A Run Down Of Some Of The Different Diabetes Medications
When someone is diagnosed with type 2 diabetes one of the first things the doctor will do is alter the diet, have the patient begin an exercise program, and encourage the patient to find some ways to lose weight. In some cases altering your diet and losing weight can be enough to keep the diabetes under control. However there are cases where diet and weight loss are not enough and diabetes medications need to be used.
Sulfonylureas
This is a diabetes medication that has been in use for over 50 years and, for the most part, is now on its second generation for use in patients. It is a drug that stimulates the pancreas to create more insulin and it is taken one or two times a day depending on what the doctor prescribes. Something like sulfonylureas requires a period of adjustment as its side effects can vary from patient to patient and are usually dependent on how the patient reacts to various dosages.
Biguanides
Biguanides are a diabetes medication that works from the other direction than sulfonylureas. Biguanides are used to reduce the amount of glucose introduced into the system by the liver and it also helps by making muscle tissue more able to absorb glucose from the system. This helps reduce the need for insulin and helps reduce the need to break down the glucose that would normally be present in the patient. To reduce any possible side effects of this diabetes medication the doctor will usually have the patient take the diabetes medication with food.
Oral Combination Therapy
When a patient is diagnosed with diabetes, and it is determined that losing weight and altering the diet is not helping, then a doctor will turn to a combination of the above mentioned diabetes medications and any other diabetes medication that they think may help the patient. Typically a full treatment is a combination of the drugs available and the dosages and types of medication are determined only after the doctor has conducted a comprehensive series of tests. Oral combination therapy is just the all encompassing term used by doctors to describe putting together different types of medication to combat diabetes.
When a patient is fighting diabetes it is always critical to make sure they win that fight for many years. To aid in that fight are dozens of effective diabetes medications. A trained professional physician can look at the patient's profile and determine which drugs to use and in what dosage. Sometimes adjustments need to be made but in the end it is a therapy and a treatment that benefits the patient for a very long time.
