The key principles of medical management include:
- Regular blood glucose(and ketone) self-monitoring as a part of daily living
- Taking insulin
- Problem-solving how and when to make adjustments in your food and insulin doses to prevent high or low blood glucoses
- Understanding complications and how to screen for, prevent and treat them
Optimal management requires all of these elements; all the elements are intertwined. It is important to monitor your blood glucose to know if your treatment is successful. You need to problem solve if the blood glucose self-monitoring shows your treatment is not successful. The blood glucose self-monitoring will indicate if you need to adjust the dose of insulin. Regular screening for Diabetes-related complications may pick up a complication that is in the early stages, and early treatment usually gives the best results.
And as the term “medical management” implies, this management is done with the guidance of your medical provider and medical team.
When you have Type 1 Diabetes, your body no longer makes enough insulin, and it needs to be replaced.
This insulin replacement is known as insulin therapy which your medical provider will prescribe for you. It is important to understand goals of treatment and how insulin replacement therapy works in your body so that you can control your blood glucose more easily.
Medications and devices used to treat Type 1 Diabetes include:
- Insulin therapy: Injections that raise your insulin level and replace the insulin that you are missing
- Insulin pump therapy: Insulin delivery via a continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion device