Diabetes For Dummies, 5th Edition

Chapter 11

Medications: What You Should Know

In This Chapter

Taking pills to control blood glucose

Using insulin injections

Combining insulin and oral agents in type 2 diabetes

Avoiding drug interactions

Chapter 9 discusses some excellent surgical options available to help you address your diabetes. You may wonder why even bother with pills or shots when the surgery can take care of the problem. A few different answers may apply to you:

• You may not want surgery.
• If you do, it may be some time before you can have surgery.
• Millions of people with type 2 diabetes need the surgery, and not that many surgeons are available.
• You may not be the right candidate for surgery.

Meanwhile, keeping your blood glucose, your blood pressure, and your cholesterol under control with medications if necessary are critical to prevent complications from developing.

You don’t know how lucky you are (but I’m about to tell you). You are the beneficiary of the greatest advances in diabetes medications in the history of the disease. From 1921, when insulin was isolated and used for the first time, to ...