While diet, exercise and weight control provide a strong foundation, sometimes it's not enough and medication is needed to help the body achieve and maintain a target blood sugar level. One of the medications available today to help those with diabetes manage their condition is Byetta, an injectable medicine used to treat type 2 diabetes. Byetta has been available to patients since April 2005.
What does Byetta do?
Byetta lowers the level of blood sugar levels measured in your hemoglobin. In clinical trials of Byetta, used together with metformin or a sulfonylurea, participants were able to reduce their blood glucose levels, as measured by a drop in A1C, by almost one percent in 30 weeks. This was in a setting where the researchers told clinical trial participants to make no other changes in their life.
How does Byetta work?
According to information from the Mayo Clinic, Byetta works by stimulating the release of insulin from the pancreas. It's in a class of drugs called incretin mimetics, which means these drugs are made to act like, or mimic incretin, a natural hormone in the bloodstream that can normalize blood sugar levels. Byetta can also stop the pancreas from producing too much glucogen, a hormone that tells the liver to release its stored sugar into the blood. Additionally, Byetta can slow the emptying of food from the stomach, which can help people eat less and lose weight.
How should Byetta be used?
Byetta comes in a prefilled dosing pen that patients used to inject themselves twice a day, usually about an hour before breakfast and dinner. According to consumer medication information, patients generally start out on a low dose of Byetta and increase dosages if blood sugar levels do not improve after one month of use. Each Byetta pen should contain 60 doses, or one month of medicine.
Is Byetta safe?
Maria Collazo-Clavell, M.D., an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic, asserts the most common side effect among Byetta users is mild to moderate nausea, which eventually improves in most patients.
Weight loss is often a desirable side effect of Byetta. Collazo-Clavell wrote the drug can slow the movement of food from the stomach into the intestines. In many cases, this means people taking Byetta might feel full or satisfied longer and eat less. In clinical trials, participants lost an average of 6 pounds over the course of 30 weeks. It's important to note that Byetta hasn't been studied in people without diabetes and has no off-label uses.
Adding Byetta can be one way to further manage and control diabetes. Talking to a physician or care team can help patients make informed decisions about the medications they take and their diabetes treatments.
