What are the drawbacks of intensive diabetes management?

While intensive diabetes management has many health benefits, there are several drawbacks:

    • It is more expensive.

    • It takes more time and effort.

    • You’ll have more hypoglycemia episodes. People in the Diabetes Control
      and Complications Trial (DCCT) who used intensive diabetes management
      had three times as many severe low blood glucose episodes than those
      on the conventional treatment program. This happened because their
      overall blood glucose levels were much lower.

     • You may gain weight. People in DCCT following intensive management
      tended to gain more weight than those using a conventional treatment
      program because they were no longer losing calories in the form of
      glucose in their urine. Taking more insulin also made their bodies more
      efficient at capturing and storing calories.