The one medication that always lowers blood sugar levels is insulin.
There are brands of insulin that are inexpensive, and in some countries this life-sustaining medicine is available without a prescription.
Type 2 diabetes is often described as non-insulin-dependent diabetes, and Type 2's certainly can manage blood sugar levels without it.
But is using insulin a good idea? Here are some important pros and cons.
Let's start with the negatives:

• insulin has to be injected...
  it's not available in pill form.
  Many Type 2 diabetics don't realize that if you are taking a pill, you aren't taking insulin
• insulin is sometimes too effective.
  If you take insulin without measuring your blood sugar levels first, or without eating the minimum amount of carbohydrate your body needs, you can suffer hypoglycemia
• the injection of insulin is usually associated with weight gain as blood sugar levels fall.
  That is because insulin transports both glucose and fatty acids out of the bloodstream
• insulin requires refrigeration for long-term storage.
  An open vial of insulin can be kept at room temperature for about a month, but even one hour's exposure to 100 degrees Fahrenheit or 37 degrees Celsius will ruin it.
  

Now let's consider the positives:

• insulin works in minutes or hours.
  Other treatments, if they work at all, take days, weeks, or even months
• insulin is up to 90 per cent less expensive than competing medications
• the dosage of insulin can be modified as conditions change...
  more food, less food, more exercise, less exercise, illness, or stress.
  You can take as little or as much as you need

It's the tremendous flexibility of insulin as a treatment for high blood sugars that puzzles many Type 2 diabetics.
To use insulin successfully, you have to know your blood sugar levels and you have to know how your body reacts to:

• food
• exercise
• illness and
• stress

Type 2 diabetics who use insulin...
ironically do not become effectively Type 1 diabetics who need it.
Using insulin can give the pancreas a 'rest' that allows it to heal, as long as the combination of diabetes interventions keeps blood sugar levels in the normal range.
Treatment with insulin for Type 2 diabetics also often begins after hypoglycemic medications have lost their ability to control blood sugars.
One indication that insulin is required is when the HbA1c level stays above 8% when following diet, exercise and taking diabetes medications.
Whilst the idea of giving yourself shots may be frightening, insulin will always help you control your blood sugar levels...
good control of blood sugar levels really does help to prevent diabetic complications.
Roughly 20 to 50% of people with Type 2 may one day need insulin due to the production of insulin being reduced due to aging.
Before insulin was discovered in 1921, people with Type 2 diabetes who no longer produced adequate insulin could expect to live but function poorly for several years...
this is no longer the case.