Insulin

• In healthy people, the pancreas produces insulin in the amount necessary to allow the body to remove glucose from the blood stream. People with type 1 diabetes need injectable insulin; people with type 2 diabetes may need insulin when the disease progresses.
  
  

DASH Diet

• Losing weight, exercising and following a diet such as DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) that provides plenty of fruits, vegetables and fewer fats and refined sugars can help people maintain and regain their metabolic health.
  
  

Insulin Production Boosters

• Chlorpropamide, glipizide (Glucotrol from Pfizer), glimepiride (Amaryl from sanofi aventis), repaglinide (Prandin from Novo Nordisk), and nateglinide (Starlix from Novartis) induce the pancreas to produce more insulin.
  
  

Glucose Inhibitors and Insulin Sensitizers

• Metformin, pioglitazone (Actos from Takeda), and rosiglitazone (Avandia from GlaxoSmithKline) make muscle tissue more sensitive to insulin, meaning the muscles can remove more glucose from the blood stream.
  
  

Enzyme Booster

• Exanatide (Byetta from Lilly) and sitagliptin (Januvia from Merck) keep an essential hormone known as glucagon-like peptide 1(GLP-1) circulating in the blood.
  
  

Starch Blockers

• Acarbose (Precose from Bayer) and meglitol (Glyset from Pfizer) prevent the digestion of many forms of carbohydrates (i.e., starches), including table sugar.