How Inhaled Insulin Changed Everything for This Teen

• The FDA has permitted Afrezza, an inhaled insulin, for kids and adolescents.
• Taisie Seigrist is a 15-year-old who took half within the medical trial for Afrezza.
• Seigrist mentioned the needle-free possibility has modified her life.

When Taisie Seigrist was 10 years previous, she started experiencing persistent thirst and the urge to urinate regularly.

“She would come dwelling from faculty and drink 5 glasses of water immediately,” her mother, Jennifer, instructed Healthline.

Involved that Taisie could be in poor health, Jennifer turned to her sister-in-law, who lives with type 2 diabetes, for assist. Jennifer requested her if she may borrow her glucose meter to check Taisie’s blood sugar. The system revealed that Taisie’s blood sugar was 684 mg/dL, which is dangerously excessive.

“We referred to as our physician, and he mentioned go straight to the kids’s hospital, so we did, and we had been there for a few week,” mentioned Jennifer.

“It was scary for each of us to listen to,” mentioned Jennifer.

Whereas Taisie left the hospital with a steady glucose monitor that helped handle her situation, she additionally relied on mealtime injected insulin shots, as usually as seven occasions per day.

“A pump wasn’t actually an excellent possibility for us due to our life,” mentioned Jennifer.

For the primary two years after Taisie’s analysis, her mother administered mealtime pictures for her. Then Taisie started doing them herself.

As a result of Taisie didn’t have a number of physique fats, she needed to maintain returning to the identical injection websites.

“Taking pictures actually damage, particularly doing it in the identical place,” Taisie instructed Healthline.

The pictures additionally affected her high quality of life. Injected rapid-acting insulin takes about quarter-hour to start out working and stays within the physique for two to three hours, which made it tough for Taisie to manage throughout faculty and at observe and cross-country. If her blood sugar wanted correcting proper earlier than a race, she’d have to take a seat out.

“It saved her from having the ability to take part at sure occasions,” mentioned Jennifer.

Managing her situation took an emotional toll, too. In elementary faculty, her classmates accused her of taking insulin pictures for consideration, which made an already tough situation really feel much more isolating.

Michael Glazier, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Bluebird Children Well being, mentioned mealtime insulin is difficult for anybody residing with diabetes, however particularly for kids and adolescents.

Various schedules, emotions of denial and rise up, in addition to the inconvenience, embarrassment, and stigma related to injection administration in entrance of friends, can add to the issue and make adherence more difficult, he mentioned.

“It’s sadly clearly simpler to ‘skip’ a mealtime dose than to present one, and this inevitably results in much less time their blood sugars are within the desired vary and extra issues as they age,” Glazier instructed Healthline.

In 2024, throughout a routine appointment, Taisie’s endocrinologist requested whether or not she can be curious about taking part in a medical trial of Afrezza, an inhaled mealtime insulin taken earlier than consuming that mimics the physique’s pure insulin response at mealtime.

“We jumped on the likelihood,” Jennifer mentioned.

Whereas Taisie didn’t totally perceive the science of the trial, she was intrigued by a brand new therapy possibility.

“As soon as I heard that it was inhalable insulin, I obtained actually excited as a result of I didn’t should take pictures,” she mentioned.

She responded properly to the treatment.

Jennifer mentioned it provides her metabolic flexibility.

“With injections, she would take a shot quarter-hour earlier than she would begin consuming after which it might keep in her system for 2 to a few hours, so we couldn’t do a correction for 2 to a few hours, whereas with the inhaled insulin, as quickly as you’re taking it, it’s in your system and out of your system in an hour so we begin doing corrections if we have to loads sooner which retains her A1C down and her quantity down and it’s actually superb and it’s really easy.”

For Taisie, the distinction is one thing she will be able to really feel.

“It’s made my blood [sugar] extra degree than it was after I was taking pictures,” she mentioned.

She additionally feels social and emotional advantages. Earlier than, the considered consuming cake at a party meant mentally calculating one other shot and deciding whether or not the meals was price it.

“She doesn’t should be like, ‘No, I don’t need that as a result of I don’t need to do one other shot,’” Jennifer mentioned.

In the present day, Taisie solely takes one shot of long-acting insulin at evening.

On Could 29, 2026, Afrezza grew to become FDA-approved for kids ages 6 and older residing with sort 1 and kind 2 diabetes, about 12 years after the treatment was permitted for adults.

Jennifer and Taisie hope the information will assist others get entry to the treatment, as they at the moment pay out of pocket for it at a reduced charge for taking part within the trial.

For households weighing therapy choices for kids with sort 1 diabetes, Jennifer mentioned speak to your little one’s physician.

“It’s a extremely good possibility for individuals whose youngsters have diabetes and wish one thing totally different and don’t desire a bunch of bruises from taking a number of pictures a day or don’t need one other piece of expertise like a pump on a child’s arm or their hip,” she mentioned. “It’s actually handy. It’s very easy.”

Glazier agrees. Nevertheless, he mentioned there’s nonetheless a spot for recombinant expertise and insulin pumps, which permit for higher blood sugar regulation and administration.

“Inhaled insulin won’t substitute the necessity for these merchandise and supply methods with regard to blood sugar management, however it should add to them and be significantly useful for sufferers with robust aversions to needles and who’ve difficulties with meal-time blood sugar administration,” he mentioned.