Nursing Teaching on Mechanism of Action for Invokana

Nurse educated the patient and caregiver on mechanism of action for Invokana as follows:

  1. Invokana is an oral antidiabetic drug, used in patients with type-2 diabetes.
  2. Type-2 diabetes is a condition in which your body becomes resistant to the action of insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas in your body. Normally, insulin helps with shifting the glucose in the blood into the cells of body, thus helping with regulating the blood sugar levels. Resistance to action of insulin hormone in type-2 diabetic patients leads to poor shifting of glucose in the blood into the cells of body tissues. Thus, individuals with poorly controlled type-2 diabetes present with weak regulation of blood glucose with grossly high blood sugar numbers.
  3. Normally, filtering mechanism in the kidneys helps with urine formation and eliminates waste and toxins into the urine. During the initial stages of urine formation, some essential elements, such as, water, sodium, potassium, and glucose could also be filtered into urine. At this point, urine is very dilute with lots of water and could contain many essential elements that the body cannot afford to lose. The urine thus formed flows through renal tubules, which are small tubes in the kidneys. During the later stages of urine formation, the urine flowing through the renal tubules is processed. During this processing, various essential elements, such as, salts, significant portions of water, and glucose (about 90%) are reabsorbed into the body and the rest is finally eliminated in urine.
  4. Elevated sugars in the circulating blood in type-2 diabetes patients result in filtering of a significant portion of this sugar into urine during the initial stages of urine formation. While the urine is being processed in the renal tubules during the later stages of urine formation, a large portion of this glucose could be reabsorbed into the body from urine.
  5. Use of Invokana inhibits this reabsorption of glucose from the renal tubules. This results in significant portion of sugar to be eliminated from the body in urine. Increased loss of sugar in the urine with invokana reduces the blood glucose numbers in type-2 diabetes patients, thus helping with improved regulation of blood sugar. Reduced blood sugars also contribute to lowered demand for insulin secretion.