Liraglutide Insulin Diabetes Treatment

liraglutide insulin diabetes treatment

Victoza (liraglutide) is the same as the insulin-controlling hormone that naturally occurs in your body. Consequently, it also controls blood sugar and digestion. It is used in adjunction with exercise and diet to help improve blood sugar control in adults with type 2 diabetes.

Furthermore, this drug may also help to reduce the risk of severe heart problems like stroke, heart attack, and heart diseases. Usually, it is given after other diabetes drugs have been tried but without recording success. It is not used to treat type 1 diabetes.

Liraglutide Insulin Diabetes Treatment

The drug was approved in the year 2010. It operates with a round-the-clock duration of action and therefore is taken through injection once in a day.

Victoza shows several benefits like improving your blood glucose control while helping with weight loss.

How Does Liraglutide Insulin Diabetes Treatment Work?

The drug helps patients suffering from diabetes to manage blood sugar. Liraglutide operates through stimulating insulin secretion and suppressing glucagon secretion in a glucose-dependent manner. It also delays gastric, or stomach, emptying, and in the process helps in slowing down glucose absorption by the stomach. It also reduces appetite.

Who Can Take the drug?

Liraglutide insulin diabetes treatment is prescribed to individuals suffering from uncontrolled type 2 diabetes. It complements diet and exercise. The dose of liraglutide prescribed on NHS is 1.2 milligrams, though some may be up to 1.8 milligrams.

How to Take Victoza

The drug is injected subcutaneously (under the skin) in areas like the stomach, upper arm, or thigh. It is injected only once in a day.

Victoza should be injected at the same time every day. Therefore, it is recommended that you select a suitable time of the day that is not only convenient but one you will easily remember. 

Liraglutide may be taken alongside other diabetes medications like sulphonylureas and metformin.

The Side Effects of Victoza

The drug has some side effects and the most common ones linked with it include:

  • Nausea
  • Headaches
  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhea

Furthermore, the less common ones may include indigestion, loss of appetite, constipation, and acid reflux. Victoza, when taken with metformin, has recorded no problems of major hypoglycemia. However, this is more common if this drug is taken in combination with sulphonylurea.

Important Information

The Liraglutide Saxenda brand is used in combination with exercise and diet so as to help individuals lose weight if they are having some health conditions. Note that Saxenda is not used in treating both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

You should never use Victoza when you are suffering from multiple endocrine type 2,  or if you have a family or personal history of the medullary thyroid cancer, diabetic ketoacidosis, or insulin-independent diabetes.

Is the Drug Clinically Proven?

A number of studies have shown the drug may be more effective compared to Byetta. After some 26-week research, patients who took Victoza experienced some greater reduction in their average blood sugar levels when compared to patients who took Byetta.

Besides, several patients prefer it because it is a once-a-day dose.

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