Over 18 million people in the USA have diabetes with the majority of diabetics having Type 2 Diabetes. Type 2 Diabetics have lost their ability to turn blood sugar into energy for one of two reasons, either they don't produce enough insulin for their bodies to use or their bodies just don't use the blood sugar correctly, either way their blood sugar levels will need to be controlled by diet, exercise and medication.
Type 2 Diabetics use oral medications to lower blood sugar levels and the most common of these drugs are sulfonylurea’s that encourages the diabetic’s body to create more insulin. When diabetic oral medications fail, due to the diabetics reactions to the oral medications or quite possible the patient is not following their diabetic health care provider’s advice. Doctors are offering Byetta as a new option to work along with their patient's current medications.
Byetta is similar to a human gut hormone called GLP-1, however Byetta is really a synthetic man made compound based on the saliva of the Gila monster. The reasoning behind the Gila’s saliva has to do with the fact the hormone produced in their saliva kills their appetite and they can go for months without food.
Within 48 hours most patients start noticing a lack of desire for food and the sight and smell of food does not interest them. Experiencing a lack of interest in food plus the fact that the Byetta is allowing the patient’s body to work more efficiently they start noticing that their blood sugars levels were lowering. Byetta give patients control over blood sugar levels, a decreased desire for food, and most important is the benefit of reducing a patient’s A1c level.
There are two common side effects to using Byetta, the first is nausea and the second is a drop in blood sugar levels. Many patients experience a wave of nausea when first starting out but within a few days the nausea will go away. Patients will experience times of fast dropping blood sugar levels and they need to stay in close contact with their diabetic health care team so that changes can be made in the medications that they take, both oral and insulin.
Byetta comes in pen style cartridges, using ultra-thin screw on needles, but don't let the fact that Byetta is an inject able product, stop you from trying it, patients have to look to see if the needle has really pierced the skin before I inject the dosage due to how fine these new needles are.
Byetta is not for everyone but ask your diabetic health care team for more information on this drug and discuss with them on whether Byetta is right for you.
The author, Lorrie Craven has had Type 2 Diabetes for 12 years, you can find other articles, recipes and personal stories by Lorrie at
Diabetic Health Today.
