Subcutaneous insulin to control blood sugar is a daily treatment for many people with diabetes. Clinically, for patients with type 2 diabetes, oral hypoglycemic drugs are ineffective, or combined with a series of complications such as diabetic nephropathy, generally require additional insulin therapy, in most cases, the blood sugar can be controlled within a reasonable range after adding insulin, but insulin injection also has its obvious disadvantages, that is, the patient's compliance is not high.
Generally speaking, according to the patient's physical condition, the number of insulin injections is divided into 1-4 times a day, and if the blood sugar is well controlled, it can be injected once a day, if the blood sugar is not well controlled, or in the period of intensive insulin therapy, it needs to be injected multiple times a day, which greatly reduces the patient's compliance. Because needles are needed every day, many patients are prone to deterioration due to their inability to persevere.
Therefore, many patients will ask: Is there a long-acting hypoglycemic drug injected under the skin?
The answer is yes, this new class of hypoglycemic drugs is called glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA), and unlike traditional hypoglycemic drugs, these hypoglycemic drugs can not only lower glucose, but also help patients achieve multiple benefits.
GLP-1RA drug, the gospel of "three high" patients!
In recent years, according to relevant statistics, the number of people suffering from diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia in the mainland has reached hundreds of millions, but the rate of meeting the "three highs" is extremely low. We all know that diabetes is not terrible, but what is terrible is related complications, and diabetes combined with hypertension and hyperlipidemia will greatly increase the risk of microvascular and other complications and death.
Therefore, diabetic patients should take into account cardiovascular risks while controlling blood glucose, and comprehensively control blood pressure, blood lipids and other indicators.
Glucagon-like peptide-1 is an insulinotropic hormone secreted by intestinal cells, which promotes the synthesis and secretion of insulin, inhibits the secretion and release of glucagon, and then lowers blood sugar by acting on pancreatic α and β cells. Because of its remarkable hypoglycemic effect, it is widely used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. However, with the continuous research and experimentation of it, it has been found that this class of drugs can not only lower blood sugar, but also have unique advantages in other aspects.
1. Cardiovascular protection
Studies have shown that GLP-1 can also act on the heart, increase cardiac output, play a protective role in the heart, compared with placebo, the use of GLP-1 can significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and all-cause mortality, and has a significant effect on improving the cardiovascular risk of patients with type 2 diabetes. The American College of Cardiology has recommended GLP-1 as one of the first-line treatments for patients with type 2 diabetes who have atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease or high-risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
2. Protect the kidneys and reduce the risk of hypoglycemia
GLP-1 plays a role in protecting the kidneys by reducing inflammation and inhibiting oxidative stress, and can be used in patients with mild to moderate renal insufficiency without the need to adjust the dose. In addition, GLP-1RA alone does not increase the risk of hypoglycemia in older adults.
3. Inject once a week, and the patient's compliance is high
Depending on the length of time the drug acts, the drug can be divided into short-acting, long-acting and ultra-long-acting preparations. Among them, the ultra-long-acting preparation can be injected subcutaneously once a week, which can greatly improve patient compliance and improve treatment outcomes.
Semaglutide, which we are most familiar with, is an ultra-long-acting formulation of GLP-1RA drugs, which can be injected once a week. At present, semaglutide is also the first and only weekly formulation with cardiovascular indications in mainland China, which can assist patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus to jointly manage multiple cardiometabolic risk factors.
Of course, in addition to lowering blood sugar, we also know that semaglutide has a weight-loss effect, and many overweight patients regularly inject this drug to lose weight, and have achieved good results. What we should note here is that although semaglutide can reduce weight, the current indication for semaglutide injection in mainland China is only hypoglycemia, and the indication for weight loss has not been officially approved, because this drug will have a series of side effects when used for weight loss, and whether the weight will regain after stopping the drug, what is the dosage of weight loss drugs, etc., this series of problems has not been fully clinically tested, so it is not recommended to use this drug specifically for weight loss.
Write at the end: In addition to taking medication regularly on time, diabetic patients should also pay attention to improving their lifestyle, healthy diet, scientific exercise, regular work and rest, etc., and at the same time pay attention to physical abnormalities, do regular examinations, and strive for the greatest benefit in combination with their own conditions.
- (1) During the medication, sugar friends should pay attention to monitoring the changes in their blood sugar, and also need to pay attention to the increase or decrease of weight.
- (2) Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus with cardiovascular disease should also monitor changes in blood pressure, blood lipids, heart rate and other indicators.
- (3) Patients with liver and kidney insufficiency need to pay extra attention to liver and kidney function indicators and undergo relevant reexaminations regularly.