Treatment for Diabetes

There are four modes of treatment for diabetes type 2. The mode of treatment each individual needs will depend on many factors. Perhaps most important: how advanced is their disease, and what has been tried before.

In the average person who has had regular medical checkups and screening for diabetes(annually), it is unusual to find very advanced disease. In this setting, most physicians would start treatment with dietary changes and increased activity through regular exercise. Once blood sugars are adequately controlled with these simple measures, no additional treatment modality is needed.

On the other hand, for persons whose sugars are not controlled with dietary changes and regular exercise, your physician will introduce oral medications to reduce the blood sugars. The last resort is the use of insulin for patients with advanced and/or difficult to control disease.

Each modality is treated separately:

1. Dietary Changes for Diabetes

When we individualize treatment for diabetes we get the best results. In most cases, the first line of therapy includes exercise and meal planning for blood sugar control and weight loss. Unfortunately these measures may sometimes not be enough to bring blood sugar levels back to normal range. Why not? Well, two reasons - one, not everyone likes to exercise or restrict what they eat and two, some people have personal factors that make their sugars difficult or impossible to control with diet and exercise alone.

So what do we do? The next step is usually to recommend an oral medication (a pill) to either help decrease your insulin requirements or encourage your body to produce more insulin. Even the type of medication can be individualized to suit your specific needs.

Now this area can get technical, so before we discuss the oral medications, please understand that it is not crucial for you to know the particular class of medication your doctor recommends. What is important is whether your sugars are effectively controlled because this is what helps you avoid the long-term complications of diabetes.