NCLEX Studiers, we're about to give you everything you need to master all things insulin, so if you want to knock the NCLEX out of the park, keep on watching. Insulin is a hormone produced naturally by the pancreas, but it can also be given as a medication to people who have high blood sugar or high potassium levels. In this mnemonic video, we'll cover the basic clinical uses and side effects of insulin. There are several different types of insulin used for pharmacologic purposes, which will each get their own mnemonic videos. So let's get started with an overview video about insulin.
This new camel exhibit is almost complete. The construction man is just putting up the last of the walls, insulation. The insulation here is our symbol for insulin, because insulation and insulin sound pretty similar, right?
Insulin is a hormone that is naturally made in the body by the pancreas that can also be used as a drug. Let's now talk about the functions of insulin. As the construction worker reaches up over his head to install the insulation, some empty candy wrappers are falling out of his pocket.
He's been working on this project all day, and the candy was giving him the energy to keep going. When you look at these empty, falling candy wrappers, though, think of it as our symbol for lowering blood sugar. After all, Candy is just sugar, but in this case, these are empty wrappers, plus they're falling down, just like insulin causes blood sugar levels to fall down, right?
Insulin accomplishes this by binding to receptors on the cells of our body, which stimulates them to take up more glucose from the bloodstream. Since the cells are literally pulling glucose out of the blood, you can imagine why the sugar levels inside the blood would go down. Now, related to this function are the uses of insulin in the clinical setting.
You see, insulin is used to reduce blood sugar in patients with high blood glucose levels, formerly known as hyperglycemia. One of these contacts is diabetes mellitus, where too much sugar is in the blood. So insulin given as a drug can help reduce blood sugar levels in these people.
But if too much insulin is given, the blood sugar levels can drop too much and cause hypoglycemia. This can cause symptoms like chills, tachycardia, dizziness, and in severe cases, even loss of consciousness. Now, when you think of insulin, just think of these falling candy wrappers and you'll remember that insulin lowers blood sugar.
Meaning it can treat hyperglycemia and may cause hypoglycemia. That's three facts for the price of one. Pretty neat, huh? This new camel exhibit is right next to the monkey exhibit. And the monkey is throwing down a banana peel onto the construction worker.
Here at Pixerize, we use bananas to symbolize potassium. Because bananas have a lot of potassium. Get it?
In this case, the empty banana peel that is falling down symbolizes the fact that insulin lowers potassium. This is useful in treating patients in the hospital with really high potassium levels. This clinical use isn't as common as lowering blood sugar, but it might show up on test day.
Just remember this banana peel and you'll be good to go. Notice how big this camel's hump is. Camel's humps are actually just a big lump of fat.
You know, this reminds me of how insulin can cause a fat deposit or lump of fat to build up at the injection site. The technical name for this is lipohypertrophy. Lipo meaning fat and hypertrophy meaning enlarged cells.
Makes sense, right? If insulin is injected into the same spot, a lump of fat can start to develop in that spot. This is problematic because injecting into this fat can prevent effective delivery of insulin into the bloodstream. Let's move on to talk about how to prevent lipohypertrophy.
The zoo is already advertising the camel's new location with this sign. Moving the camel to a new location reminds me of how each injection of insulin needs to be given in a new location. In other words, the injection sites need to be rotated to prevent the fat.
buildup that we just talked about. This is pretty counterintuitive since many patients like to stick themselves in the same place. Counsel your patients to move their injection sites daily in order to avoid a local fat buildup that prevents insulin from functioning as it needs to.
Before we summarize what we learned, make sure to like this video, subscribe to our channel for more great content, leave a comment below telling us what topic you want us to cover next, and visit us at pixarize.com. Alright! That covers the general insulin information that applies to all types of insulin.
Let's quickly summarize. Insulin is a hormone that lowers blood sugar and is given as a drug in context of high blood sugar or hyperglycemia, such as that seen in diabetes. However, if too much insulin is given, the blood sugar levels can drop too low and cause hypoglycemia.
Insulin is also given to lower potassium levels. One side effect of insulin is lipohypertrophy or fat buildup at the injection site. This can be prevented by rotating injection sites.
And there you have it! The NCLEX might ask you questions about the specific types of insulin, so I recommend checking out the rest of our insulin mnemonic videos. See you there!