There are some words that are used that diabetics should understand involving the way insulin affects their body, the duration it will work and why. There are three main words the diabetic should be familiar with, and these are onset, peak and duration.

Onset: This is the length of time after insulin is injected into the body before it begins to work. What this means is if the insulin states 30 minutes to onset, this is the amount of time the diabetic will wait for it to begin working in the body helping the blood glucose level.

Peak: This is the amount of time after an insulin injections it will take the medication to reach its maximum effectiveness in the body.