Even though diabetes is not a new disease, doctors and scientists are still learning new things about how it works. Each time they learn something new about what can cause diabetes, they might also discover a new way to treat it.
This is why it may seem like there is a constant supply of new medicines for your diabetes. With so many medicines to choose from, it can be hard to figure out which are best for you. As with any major decision about your diabetes, talk to your healthcare provider to decide together what medicines you need.
It is important to remember that newer is not always better. At the same time, newer offerings do not mean that older diabetes medicines are less effective. The reason that some medicines are still used after many years is because they work. So if your diabetes is under good control right now, you probably don’t need a new medicine. You can always ask your healthcare provider if they think you are taking the most effective medicines available for your diabetes.
What are the newest medicines for type 2 diabetes?
The two problems in your body when you have type 2 diabetes are:
- Your body doesn’t make enough insulin; this is called “insulin deficiency.”
- The cells in your body cannot use insulin properly; this is called “insulin resistance.”
All of the medicines used to treat your diabetes work by helping to fix one of these problems. Different types of medicine do this in different ways.