Diabetes Medications and Treatment

-

Medical Treatment

The treatment of diabetes is highly individualized, depending on the type of diabetes, whether the patient has other active medical problems, whether the patient has complications of diabetes, and age and general health of the patient at time of diagnosis.
  • A healthcare provider will set goals for lifestyle changes, blood sugar control, and treatment.
  • Together, the patient and the healthcare provider will devise a plan to help meet those goals.
Education about diabetes and its treatment is essential in all types of diabetes.
  • When the patient is first diagnosed with diabetes, the diabetes care team will spend a lot of time with the patient, teaching them about their condition, treatment, and everything they need to know to care for themselves on a daily basis.
  • The diabetes care team includes the healthcare provider and his or her staff. It may include specialists in foot care, neurology, kidney diseases, and eye diseases. A professional dietitian and a diabetes educator also may be part of the team.
The healthcare team will see you at appropriate intervals to monitor your progress with your goals.

Medication

Many different types of medications are available to help lower blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetes. Each type works in a different way. It is very common to combine two or more types to get the best effect with fewest side effects.
  • Sulfonylureas: These drugs stimulate the pancreas to make more insulin.
  • Biguanides: These agents decrease the amount of glucose produced by the liver.
  • Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors: These agents slow absorption of the starches one eats. This slows down glucose production.
  • Thiazolidinediones: These agents increase sensitivity to insulin.
  • Meglitinides: These agents stimulate the pancreas to make more insulin.
  • D-phenylalanine derivatives: These agents stimulate the pancreas to produce more insulin more quickly.
  • Amylin synthetic derivatives: Amylin is a naturally occurring hormone secreted by the pancreas along with insulin. An amylin derivative, such as pramlintide (Symlin), is indicated when blood sugar control is not achieved despite optimal insulin therapy. Pramlintide is administered as a subcutaneous injection along with insulin and helps achieve lower blood sugar levels after meals, helps reduce fluctuation of blood sugar levels throughout the day, and improves hemoglobin A1C levels.
  • Incretin mimetics: Incretin mimetics promote insulin secretion by the pancreas and mimic other blood sugar level lowering actions that naturally occur in the body. Exenatide (Byetta) is the first incretin mimetic agent approved in the United States. It is indicated for diabetes mellitus type 2 in addition to metformin or a sulfonylurea when these agents have not attained blood sugar level control alone.
  • Insulins: Human insulin is the only type of insulin available in the United States; it is less likely to cause allergic reactions than animal-derived varieties of insulin. The type of insulin chosen to customize treatment for an individual is based on the goal of providing optimal blood sugar control. Different types of insulin are available and categorized according to their times of action onset and duration. Commercially prepared mixtures of some insulins may also be used to provide constant (basal) control and immediate control.
    • Rapid-acting insulins
      • Regular insulin (Humulin R, Novolin R)
      • Insulin lispro (Humalog)
      • Insulin aspart (Novolog)
      • Insulin glulisine (Apidra)
      • Prompt insulin zinc (Semilente, slightly slower acting)
    • Intermediate-acting insulins
      • Isophane insulin, neutral protamine Hagedorn (NPH) (Humulin N, Novolin N)
      • Insulin zinc (Lente)
    • Long-acting insulins
      • Extended insulin zinc insulin (Ultralente)
      • Insulin glargine (Lantus)
      • Insulin detemir (Levemir)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Low-Cal Game Day Snacks

-
Combine 1 month of holiday feasting with 1 football season of noshing on high-calorie snacks, and what have you got? Double the size in belly, hips, and thighs. But cheer up! We've got diet snack solutions to help. That's right. Game day food makeovers that look and taste like the originals. Your guests won't even know they're low in fat (and you'll stay in your skinny jeans till baseball season). Lite Wings: Cut the saturated fat and sodium with these cornmeal-crusted boneless buffalo wings. Serve them with a light blue-cheese dip. Pizza-to-go: For maximum calorie control, make it yourself. If convenience is a priority, order a thin-crust veggie pizza from Domino's, Pizza Hut, or Papa John's. All three can deliver a pizza that weighs in at less than 250 calories a slice. Chips and dip: Serve baked chips with a Greek-yogurt-based fat-free dip. At about 15 calories a tablespoon, you can have more than a handful.   Chocolate fix: Make y
Read More>>

Best Way to Stay Healthy? Call In Sick

-
Next time you get a sore throat and sniffles, here's what you need to do to avoid can't-get-out-of-bed misery later: stay home. Research shows that people who report to work sick are much more likely to get laid out flat by an even nastier bout of illness down the road. Sick at Work People who came to work sick at least six times within the previous year were 50 percent more likely to need extended sick leave later on -- as much as two or more weeks off within the next 18 months. Why is punching the clock when you're sick so bad? Researchers speculate that when people don't take time to rest and recuperate, the body gets more and more run down -- to the point where it can't keep a little illness from ballooning into big trouble.    Healthy Solution Okay, so sometimes you might feel like you really just don't have time to be sick. Or maybe you don't have the luxury of copious sick days. If you can swing it, stay home. But also try these
Read More>>

6 Reasons to Get a Flu Shot This Year

-
Did you decide to skip your flu shot this year? If so, you might want to rethink that. Here's why: Getting the shot is the single best way for nearly everyone to prevent the flu, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). So, what's stopping you? Here are 6 common excuses, and why you should reconsider: It's too late. It's true, getting a flu shot early in the season offers the best protection, but the shot is effective anytime, even if you wait until December. Flu activity typically peaks in January or February and can last as late as May. I'm healthy. The flu vaccine is especially important for high-risk people (pregnant women, young kids, older folks, and anyone with a compromised immune system), but the rest of us need it, too. Having the shot will prevent you from wasting precious vacation days or (worse!) going to work sick and sharing the virus with your coworkers. I had a flu shot last year. Smart move! Get ano
Read More>>

Adsense