What are type 2 diabetes?
Type 2 diabetes is a all-time condition that affects how the body regulates glucose or sugar in the body. Insulin is a hormone that is released by the body to help transport sugar in carbohydrates in the foods we eat directly to the cells to be used as energy. In type 2 diabetes insulin is impaired in doing its work and over time the body makes even lesser of that hormone. This implys that there is less sugar inside the cells and more sugar outside the cells and in blood where the body cannot burn it. When people have chronically elevated blood glucose levels, their organs—the heart, kidneys, nerves, and eyes—can be affected.
There are some other risk factors contributing to development of type 2 diabetes like genetic factors and age which cannot be changed. There are other modifiable risk factors like being overweight or having obesity. It is why losing 5% to 10% of one’s baseline weight by adopting a healthy diet together with exercise retain the cornerstone of type 2 diabetes.
The majority of antidiabetic drugs do help to control the blood glucose level.
Research
For most adults with diabetes, the optimal blood sugar, according to American Diabetes Association, is an A1C of below 7%. Notice that A1C is an average blood sugar level of a person over some 2-3 months duration. However, in many people diet and exercise are insufficient to achieve this goal and one or several medications may be required. Metformin is an old medicine that has been used to treat type 2 diabetes for several decades in fact metformin is considered by many professionals the first line of pharmacological therapy. It doesn’t cost a lot of money, is safe, works well, and is generally well tolerated in the population.
When the patient is not well managed by metformin alone, there is the need to add another oral antidiabetic drug. The decision of which of the numerous drugs and all the drug classes available to manage type 2 diabetes mellitus to use now lies with doctors and patients. In general, for individuals with no history of heart disease or diabetic kidney disease, the majority of medications added to metformin help lower blood sugar levels and can keep A1C below 7%.
How do you pick a medication?
To repeat, nobody is going to have similar targets, requirements and predispositions as any other diabetes dependant. Before taking a medicine, it is important to ask some relevant questions: Is my blood sugar at goal? Is this medicine affordable? WSD do I have heart or kidney disease? What are the side effects? What is it – a pill or an injection – and when is it to be administered?
Nevertheless, in whatever treatment strategy is applied, the ADA position statement on the Standards of Care prescribes at least the conduct of diabetes control evaluation every three to six months with subsequent adjustments in the management plan as necessary.
