TRADJENTA (LINAGLIPTIN)

Tradjenta Description

Are you hungry and thirsty all the time? Losing weight? Vision is blurry? Your doctor can perform a simple blood test to check your blood glucose levels to see if you are possibly a type 2 diabetic and require medication to reduce the risk of complications. Tradjenta may be prescribed to help your pancreas produce more insulin, this drug will not work for type 1 diabetics due to your pancreas not producing any insulin at all.

How This DPP-4 Inhibitor Helps You Control Type 2 Diabetes

The active ingredient of Tradjenta is called Linagliptin, a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor that will help to control your blood sugar levels. When taken as directed, Tradjenta will work to inhibit the DPP-4 enzyme. The job of this enzyme is to break down incretins, hormones that are made in your intestines after you eat that will stimulate the secretion of insulin. However, your pancreas is not producing enough insulin to prevent the glucose from building up in your bloodstream. By inhibiting DPP-4, incretin breakdown is repressed and insulin secretion is prolonged to allow taking up the sugar from your blood stream and storing it in cells for energy.

Conditions Treated by Tradjenta

Insulin is normally produced by the beta cells in a part of your pancreas and is released into your bloodstream after a meal as glucose levels rise. Only insulin is able to open up the cells in muscles and other tissues where the glucose can be stored. If your glucose levels drop, your liver can break down the stored glycogen into glucose to restore levels to their normal range.

Type 2 diabetes can be controlled or delayed by some individuals with a proper diet, weight loss, giving up nicotine, and staying active but there is no cure for it. Certain risk factors for becoming diabetic cannot be avoided, such as your family history, age, and ethnicity. As type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease, you will eventually need to begin insulin injections as your pancreas becomes too exhausted to produce any insulin at all. Don’t blame yourself or ask what you did wrong, this is the nature of the disease.

Before You Receive a Tradjenta Rx

Ask your doctor if Tradjenta poses any risk if you are pregnant, trying to become pregnant, or are breast feeding. Discuss other medical conditions and allergies with your doctor and list any OTC and Rx meds you currently take or use, including alternative medicine and naturopathic therapies so your doctor can determine if Tradjenta is the right medication for you.

Precautions for Tradjenta

You should always keep a fast-acting source of sugar with you in case your glucose levels fall from skipping meals, this could be a hard candy, a non-diet pop, raisins, or glucose tablets. If you become ill and are vomiting, eating can be a problem so ask your doctor about the best way to deal with low blood sugar. If you are scheduled for any procedure that requires fasting, ask the medical staff if you can still take Tradjenta.

Possible Side Effects of Tradjenta

• Sore throat
• Achy muscles
• Runny or stuffed nose