If you have type 1  diabetes, you must take daily insulin injections to keep your blood glucose in a normal range. Your body produces little or no insulin. Insulin is a vital hormone that helps your body convert food into energy. Without insulin, you would die.

If you have type 2 diabetes, the answer to this question is much less clear. Many people can keep their blood glucose in a healthy range without medications (either oral diabetes medications or insulin injections) if they lose weight and keep their weight down, are regularly physically active, and follow a meal plan that helps them keep portion sizes under control.

Sometimes when people are first diagnosed, they start on pills or insulin right away. If the person also works hard to control diabetes with diet and exercise, he or she can lower the need for medicine and might be able to stop taking it altogether. As long as the person is able to keep blood sugar levels normal with diet and exercise, there isn’t a need for medicine.

However, type 2 diabetes changes over time. The change can be fast or slow, but it does change. This means that even if a person was able to stop taking medicine for a while, he or she might need to start taking it again in the future. If a person is taking medicine to keep blood sugar normal, then it’s important to keep taking it to lower the chances for heart disease and other health problems.

If your doctor tells you that you need to take oral diabetes medications or insulin injections to manage your blood glucose, it’s important that you follow their instructions. Keeping your blood glucose in a healthy range is key to preventing long-term complications, such as eye disease, kidney disease, heart attacks, and other problems that poorly controlled blood glucose can cause over a period of years.