What is the best diabetes medicine?

If you have diabetes, you have many options for treating the disease. Food, exercise, and medication work together to help control your blood sugar. As for medications, your doctor will help you find out if you need them, which ones are right for you, and how often you should take them.

Medications are often the first medications people with type 2 diabetes try when diet and exercise alone are not enough to keep their blood sugar at a good level.
There are many different types of diabetes medications and they work in different ways. For example:
Biguanides: This group of drugs includes metformin, one of the most commonly used drugs to treat diabetes. This medicine will work with your liver to keep some of the glucose it makes. Meglitinides and sulfonylureas. These drugs stimulate your pancreas to make more insulin. DPP-4 inhibitors increase blood levels of incretin, thereby inhibiting glucagon secretion. Thiazolidinediones, TZDs, or glitazones: These drugs help insulin work better. They reduce insulin resistance from your cells so the pancreas doesn't have to work so hard. Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors slow the digestion of foods with complex carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, and corn. This keeps your blood sugar from rising after you eat. SGLT2 inhibitors work by allowing your kidneys to excrete extra sugar. Bile acid sequestrants lower your cholesterol and may also help lower blood sugar. You can take these medicines alone or in combination with other medicines, including insulin. Dopamine receptor agonists act directly on the brain to help it process dopamine. As a result, this can increase your sensitivity to insulin so that your body doesn't need to produce as much insulin. People taking dopamine receptor agonists should also make some lifestyle changes such as a healthy diet and exercise to make the drug more effective. The injection slows down the rate at which food leaves your stomach and makes you feel full. They also help keep your liver from making glucose during mealtimes.
GLP-1 receptor agonists help your pancreas make insulin. Some drugs of this type you take every day, while others only take once a week. Pramlintide (Symlin) works like the hormone amylin that your pancreas secretes along with insulin. You only take this medicine with insulin. Insulin therapy can be a short-term solution when other medications aren't enough to control your blood sugar. Types of insulin are grouped by how quickly they start to work and how long the effects last. You may have to use different types of insulin.
You can take insulin in a few ways:
Injection with a needle and syringe: You take the required amount of insulin into the syringe and inject yourself. You choose one of the positions such as abdomen, thighs, buttocks and biceps. Insulin pump: The pump connects to a small needle under your skin to deliver a steady amount of insulin throughout the day. Insulin Pen: It looks like a pen but has a needle at the end to inject insulin into your body Inhaler: You inhale powdered insulin. Injection port: This tube goes under your skin and allows you to use a needle and syringe or pen without having to change positions each time. You keep this injection port in place for a week and then, replace it with a new port in a new location. Jet injector: This injects insulin into your skin at high pressure instead of using a needle.

No single drug is best for treating type 2 diabetes in reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke or early death, according to a new research review. These results strengthen current recommendations, the researchers say, of using Metformin (Glumetza, Glucophage) for most patients with type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Kevin Pantalone, diabetes specialist at There are very few things that experts agree on, but this is one of them, says the Cleveland Clinic and a member of the American Endocrine Society. In the absence of contraindications or intolerance, Metformin should be the first-line drug for the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes.
Metformin can cause abdominal pain and diarrhea, so some patients cannot continue. keep using it every day. People with kidney disease in general should not take this medicine.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 29 million Americans have diabetes, mainly type 2 diabetes. The disease is often linked to obesity, which causes high blood sugar levels during menstruation. year. Over time, that can lead to complications, such as heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, and nerve damage.
There are many drugs that lower blood sugar. What is not clear is whether any of these drugs work better than the others in preventing diabetes complications and prolonging patients' lives. Currently, there is no single best drug. But the researchers were also inconclusive, saying the review trials were not specifically designed to see if any of the drugs extended patients' lives. Mainly they look at "biochemical" reactions like whether the drug lowers blood sugar.
The study gathered results from 301 clinical trials examining 9 diabetes drugs. Medications include older prophylactics such as metformin, insulin, and sulfonylureas such as glipizide (Glucotrol) and glimepiride (Amaryl). Other trials looked at newer and more expensive drugs, including thiazolidinediones such as pioglitazone (Actos), rosiglitazone (Avandia), DPP inhibitors such as sitagliptin (Januvia) and saxagliptin (Onglyza).
Many trials only tested a single drug, but more than 100 trials used a drug in combination with metformin. Overall, metformin works as well or better than other drugs at lowering blood sugar, the reviews show. When it comes to preventing complications or prolonging a patient's life, no single drug is best. There is also evidence from recent trials that two newer diabetes drugs may in fact limit the risk of dying from heart disease or stroke. Those drugs are an injection called liraglutide (Victoza) and an oral medication called empagliflozin (Jardiance).
However, metformin is still the recommended first-line drug for the treatment of diabetes, it not only lowers blood sugar but also has a low risk of hypoglycemia (lowering blood sugar to very dangerous levels) . If another drug is needed, the choice of drug should be based on the overall health of the patient and the various side effects. For example, certain drugs such as insulin and sulfonylureas are more likely to cause hypoglycemia. Other drugs can cause weight gain.
Whatever medication is used, experts stress, making lifestyle changes for people with type 2 diabetes is still the key factor. Lifestyle changes, including dietary changes and regular exercise, are extremely important to any treatment regimen.

You will need to make lifestyle changes to successfully manage your type 2 diabetes. Some of those changes are:
Weight loss: Losing 5% to 10% of your body weight - that's less than 9kg if you weighing 80kg - may reduce HbA1c levels and risk of cardiovascular disease. It can help you cut back on medications for diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Losing weight can also reduce symptoms of depression and help with sleep apnea. A healthy diet: There is no one-size-fits-all diet for diabetics. However, you'll need to pay attention to carbs, fiber, fat, and salt to control blood sugar and avoid diabetes complications. How much and when to eat is also very important. Consult a dietitian to help you plan your meals and snacks. Physical activity: From exercise to housework, these activities can lower your blood sugar. It helps your cells use insulin and helps your muscles use glucose efficiently. Remember to check your blood sugar before and after exercise. Sleep better: Not getting enough sleep can increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the first place. How long you sleep and the quality of your sleep can increase HbA1c levels. Improved sleep can help lower blood sugar readings.

Your doctor will be able to schedule you regularly for tests to assess your diabetes control. Includes:
Blood Glucose Monitoring : You will use a blood glucose meter to check your blood sugar when ordered by your doctor or purchase a separate device to monitor your blood sugar level. Regular checkups: Your doctor will check your HbA1c and cholesterol levels, along with doing tests to make sure your thyroid, liver, and kidneys are working properly. Regular eye exams: Your doctor will check for signs of retinopathy, damage to the nerves in your eyes caused by diabetes. Regular foot exams: Your doctor will check for foot problems and nerve damage in your legs. Your blood sugar readings know if your treatment is working. Your doctor will tell you how many times a day to check. It depends on the type of diabetes medicine you are taking. Over the course of your life, you will likely treat your diabetes in different ways. Sometimes the medicine doesn't work as well and you will have to switch to another option. You will also need to adjust to changes in your body as you age. Researchers are still looking for new drugs and treatments for diabetes.
Diabetes (or diabetes mellitus) is a disease that is diagnosed as early as possible. Currently, Vinmec International General Hospital is implementing a screening package for diabetes and dyslipidemia to help early detect pre-diabetes, accurately classify diabetes type, and develop a nutritional regimen. Monitor and minimize the risks and complications caused by diabetes.

Reference source: webmd.com