Treatments for Type 2 Diabetes – Part 2

Continued from the prior blog.

Other medicines help insulin work better. They lower insulin resistance from your cells so your pancreas doesn't have to work as hard. Doctors call these thiazolidinediones, TZDs, or glitazones.

Some slow the digestion of food with complex carbohydrates, like bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, and corn. This keeps your blood sugar from shooting up after you eat. These are alpha-glucosidase inhibitors.

Some work by letting your kidneys pee out extra sugar. They're SGLT2 inhibitors.

Cholesterol-lowering drugs called bile acid sequestrants can also help lower your blood glucose.

You can take these medications by themselves or in combination with others, including insulin. Some pills have more than one kind of drug. More on diabetes drugs in the next blog.

Injectable Drugs These medications slow how quickly food leaves your stomach and make you feel full. And they tell your liver to back off making glucose around mealtimes.

Some also help your pancreas make insulin. These are GLP-1 receptor agonists. Some of them you take every day, while others last a week.

A different drug acts like a hormone, amylin, that your pancreas sends out with insulin. You only take pramlintide (Symlin) if you're also using insulin.

Insulin People with type 2 diabetes sometimes need insulin. It could be a short-term fix for a stressful situation, or because other medicines aren't enough to control their blood sugar.

You can take insulin with a needle and syringe, with a device called an insulin pen, or with an inhaler. Some people use an insulin pump to get it continuously.

Types of insulin are grouped by how fast they start to work and how long their effects last. You might have to use more than one kind of insulin. Some insulins come pre-mixed.

Weight Loss Surgery

Of course, this gets rid of extra pounds. And that alone will help control your blood sugar.  However, be aware that many bariatric surgeons will rush you into surgery with out doing all the necessary tests and explaining all the requirements you will need to do for the rest of your life.

But it also raises the level of hormones in your gut called incretins. These tell your pancreas to make insulin. Over time, you may be able to take less medication.

It isn't for everyone, though. Doctors usually recommend weight loss surgery only for men who are at least 100 pounds overweight and women with at least 80 extra pounds.

Part 2 of 2 Parts