Basic Treatments on Diabetes

Lately, I have been reading a lot of articles and research works from the internet on the treatments of diabetes. You can find from the internet a wealth of information on any given topic, including the topic on diabetes and its treatments. You just have to sit down and find time to browse, read and do some research to find out what you are looking for.
In my reading, I have come across various suggestions on treatments of Type 2 Diabetes. There are the basic, standardize, traditional and common treatments that are usually offered by your doctor when you were diagnosed with diabetes. In the past few years ,however, there had been advances made( in terms of new findings and medications)on diabetes 2, but most of which are still under study (and/or under trial)and have not been generally circulated or approved by the FDA. But this I can say, the new findings and research being currently undertaken are very promising. I am very optimistic that someday, and hopefully not in the very distant future, our scientists and researchers would be able to find and discover a permanent cure of this dreaded and chronic disease.

Although most of the data and information about the treatments of diabetes 2 that I am writing here could be found on the internet, I would just like to summarize and share them with you for your immediate information and study. At the outset, however, I would like to say that these are treatments offered by various people of different professions and backgrounds. So, before you embark on any given treatment, it is very important that you first have to consult with your doctor, or with your attending physician or medical team, if this is good for you or not.

Those who have been diagnosed with diabetes, we all have been informed and instructed by our doctors some basic and necessary things we need to do to regulate and control our blood sugar. These are what I call the basic, standardize and common treatments usually offered by our doctors or medical team. These treatments include:

1. Monitoring your blood sugar.

Depending on your treatment plan, you need to check and record your blood sugar level once or twice a day or several times a week. A careful monitoring is the only way to make sure that your blood sugar level remains within your target range.

2. Healthy Eating


Although a lot of books had been written about diabetes diet, in my opinion, there is no really diabetes diet. As a diabetic, we still need plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains – foods that are high in nutrition and low in fat and calories – a fewer animal products and sweets.

What we need to do is to consult our dietician and have a meal plan. As diabetic, what and how much to eat can be a challenge. But consistency is the name of the game. To keep our blood sugar on an even keel, we try to eat the same amount of food with the same proportion of carbohydrates, and fats at the same time every day.

3. Physical Activity

It is said that regular exercise, in any form, lowers blood sugar and can help reduce the risk of developing complications of diabetes. As little as 20 or 30 minutes of walking 3 times a week has a proven beneficial effect. Any exercise is beneficial; no matter how light or how long; some exercise is better than no exercise.

Choose some activities that you enjoy, such as walking, swimming or biking. What is most important is making physical activity a part of our daily routine. Stretching and strength training exercises are important, too. If you haven’t been active for a while, start slowly and build up gradually.

Check your blood sugar before any activity. You might need to eat a snack before exercising to help prevent low blood sugar.

4. Diabetes medication and Insulin Therapy

It’s uplifting to know that some people who have type 2 diabetes can manage their blood sugar with diet and exercise alone, but many need diabetes medications or insulin therapy.

Many oral or injected medications can be used to treat type 2 diabetes. For some, they need insulin therapy as well. In addition, your doctor might prescribe low-dose aspirin therapy to help prevent heart and blood vessel disease.

These are some of the oral medicines that are usually prescribed to treat diabetes:

· Oral sulfonylureas (like glimepiride, gluburide, and tolazamide) trigger the pancreas to make more insulin.
· Biguanides(Metformin) tell the liver to decrease its production of glucose, which increase glucose levels in the blood stream.
· Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors (such as acarbose)decrease the absorption of carbohydrates from the digestive tract, thereby lowering the after-meal glucose levels.
· Thiazolidinediones (such as rosiglitazone) help insulin work better at the cell site. In essence, they increase the cell’s sensitivity(responsiveness) to insulin.
· Meglitinides (including repaglinide and nateglinide)trigger the pancreas to make more insulin in response to how much glucose is in the blood.

If you continue to have poor blood glucose control despite lifestyle changes and using oral medicines, your doctor will prescribe insulin. Insulin may also be prescribed if you have had a bad reaction to oral medicines.

Insulin preparations differ in how fast they start to work and how long they work. The health-care professional will determine the appropriate type of insulin to use and will counsel you on what time of day to use it.

5. Continuing Care

According to the National Institute of Health, a person with type 2 diabetes should have a visit with a diabetes care provider every three months. A thorough three-month evaluation includes:

· Glucosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is weighted three-month average of what your blood glucose has been. This test measures how much glucose has been sticking to the red blood cells. It also indicates how much glucose has been sticking to other cells. A high HbA1c is an indicator of risk for long-term complications. Currently, the ADA recommends an HbA1c of less than 7% to protect oneself from complications. The test should be done every three months.
· Blood pressure check.
· Foot and skin examination.
· Ophthalmoscopy examination.
· Neurological examination.

The following evaluations should be done at least annually:

· Random microalbumin (urine test for protein)
· BUN and serum creatinine.
· Serum cholesterol, HDL, and triglycerides.
· ECG.
· Dilated retinal exam.

Since this is a new thing for all those afflicted with diabetes, treating and managing this disease may seem complicated at times. But our diabetes health care team is there for us. We are told that if we comply and do the basic treatments as listed above, our blood sugar levels can return to a healthier range.