There is a saying, “there can be too much of a good thing.”
Perhaps you’ve had diabetes for a while and you take your medication faithfully. Diabetes is a progressive disease, so over time you may have had to “up” your medication regimen. Unfortunately, when it comes to using oral medications as a tool to manage Type 2 diabetes, it usually comes as an add-on.
What I mean is we typically start with diet and exercise as a way to manage diabetes, until that’s not enough. Then we’ll progress to Metformin usually, until that is not enough. Then we’ll add Januvia or Glipizide or some other oral medication, until that is not enough. And on and on until we have “exhausted” our use of lifestyle changes and oral medications to help manage your condition. We use this approach so that we can optimize the function of multiple organ systems like the liver, kidneys, pancreas and muscles to help manage your diabetes. That can be super frustrating, expensive and come at a cost in regards to side effects.
If you are going down the road of having multiple oral medications to manage your diabetes, have a discussion with your doctor about your health goals.
Would you rather stop the oral medications and switch over to insulin?
Would you rather try a more invasive approach to weight loss, if that’s appropriate, to help manage your diabetes?
Or, would you rather continue to get unique with oral medications, alongside diet and exercise, to help control your blood sugar?
I will say, if you are on short and long-acting insulin, along with multiple oral medications it’s time to have a conversation with your doctor or care team to see if all of that together is necessary. Sometimes with our add-on approach, we forget that there comes a time to address medication reduction, especially if we aren’t seeing the effects we once were with that medication.
Remember, if you need help trying to figure out how to navigate your diabetes care and management, One Bite Nutrition is here to help support you in reaching your health goals.
Do not hesitate to reach out. We also have the Diabetes 4 Me program you may be interested in!
