Presently, it is necessary for all patients
with type 1 diabetes to take insulin by injection or pump. This is because they are profoundly deficient in insulin, which is essential for life. No other
therapies can restore insulin in a person
with type 1 diabetes apart from giv- ing the hormone itself.
In the case of type 2 diabetes,
the majority of patients
can be controlled with one or more pills for their dia- betes, usually for several years. The available types of oral medication for diabetes usually either improve the body’s ability to make insulin,
or make the body tissues
more sensitive to it. Frequently, patients will
take a combination of medicines that do both. A little over a decade ago,
only
one type of pill was available for
dia- betes in the United States but now there are at least six different classes of
pills. Thus, by taking a combination of these,
it
is
possible for people
with diabetes to remain off insulin for longer, sometimes for many years. In addition
to the blood glucose level, there are other factors that predict whether a person with type 2
diabetes will be likely to require insulin
therapy earlier. People with type 2 diabetes
who are not significantly overweight
tend
to
require
insulin
treatment fairly early. About one out of every five people with type 2 diabetes actually seems to have a partial form of type 1
diabetes (the abbreviated name of which is LADA, short for “latent autoimmune diabetes of the adult”),
based on clinical features, presence of related condi- tions or
measurement of markers of immune attack against the
insulin-producing cells
of the pancreas
(known as autoantibodies) in the blood. This partial
form of type
1 diabetes appears to have
become arrested before it became very severe. However, people with LADA
usually respond better
to insulin
treat- ment than to pills.
In spite of the presence of indicators of LADA, the usual approach is to treat a patient with pills whenever it appears safe to do so. This means that certain people with a high blood sugar level who are being given a trial of pills will need to be followed
very closely for the first few days or weeks to be sure
that the blood
sugar is responding. They will also need to check their own glucose
and report these values to their physician or
diabetes educator.
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