulin Aspart. After all, they are both short-acting insulin, just different brands obviously. This made me feel a lot better about switching since I couldn't notice anything different.
After 6 months with Insulin Aspart, I decided I would try Novolog just to see if there were any differences with the other 2 brands in terms of absorption. I think that compared to Humalog and Insulin Aspart, Novolog might absorb slightly faster. Meaning it causes blood sugar to go down faster than the others. I have seen other people post about this same thing in Facebook groups. The fact that other people are claiming the same thing makes me think that this is true.
Overall, if I had to choose one brand as better than the others, it would be hard to pick one because they all do basically the same thing. One doesn't heavily stand out from the others besides that Novolog might absorb slightly faster. The main takeaway from this is that if you are in a similar situation that I was in when having to change insulin brands, it should be a relief to hear that different brands actually aren't that different from each other.
Another good article with a review between Humalog and Novolog is provided here.
If you have any other questions about my experience with different insulin brands, feel free to leave a comment below or use the "Contact" link at the top of the page and sent me an email!
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