Antidiabetic Drug

An antidiabetic drug can be used to treat diabetes. This is accomplished by lowering the levels of glucose in the blood. Most types of antidiabetic drug medications are administered in an oral fashion. The exception to this are pramlintide, exenatide and insulin; all of which are types of antidiabetic drug medications.

As every diabetic patient is different the type of antidiabetic drug that works best can vary. Factors which may influence the selection of an antidiabetic drug include the type of diabetes as well as the patient's age.

There are two different types of diabetes.

Type I diabetes is caused by an insufficient amount of insulin. The type of antidiabetic drug that must commonly be used with this type of diabetes is insulin. In this case, the insulin antidiabetic drug must be either inhaled or injected.

Type II diabetes is a type of diabetes in which there is an insulin resistance. As a result the type of anti diabetic drug that is used must increase the cell's ability to accept insulin or must help the body to create more insulin. Several different types of antidiabetic drug medications can be used and be quite effective in treating Type II diabetes. In some cases, it may be necessary to use a combination of different antidiabetic drug medications.

There are six categories of anti diabetic drug medications. These categories are insulin, alphaglucosidase inhibitors, sufonylureas, biguanides, thiazolidinediones and meglintinides.

Insulin is often effective in both types of diabetes.

Sulfonylureas works by increasing the production of insulin.

Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors inhibit the ability to complex carbohydrates to be converted to glucose. It should be noted that conversion is not actually prevented but rather delayed.

The bioguanide class of antidiabetic drug medications works to decrease the production of glucose.

In the meglitinide class of drugs, the purpose is to stimulate the production of insulin.

The thiazolidinedione class of drugs work to reduce the production of glucose in the liver while also increasing the uptake of glucose in the muscle cells.