Introduction: Medications for Type 2 Diabetes

Some people with type 2 diabetes can effectively control their blood glucose level by watching what they eat, exercising, and, if necessary, losing weight. Sometimes, you can make your body use insulin better (and therefore reduce your insulin resistance) through those lifestyle changes. However, that’s not always possible, and that’s why there are medications your doctor can prescribe to help control your blood glucose level and type 2 diabetes.

 

Over the years, many medications have come out to treat type 2 diabetes. Your doctor and diabetes treatment team will work with you carefully to figure out what medication or medications are best for you.

 

From this article, you can learn the basics about each general medication type; it should give you a solid understanding of the drugs so that you can better talk to you doctor. The generic name of each drug is given, and in parentheses, we give an example of a brand name of that drug.

 

First, we'll discuss the medications that have been around longer, and then we'll move into the newer, more recently developed medications for type 2 diabetes.