What is the treatment for Type 2 diabetes?
Unlike many health conditions, you mainly manage T2D on your own with medical guidance and support from your healthcare team. This could include your:
- Primary care physician (PCP) or endocrinologist.
- Registered dietitian.
- Certified diabetes care and education specialist (CDCES).
- Ophthalmologist (eye doctor).
- Dentist.
Your team should also include family members and other important people in your life. Managing T2D can be challenging — you have to make several decisions every day for it. But everything you do to improve your health is worth it.
The core features of Type 2 diabetes management include:
- Lifestyle changes, like more exercise and eating adjustments.
- Blood sugar monitoring.
- Medication.
Exercise for Type 2 diabetes
Regular activityis important for everyone. It’s even more important if you have diabetes. Exercise is good for your health because it:
- Lowers your blood sugar level without medication in the short term and long term.
- Burns calories and may help with weight loss.
- Improves blood flow and blood pressure.
- Increases your energy level and boosts your mood.
- Helps with stress management.
Talk to your provider before starting any exercise program. You may need to take special steps before, during and after physical activity, especially if you take insulin. The general goal is to get at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity physical activity.
Type 2 diabetes diet
Ask your healthcare provider or registered dietitian to recommend a meal plan that’s right for you. What you eat, how much you eat, and when you eat are all important in keeping your blood sugar levels in the range that your healthcare team recommends.
The key to eating with Type 2 diabetes is to eat a variety of nutritious foods from all food groups, in the amounts your meal plan outlines. In general, these types of foods can help support healthy blood sugar levels:
- Lean proteins, like chicken, eggs, fish and turkey.
- Non-starchy vegetables, like broccoli, green beans, salad greens and cucumbers.
- Healthy fats, like avocados, nuts, natural peanut butter and olive oil.
- Complex carbohydrates, like beans, berries, sweet potatoes and whole-wheat bread.
Blood sugar monitoring
Monitoring your blood sugar is essential to finding out how well your current treatment plan is working. It gives you information on how to manage diabetes on a daily — and sometimes even hourly — basis. The results of blood sugar monitoring can help you make decisions about food, physical activity and dosing insulin.
Several things can affect your blood sugar. You can learn to predict some of these impacts with time and practice, while others are very difficult or impossible to predict. That’s why it’s important to check your blood sugar regularly if your healthcare provider recommends doing so.
There are two main ways you can monitor your blood sugar at home if you have diabetes:
- With a glucose meter and finger stick.
- With a continuous glucose monitor (CGM).
You may choose either or both methods for a variety of reasons, such as:
- Your access to the technology, which can vary due to cost and medical insurance coverage.
- How often your healthcare provider recommends checking your blood sugar.
- The medications you’re taking.
- Your overall health.
Type 2 diabetes medications
Your healthcare provider may recommend taking medication, in addition to lifestyle changes, to manage Type 2 diabetes. These include:
- Oral diabetes medications: These are medications that you take by mouth to help manage blood sugar levels in people who have T2D but still produce some insulin. There are several types. The most commonly prescribed one is metformin. Your provider may prescribe more than one oral diabetes medication at a time to achieve the best blood glucose management.
- GLP-1 and dual GLP-1/GIP agonists: These are injectable medications that mainly help manage blood sugar levels in people with T2D. Some GLP-1 agonists can also help treat obesity.
- Insulin: Synthetic insulin directly lowers blood sugar levels. There are several types of insulin, like long-acting and short-acting types. You may inject it with syringes or pens, use inhaled insulin, or use an insulin pump.
- Other medications: You may take other medications to manage coexisting conditions, like high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
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Can Type 2 diabetes be reversed?
Type 2 diabetes is a chronic (long-term) disease, which means you must manage it for the rest of your life. There’s no cure for T2D. But you can manage it — with lifestyle changes, medication and blood sugar monitoring — in a way that keeps your blood sugar levels in a healthy range. If you stop managing it or undermanage it, your blood sugar levels will go back up.
