GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #44: “Standards In Care of Diabetics 2026”

For the first time since I started this blog eleven years ago, it’s going to be about me. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes four years ago. While people are happy to talk about their experiences with diabetes, I WASN’T comfortable with talking about diabetes. The “other Type” of diabetes was what caused the death of my Best Man a year after my wife and I got married. He was diagnosed with diabetes when he was a kid. It was called Juvenile Diabetes then. Today it’s Type 1. I haven’t WANTED to talk about diabetes at all. But…for my own education and maybe helping someone else, and not one to shut up for any known reason, I’m reopening my blog rather than starting a new one. I MAY take a pause and write about Breast Cancer or Alzheimer’s as medical headlines dictate; but this time I’m going to drag anyone along who wants to join my HIGHLY RELUCTANT journey toward better understanding of my life with Type 2 Diabetes. You’re Welcome to join me!

“In December 2025, the American Diabetes Association released its “Standards of Care in Diabetes—2026”, the gold standard in evidence-based guidelines for diagnosing and managing diabetes and prediabetes. Based on the latest scientific research and clinical trials, it includes strategies for diagnosing and treating diabetes in children, adolescents, and adults; methods to prevent or delay diabetes and its associated comorbidities like obesity; and care recommendations to enhance health outcomes.”

“It represents an important advance in the delivery of evidence-based, person-centered care. Creating the latest scientific research with practical clinical strategies, it seeks to equip health care professionals with the tools necessary to provide the best care for individuals living with T1 and T2 Diabetes,” said Rita Kalyani, the ADA’s chief scientific and medical officer.”

So, what does all this mean?

Perhaps the most important change is that the prohibition with prescribing the CGM – also known as the Continuous Glucose Monitor – has been DROPPED! Who the heck cares? What the heck IS the CGM???

I can tell-you from close, second hand experience! My wife uses one. I can’t! She pops the device from a spring loaded “applicator” on the back of her left arm. The device itself is a disc with the various sensors in it and a tiny needle on the underside. It works like this:

All she has to do after it’s in and active, is pass her cellphone over it and it will not ONLY give a current read, but also the data from the past (however many minutes, hours, or days you want!)

So, the lifting of the prohibition of giving EVERYONE WHO WANTS ONE a CGM. I don’t happen to because I have no trouble with poking myself with an injector need and taking a blood sample. The reader device sends the data to a program on my cellphone and I can monitor it myself.

Of interest to ME: Diabetes management

“Updated blood pressure goals for individuals with high cardiovascular or kidney health risk and for older adults, with a tighter blood pressure goal for those at risk and a more relaxed goal for most older adults.”

BLOOD PRESSURE is a major issue for me – not because it’s dangerously high, but because I DO have high blood pressure. The new guidelines read: “Management of blood pressure and cholesterol lowering with statins have been associated with a reduced risk of incident dementia and are, thus, particularly important in older adults with diabetes.

“The on-treatment blood pressure goal for most older adults with diabetes is <130/80 mmHg when it can be achieved safely, A and more a relaxed blood pressure goal (e.g., <140/90 mmHg) may be used for people with poor health, limited life expectancy, or high risk for adverse effects of hypertensive therapy.”

“…although the Look AHEAD trial did not achieve its primary outcome of reducing cardiovascular events, the intensive lifestyle intervention produced multiple clinical benefits, including weight loss, improved physical fitness, increased HDL cholesterol, lowered systolic blood pressure, reduced A1C levels, reduced waist circumference, and reduced need for medications…” (for NEXT time: https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article/49/Supplement_1/S166/163915/8-Obesity-and-Weight-Management-for-the-Prevention)

There was also a long discussion of changes in the amount of monitoring and amelioration of blood pressure and blood sugars in individuals who have reached and “end-of-life” stage – offering more palliative (making them feel comfortable) care than making attempts to lower BP and blood sugars…

Interesting, indeed! As I said, I WILL be coming back to this in later posts!

Source: https://diabetes.org/newsroom/press-releases/american-diabetes-association-releases-standards-care-diabetes-2026
Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41J0VUNJ8ML._SY445_SX342_QL70_FMwebp_.jpg