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A great percentage of people who live with diabetes mellitus are dependent on a regular intake of insulin. It is a life-saving medication that does not only make the lives of diabetics easier but rather allows them to lead a normal life. However, the price for insulin continues to grow on a regular basis. Unless the situation changes, it might no longer be affordable for a significant number of people with diabetes mellitus.
Luckily, there exist several ways of how to save money on insulin. Namely, a patient might look for a drug discount program, open special health insurance coverage that will partially cover insulin expenses, or ask a health practitioner for a cheaper substitution for the prescribed drug. One more way of how to reduce a medication’s price tag is to order insulin from Canada online. So, let’s discuss it in detail.
What Is Insulin?
Insulin is a prescribed medication that is used to regulate blood glucose levels in people with diabetes mellitus. Depending on their duration of action, there exist several types of insulin, namely:
- Rapid-acting;
- Short-acting (which is also called regular insulin);
- Intermediate;
- Mixed;
- Long-acting.
In most cases, insulin should be administered below a patient’s skin in a form of an injection. It is usually done with the help of:
- A syringe;
- A pen;
- A pump;
- And so on.
There exists a great number of manufacturers that produce insulin. When speaking about the most well-known insulin brands, it is essential to mention:
- Apidra;
- Basaglar;
- Humalog;
- Humulin;
- Levemir;
- Novolin;
- Novolog;
- Tresiba;
- And many more.
Please note: Insulin is a prescribed drug. So, it is a task of a health care practitioner to define what type and brand of insulin a patient should use to cover their individual needs.
How Do Insulin Injections Work?
Since insulin is a diabetes medication, it is essential to take a closer look at this health condition. So, diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that is characterized by high blood sugar levels (or blood glucose levels, as they are sometimes called).
Here is how diabetes mellitus occurs:
- The pancreas of healthy human beings produces the hormone insulin whenever they eat. While insulin, in its turn, has the power to transport sugar (gained from food) from blood to body cells, where it should be transformed into energy;
- However, sometimes it happens that the pancreas of human beings cannot make enough insulin. When being more precise, it is either not produced in the right amount or not processed in the appropriate way;
- Under any of both conditions that are mentioned above, the sugar that is gained from food remains in the blood instead of being transported to body cells. This health condition is called diabetes mellitus.
In case a person suffers from diabetes mellitus, external injections of insulin might be required to make up for a lack of the natural hormone. Therefore, insulin is administered in a form of an injection, which allows the body to function properly.
So, here is how insulin shots work:
- After being administered under a patient’s skin, insulin starts acting by means of helping to move sugar from the blood to the body cells;
- As well, it stops the liver from producing extra sugar so that the blood glucose level remains within the normal range.
Therefore, the injection of insulin serves as a solid substitution of its natural production within the human body.
What Are the Options to Buy Insulin?
These days, there exist several alternatives of where to buy both brand-named and generic drugs. Namely, you might either purchase them at a local pharmacy or order online. Let’s take a closer look at both options by means of discussing their benefits and drawbacks.
Please note: In order to purchase insulin (no matter whether locally or online), patients will need to have a valid prescription from their health care practitioners in most cases.
Local Pharmacy
The first option of where to buy insulin (and other medication that is essential for diabetes treatment) is to purchase it at a local pharmacy. This option provides a diabetic with the following benefits:
- No delivery delays. If you buy insulin at a local pharmacy, you won’t have to wait for it to be shipped to you;
- Absolute reliability. There exist people who are afraid of buying insulin online for certain reasons (starting from the fear of receiving fake medications or getting them shipped in an inappropriate way). While the option to buy diabetes supplies locally does not carry such risks.
On the other hand, however, insulin drug prices at a local pharmacy might be substantially higher if compared to online suppliers.
Online
Another option of where to buy insulin is to order it online. By doing so, a diabetic will be able to take advantage of:
- No need to leave home. In the realities of the digitalized world, almost every type of shopping might be conveniently done online. And the process of purchasing insulin products is not an exclusion;
- Wide assortment of products. If compared to local pharmacies, online drug companies tend to ensure a greater selection of brands and products available;
- Life-saving prices. As an opposition to the high prices in a local pharmacy, an online prescription referral service tends to offer a much more reasonable cost for insulin.
While the benefits of buying insulin locally, in their turn, serve as key drawbacks of purchasing it online. Firstly, diabetics will have to wait for the medication to be delivered. Secondly, they will have to be sure of the reliability of an online supplier before making a purchase. Still, these drawbacks can be easily mitigated for the sake of lower-cost insulin.
Please note: Prices for insulin in Canada are oftentimes lower if compared to the U.S. The main reason for it is that Canadian pharmacies are regulated by governmental price control that has its own principles of rationing insulin. So, an option of getting insulin shipped from Canada is definitely worth being discussed.
Where to Order Canadian Insulin?
In order to successfully buy insulin from Canada, a diabetic has to be aware of the following things:
- It is vital to ensure the reliability of Canadian pharmacies before buying insulin from there. For instance, one might use special services that offer clients’ feedback on online suppliers of drugs;
- While there exists a thought that buying insulin from Canada is technically illegal, it is not absolutely true. Namely, the American Food and Drug Administration allows Canadian pharmacists to provide patients in the U.S. with a three-month supply of insulin for their personal use. So, insulin medications can legally cross the U.S.-Canadian border and be delivered to people who ordered them in a timely manner.
While having the above-mentioned things in mind, it won’t be a difficult task to find a trustworthy supplier of insulin with a courteous service tailored to a patient’s needs in Eastern, Western, or Central Canada.
Please note: While choosing between several Canadian suppliers of insulin, it might also be reasonable to run a short cost comparison for a single vial of the needed medication.
Final Words
All in all, buying Canadian insulin is oftentimes much more cost-efficient if compared to purchasing it locally. Luckily, there exist a great number of reliable insulin suppliers delivering professional service in Canada. So, find the most beneficial Canadian reseller of insulin and remember that your health should be your top priority at all times!