Patient's question:
Is type 2 diabetes a progressive disease?Doctor's answer:
Type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease. As time goes by, the condition worsens, and patients require more medication to achieve blood sugar control. Initially, oral hypoglycemic drugs can be quite effective. However, as the disease progresses, β-cell function deteriorates. When oral hypoglycemic drugs no longer help patients produce enough insulin, this is a natural course of disease progression in type 2 diabetes. If the body's endogenous insulin production cannot meet the demand, then external insulin injections are necessary to supplement it. Over time, type 2 diabetes patients will, like type 1 diabetes patients, produce very little or no insulin. At this point, they need to be fully or partially supplemented with exogenous insulin for treatment.