Colombia Updates Type 2 Diabetes Treatment Guidelines
Starting this week, Colombian doctors must follow new instructions on how to treat and manage patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. For the first time in ten years, the country renewed its guidelines for the care of this disease, which is one of the most common chronic conditions nationwide today.
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Medical guides contain recommendations based on scientific evidence that health personnel must follow when treating a certain disease to standardize treatments and offer the best alternatives to patients.
The new guidelines for type 2 diabetes were promoted by the Colombian Association of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, with participation from representatives of more than six scientific entities in the country.
What is the news?
The last time this guide was modified was in 2016. Katherine Restrepo Erazo, an endocrinologist who participated in the process, explained that in the past decade “there has been a very crucial change in the knowledge and therapeutic tools that we currently have available for the management of diabetes.”
The new recommendations focus on preventing the main cause of death for diabetics: cardiovascular diseases.Until a few years ago, existing medications controlled blood sugar levels but had no impact on cardiovascular or kidney risk, or on weight in overweight or obese patients. now,drugs proven to affect these factors are included in the Colombian guide,making them the most scientifically recommended treatments. These are SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 agonists, the latter also known for treating obesity, with Ozempic being a well-known brand name.
The origin of SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 agonists
Research into GLP-1 agonists (a substance that binds to a cellular receptor and produces a response) began in the 1970s to treat type 2 diabetes, the most common form, which occurs when the body cannot use insulin effectively or does not produce enough.
Ozempic is part of this “family” of medications.Its active ingredient, semaglutide, stimulates insulin secretion and decreases glucagon, a hormone produced by the intestine that increases blood glucose levels.
When we eat,several hormones are involved in digestion. Glucagon is one of them, belonging to the incretin family. when food reaches the stomach, nutrient absorption begins. Carbohydrates signal the pancreas, the insulin factory. medications like Ozempic reduce glucagon production, which is already a hormone naturally present in the body.