Is Insulin Safe For Patients With Diabetes Who Also Have Had A Heart Attack?

— -- Question: Is insulin safe for patients who have had a heart attack?

Answer: I think there are two aspects of insulin today as a treatment for people like yourself with diabetes. The first thing is, is that we do not believe today that insulin increases the risk of heart disease in diabetes, as was thought years ago. So that in an attempt to control the sugar component of diabetes and prevent blindness, and kidney disease, and amputations, and the nerve damage with diabetes, it was almost as if we were willing to accept this bump in the risk of heart disease along with that.

We know now, in fact, that insulin is a very good drug to treat diabetes. It's not always required to treat patients with diabetes, but it is an excellent drug. And if you need it, and your doctor tells you you need it, you to get your sugar level down, you should accept it as your friend. Because reducing that sugar level is the best thing to reducing your risk of heart disease in the future as well as some of those other complications I mentioned.

I might add that if you have a heart attack, maybe the best drug in the hospital to lower sugar right away is insulin. Because insulin can be given intravenously -- or under the skin – and it can get it to the body much quicker than a pill can to reduce the sugar level.

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