Before the 1980's, the only insulin available was extracted from the pancreases of cows and pigs. As the structure of animal insulin is slightly different from that of human insulin, there were rare instance of allergy or resistance to insulin. In the 80's the technology to biosynthetically make insulin with the same structure as human insulin became available. Although there are fewer instances of allergy or resistance to human insulin, these problems still occur very rarely. A surprising finding was that human insulin works faster and doesn't last as long than animal insulins.
Some physicians have a strong preference for either pork or human insulin.
In my personal experience, there is a wide range of time of action of the same insulin preparation given to different people. Also, larger doses of the same insulin last longer than smaller doses in the same person. Whatever insulin preparation you choose to use, it is important to try to analyze when the insulin works for you and try to adjust the insulin accordingly. Comments and Feedback . Privacy statement .