How Inhaled Insulin Changed Everything for This Teen

• The FDA has authorized 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When Taisie Seigrist was 10 years outdated, she started experiencing persistent thirst and the urge to urinate often.

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

Involved that Taisie may be ailing, Jennifer turned to her sister-in-law, who lives with type 2 diabetes, for assist. Jennifer requested her if she might borrow her glucose meter to check Taisie’s blood sugar. The gadget 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 have 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 typically as seven instances per day.

“A pump wasn’t actually a very good possibility for us due to our existence,” mentioned Jennifer.

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

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

“Taking pictures actually damage, particularly doing it in the identical place,” Taisie informed 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 monitor and cross-country. If her blood sugar wanted correcting proper earlier than a race, she’d have to sit down out.

“It stored her from with the ability to take part at sure instances,” 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 problem and make adherence tougher, 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 problems as they age,” Glazier informed 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 acquired actually excited as a result of I didn’t need to 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 will 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 are 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 wonderful 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 celebration meant mentally calculating one other shot and deciding whether or not the meals was price it.

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

At the moment, Taisie solely takes one shot of long-acting insulin at evening.

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

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

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

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

Glazier agrees. Nonetheless, he mentioned there may be nonetheless a spot for recombinant know-how and insulin pumps, which permit for higher blood sugar regulation and administration.

“Inhaled insulin is not going to change the necessity for these merchandise and supply programs with regard to blood sugar management, however it is going to add to them and be significantly useful for sufferers with sturdy aversions to needles and who’ve difficulties with meal-time blood sugar administration,” he mentioned.