ADA type 2 diabetes guidelines: what patients should know

The ADA Standards of Care are recommendations clinicians use to plan and review diabetes care. They do not prescribe one medicine or glucose target for everyone. A clinician considers your glucose pattern, other health conditions, risk of low blood glucose, medicine side effects, daily routine and goals. The plan may include food choices, movement, weight support, medication and glucose monitoring. Heart, kidney, eye, nerve and foot health also belong in routine diabetes care.

Attend planned reviews and bring your medicines, glucose readings and a note of any side effects or missed doses. Take treatment as agreed; do not stop insulin or another diabetes medicine without clinical advice. Ask what your personal glucose goal is and how illness, fasting or travel should change your routine. Learn the signs of hypoglycaemia if your treatment can cause it, and keep the recommended fast-acting carbohydrate available. Arrange the eye, kidney and foot checks offered to you.

Get urgent medical help for severe confusion, loss of consciousness, a seizure, difficulty breathing, persistent vomiting or inability to keep fluids down. Prompt assessment is also needed for a foot wound that becomes red, hot, swollen or draining, or for sudden weakness, facial droop or speech difficulty. Contact your diabetes clinician when glucose remains outside your agreed range, low readings recur, or a medicine causes troublesome effects.

Ask which outcomes your current treatment is intended to improve, whether your medicines suit your heart and kidney health, what monitoring you need, and what should trigger a medication review. Confirm your sick-day plan and who to contact if readings change.