Diabetes experts recently issued a consensus statement in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism calling for more individualized treatment approaches for the nearly 250 million people worldwide who have Type 2 diabetes. Currently, only about half of people being treated for this condition reach their blood glucose goals.
Prompted by recent scientific advances that have given researchers a better understanding of various genetic factors that play a role in Type 2 diabetes, the experts suggested a number of approaches for determining the most effective type of treatment for each individual. Recommendations include expanding research to explain why people have such different responses to different diabetes treatments, reexamining existing diabetes data in hopes of extracting new insights, and developing new technologies to identify the various diabetes subtypes.
According to statement coauthor Robert Smith, MD, “Recent advances in genetics such as the identification of the responsible genes for several forms of Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY)…have established precedents linking specific drug therapies to defined subtypes of patients….As more genetic factors related to type 2 diabetes are identified and as our understanding of the progression of the disease evolves, we can expect to gain precision in identifying the best drug choices for individual patients and to more effectively halt the progression of diabetes.”
For more information, read the article “Considering Diabetes Treatment, Experts Say One Size Does Not Fit All” or see the statement’s abstract in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
Is your current diabetes management plan working for you? Or do you think that your blood glucose would be better controlled with a more personalized treatment regimen? Let us know with a comment below!
