Ozempic® (semaglutide) injection is a once-weekly noninsulin medicine that, along with diet and exercise, may help improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. Read Important Safety Information, including boxed warning. Navigation-Top
Once-Per-Week Diabetes Medications. The concept of a once-weekly injection helps to make life as a diabetic easier and more convenient. Instead of having to remember daily injections, people with diabetes will only need to use their needles once a week, drastically cutting down the number of injections.
Insulin is necessary for blood sugars to enter cells, so being insulin resistant means your body doesn't handle blood sugars very well,” said Arti Bhan, M.D., an endocrinologist who specializes in diabetes care.
What other injectable medicines treat type 2 diabetes? Besides insulin, other types of injected medicines are available. These medicines help keep your blood glucose level from going too high after you eat.
Inside the cells, glucose is stored and later used for energy. When you have type 2 diabetes, your fat, liver, and muscle cells do not respond correctly to insulin. This is called insulin resistance. As a result, blood sugar does not get into these cells to be stored for energy.
Better control of blood sugar and reduction of diabetes complications through insulin therapy could convince people to choose this method. However, patients might refuse insulin therapy due to its painful injection, limitations in daily activities, and hypoglycemia.
All people with type 1 diabetes, and some people with type 2 diabetes, need to take insulin to help control their blood sugar levels. (The box below lists the different types of insulin.) The goal in treating diabetes is to keep the blood sugar level within a normal range.
If you have type 1 diabetes, insulin therapy is vital for replacing the insulin your body doesn't produce. Sometimes, people with type 2 diabetes or gestational diabetes need insulin therapy if other treatments haven't been able to keep blood glucose levels within the desired range.
If you take long-acting insulin, this may not be necessary. But if you use shorter-acting or mealtime insulin, check your blood sugar prior to a meal and then give yourself the proper amount of insulin shortly before eating. And if you skip a meal, you shouldn't administer insulin.
Because of the largely unrestricted insulin signaling, hyperinsulinemia increases the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease and decreases health span and life expectancy. In epidemiological studies, high-dose insulin therapy is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Type 1 diabetes was once called insulin-dependent or juvenile diabetes. It usually develops in children, teens, and young adults, but it can happen at any age. Type 1 diabetes is less common than type 2—about 5-10% of people with diabetes have type 1.
Let's talk about the physical process that sets in when a person with diabetes does not get enough insulin into their body. Very quickly, severe hyperglycemia sets in. That is high blood sugar that leads to a state called diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), which untreated leads to death.
A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital finds that more than 40 percent of patients refuse a physician's recommendation of insulin therapy.
But if denial goes on too long and interferes with getting the care you need, it's not just counterproductive: It's dangerous. Diabetics who refuse to acknowledge their illness are likely to develop serious diabetic complications, including circulatory and eye disorders, kidney disease, and heart disease.