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Oral Therapy
If meal planning, better eating habits, weight loss and regular exercise do not keep blood sugar in your target range, then medication to lower blood glucose is generally prescribed. These medications are called oral hypoglycemic agents, oral hypoglycemics or oral agents. The use of these medications is called oral therapy.
Oral hypoglycemics lower blood-sugar levels by increasing the amount of insulin the pancreas secretes and by helping the body use that insulin more effectively.
First-generation drugs
• Acetohexamide: Usual daily dose is 250-1,500 mg.
• Chlorpropamide: Usual daily dose is 100-750 mg.
• Tolazamide: Usual daily dose is 100-1,000 mg.
• Tolbutamide: Usual daily dose is 500-2,000 mg.
Second-generation drugs
• Glyburide - dose: 1.25-20 mg.
• Glipizide - dose: 2.5-40 mg.
These drugs are more potent than the first generation drugs. So, they need only smaller doses.
Oral hypoglycemics will not help in case of Type I diabetes. They work only if the body's beta cells are already producing some insulin. Because the beta cells in people with type-I diabetes have been irrevocably destroyed, these drugs can do nothing for them.
Oral hypoglycemics are found to work best on people who develop diabetes after age 40, whose disease is newly discovered and who take less than 40 units of insulin a day. They aren't recommended for pregnant women, because the effect on the fetus is not known. |
