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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. One of the most common diabetes treatment drugs taken in tablet form is sulphonylureas, taken once or twice a day. It works by increasing natural insulin manufacture in the body, so insulin injections are unnecessary. The types of sulphonylureas available include glibenclamide, glimepiride, and chlorpropamide, and they can cause various side effects. Sulphonylureas work over a long time period so they can cause blood sugar levels to drop too low, causing a hypo. They are also known to cause nausea, stomach problems and excessive weight gain. On rare occasions diabetics taking sulphonylureas can experience a lumpy red rash on their skin. Biguanide, otherwise known as metformin, is a diabetes treatment drug taken two to three times daily. It prevents the liver from producing new glucose, and also assists insulin in carrying glucose to the body's cells. The side effects of this treatment are mild, and include an upset stomach, nausea or diarrhoea. Side effects decrease over time, and can be limited by taking biguanide tablets with food. A recent addition to the list of diabetes treatment drugs is thiazolidinediones, which has two types, pioglitazone and rosiglitazone. This type 2 diabetes treatment is designed to reduce the body's resistance to insulin, enabling diabetics to use their naturally produced insulin more efficiently. There are some side effects associated with thiazolidinediones which include weight gain, increased incidence of headache pain, and some water retention. On rare occasions diabetics may develop respiratory tract infections when taking thiazolidinediones. 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. The human body naturally produces a hormone called incretin, which regulates the amount of insulin we make, and limits glucose manufacture in the liver. DPP-4 inhibitors are a type of diabetes treatment drug that increase incretin levels, helping to control type 2 diabetes. These tablets can be taken alongside other diabetes treatment drugs such as thiazolidinediones, but should not be taken by patients who are also using insulin. 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.
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Lisa Janse is a professional writer who specializes in health topics. Learn more about coping with Diabetes by reading more useful and interesting articles on Diabetes Diets at www.sugardiabetes.net
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