A chronic condition, Type 2 diabetes affects how your body uses glucose, the body's main fuel source. Either your body resists the effects of insulin or doesn't produce enough insulin. Type 2 diabetes is manageable but not curable. Treatment includes exercise, weight and diet management, and often, medication. Without treatment, Type 2 diabetes affects eyesight, feet, blood pressure and skin, and can be life threatening.
Insulin
Insulin, the most common diabetes medication, replaces or supplements a diabetic person's natural insulin. People with diabetes require insulin because their bodies don't use insulin properly or don't produce enough. There are more than 20 types of insulin sold in the U.S. In order to get into your blood, insulin must be injected into the fat layer under your skin.
Diabetes Pills
Diabetes pills most often work for people recently diagnosed with diabetes and people requiring no or very little insulin. The pills, used in conjunction with exercise and meal planning, keep blood glucose levels low. Diabetes pills sometimes stop working for unknown reasons, at which point other medications are prescribed.
Pramlintide
Pramlintide (brand name Symlin)--a synthetic form of the hormone amylin--works along with insulin and glucagon, another hormone, to create normal blood glucose levels. For some Type 2 diabetics, pramlintide is prescribed in order to meet normal glucose levels.
Exenatide
Exenatide (brand name Byetta) lowers blood glucose levels by increasing secretion of insulin. This new class of diabetes drug called incretin mimetics is a synthetic version of a naturally occurring hormone that lowers blood glucose levels.
