New methods of treating diabetes mellitus and modern drugs

Patients diagnosed with diabetes know that this disease is currently incurable. There are two types of diabetes – insulin-dependent (type 1) and non-insulin dependent (type 2).

Adequate therapy only helps to control sugar, and prevent the development of complications such as retinopathy, polyneuropathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, trophic ulcers, diabetic foot.

That is why people always keep an eye out for new methods for treating diabetes. To date, all over the world there is evidence that the disease can be completely cured with surgical intervention for transplantation of the pancreas or beta cells. Conservative methods allow only effective control of the disease.

Treatment of type 2 diabetes

With regard to the effectiveness of diabetes management, it has been proven that if you carefully control your sugar in the body, you can reduce the likelihood of complications.

Based on this information, it can be concluded that the main goal of pathology therapy is the complete compensation of carbohydrate metabolism disorders.

In the modern world, it is not possible to completely rid the patient of the disease, but if he is well managed, then you can live a full life.

Before telling what the latest drugs for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus have appeared, you need to consider the features of traditional therapy:

1. Firstly, conservative treatment depends on the individual characteristics of the patient, the clinical picture of the pathology. The attending doctor examines the patient’s condition, recommends diagnostic measures.
2. Secondly, traditional therapy is always complex, and includes not only medicines, but also diet, physical activity, sports, sugar control in the body, and regular visits to the doctor.
3. Thirdly, in type 2 diabetes, it is necessary to eliminate the symptoms of decompensation. And for this, drugs are recommended for diabetes mellitus, which lower the concentration of glucose in the body, which in turn makes it possible to achieve compensation for carbohydrate metabolism.
4. In a situation where there is no therapeutic effect, or it is insufficient, then the dosage of tablets to reduce sugar is increased , and then they can be combined with other drugs of a similar effect. 
5. Fourthly, this method of treating the second type of diabetes is quite long, and in terms of time it can take from several months to a couple of years.

Modern treatment methods

New in the treatment of pathology is that the treatment regimen for diabetes is changing. In other words, there is a transformation of methods of combination of already known methods of therapy. The fundamental difference between the treatment of type 2 diabetes with new methods is that doctors set a goal – to achieve diabetes mellitus compensation in the shortest possible time, and normalize sugar in the body at the required level, without fear of drops.

Treatment of diabetes with modern methods includes three main stages:

1. Using Metformin. It works well with insulin and sulfonylureas. Metformin is an affordable medication that costs only 60-80 rubles. The tablets should not be used in a patient who is insulin dependent (relevant for type 1 diabetes).
2. Prescribing several types of hypoglycemic medications. This technique can significantly increase the effectiveness of treatment.
3. The introduction of insulin. Insulin pumps are used for convenience. It should be noted that the indications for insulin therapy are insulin-dependent type 1 diabetes and decompensated type 2 diabetes.

Hemotherapy (blood transfusion) can be used as an adjunct. It is believed that this unconventional method will help reduce the likelihood of progression of vascular complications.

In type 2 diabetes, Metformin helps to reduce sugar in the patient’s body, increases the susceptibility of soft tissues to the hormone, enhances peripheral sugar uptake, increases oxidative processes in the body, and helps to reduce the absorption of glucose in the digestive tract.

The concept of treatment with this drug is that to achieve all the therapeutic effects listed above, it is possible only if you increase the dosage of Metformin by 50 or even 100%.

As for the second point, the purpose of these actions is to increase the production of the hormone in the body, while reducing the patient’s body immunity to insulin.

It is known that the basis for the treatment of type 1 diabetes is the administration of insulin. It is injections that are prescribed to patients immediately after the diagnosis of the disease. As practice shows, the second type of pathology also often requires insulin therapy.

Features of insulin therapy for type 2 diabetes:

• Prescribed only when new drugs and their combinations did not give the required therapeutic effect.
• The introduction of insulin is carried out against the background of tight control of sugar in the patient’s body.
• Usually insulin is injected until the sugar is stable. If a diabetic develops diabetes mellitus decompensation, then lifelong insulin therapy is indicated.

Dipeptidyl Peptidase Inhibitor – IV

Just two years ago, a promising new drug appeared on the world market – a dipeptidyl peptidase inhibitor – IV. The first drug that represents this group is the substance sitagliptin (trade name Januvia).

The principle of action of this drug is closely related to the biological activity of the digestive tract hormones. Numerous studies of the drug have shown that the drug quickly lowers blood sugar on an empty stomach.

In addition, the number of changes in sugar in the body after eating decreases, a significant decrease in the content of glycated hemoglobin is observed. And most importantly, the drug helps to improve the functionality of pancreatic cells.

Features of the drug:

1. The remedy does not in any way affect the patient’s body weight, therefore it is permissible to prescribe it to patients with overweight or obesity at any stage.
2. A distinctive characteristic is the duration of the effect of the application. The duration of the effect is 24 hours, which allows you to take the medicine once a day.

Pancreas transplant

If we consider the latest methods of treating diabetes mellitus, then we can note pancreas transplantation. It happens that the operation is not radical. For example, only the islets of Langerhans or beta cells can be transplanted into a patient. Israel is actively practicing technology that involves the transplantation of modified stem cells that turn into beta cells.

These new treatments for diabetes cannot be called simple, so they are very expensive. On average, the price of a progressive procedure will be 100-200 thousand US dollars (taking into account the costs of the donor body). Before the operation, the patient must undergo a comprehensive diagnosis. By the way, with the development of acute decompensation of diabetes, transplantation is contraindicated, since the patient may not recover from anesthesia. In addition, with decompensation, postoperative wounds heal poorly.