ABSTRACT
Type 1 diabetes may occur at any age and involves complete loss of insulin secretion due to pancreatic B cell destruction usually by an autoimmune process. Type 2 diabetes occurs predominantly in the over-40 age group and in people with abdominal obesity. Everyone involved in treating Type 2 diabetic patients should understand all of these, and how and why they can be combined with the sulfonylureas and meglitinides. The treating Type 1 diabetes always involves the regular subcutaneous injection of insulin, life-long. Detailed knowledge of this physiology is not essential to understand how current antidiabetic drugs work, for they act on a limited number of effector sites. Several commonly prescribed oral antidiabetic drugs act along the pathway by which raised plasma glucose causes insulin release. The antidiabetic drugs are: metformin, pioglitazone, gliptins, exenatide, acarbose, and dapagliflozin.
