Diabetes Treatment Drugs Can Provide An Alternative To Insulin

When people hear the diagnoses of diabetes, they tend to assume that insulin injections are the only course of treatment available to them. With Type 2 diabetes this is not the case, and there are many different diabetes treatment drugs that your doctor may recommend you try before you resort to taking insulin. Here are a few of the diabetes treatment drugs available today, along with their possible side effects.

Sulphonylureas such as chlorpropamide, glibenclamide and glimepiride, are one form of diabetes treatment. They are taken in tablet form once or twice a day, to stimulate natural insulin production in the body. They have a number of side effects, including nausea, weight gain, and an upset stomach, and occasionally a lumpy red skin rash. Sulphonylureas work over a long period of time and can make the blood sugar drop too low, causing hypoglycaemia. For this reason they are rarely prescribed for elderly diabetics.

Often known as metformin, biguanide is another diabetes treatment drug, but it works very differently to sulphonylureas. Biguanide reduced the release of glucose by the liver, as well as assisting the movement of insulin throughout the cells of the body. Taking biguanide with food can reduce the potential side effects which include nausea, diarrhoea and stomach problems.

A third type of diabetes treatment drug, designed to limit natural insulin resistance, is thiazolidinediones, often known as pioglitazone or rosiglitazone. Because there is a reduced resistance to insulin, type 2 diabetics taking this treatment are able to use the small amount of insulin they do produce more effectively. Taking thiazolidinediones can occasionally cause respiratory tract infections, or more commonly lead to headaches, fluid retention and increase weight.

If you are at high risk of hypos when taking sulphonylureas, your doctor may recommend prandial glucose regulators which also increase the production of insulin in the pancreas, but only over a short period of time. These can cause some side effects such as nausea and an upset stomach, but these are minimal when the tablets are taken with meals. Diabetics taking prandial glucose regulators may also experience weight gain, but a flexible dosage can usually solve this problem.

A different approach to tackling the high blood sugar associated with type 2 diabetes, is to take an alpha glucose inhibitor. These reduce the rate at which starchy foods are taken into the blood stream so that your blood sugar level does not rise too quickly. The usual dose for alpha glucose inhibitors such as acarbose is three tablets a day. However, your physician may suggest a low dose to begin with to minimise side effects such as diarrhoea, bloating and wind.

DPP-4 inhibitors are a type of diabetes treatment that increases levels of the incretin hormone, which occurs naturally in the body. This hormone is produced when we eat and helps us to produce the required amount of insulin, whilst limiting glucose production in the liver. DPP-4 inhibitors can be taken along with other tablets such as thiazolidinediones, but not with insulin. The side effects of these diabetes treatment drugs depend largely on what you are taking them with, but they have a small risk of causing hypoglycaemia.

At some point most type 2 diabetics will find that they do need to switch to insulin to treat their condition. This is often because after many years of diabetes treatment drugs the pancreas is no longer able to produce sufficient insulin. Although the idea of insulin injections can be terrifying to some people, the needles used are actually quite small as the injection occurs just under the skin. Insulin is injected into the stomach, buttocks or thighs, and the injection sites are varied to reduce insulin build up. For those that can't face injections, the switch form diabetes treatment drugs to insulin can be eased by the use of an inhaler or insulin pump.

Article Source: http://www.articles.ask-me-about.com

Lisa Janse is a professional writer specialising in health topics. Learn more about living with Diabetes and read more useful and interesting articles on Diabetes Diets at www.sugardiabetes.net