The American Diabetes Association (ADA) 2026 Standards of Care stress that diabetes management should be person-centered, collaborative, and individualized, not just focused on blood sugar. Clinicians are encouraged to use respectful, nonjudgmental, culturally sensitive language and to build treatment plans around each person’s goals, daily life, literacy, resources, and comorbidities. The guidelines also call for a thorough medical evaluation at diagnosis and follow-up, including assessment of glycemic status, complications, cardiovascular and kidney risk, behavioral health, social determinants of health, disability, and preventive care needs. Diabetes self-management education, nutrition therapy, eye, foot, dental, and behavioral health care, along with age-appropriate immunizations, are all considered essential parts of care.

The standards also highlight the need to regularly assess common comorbidities and complications that can shape treatment, including autoimmune disease, bone fragility, cognitive decline, sexual dysfunction, disability, dental disease, sleep apnea, hepatitis C, pancreatitis, sensory impairment, and cancer risk. A major area of focus is metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease/metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, which is especially common in type 2 diabetes. The ADA recommends screening high-risk adults with FIB-4, using additional testing when indicated, and referring higher-risk patients to liver specialists. Management emphasizes lifestyle change and weight loss, while noting that therapies such as GLP-1 receptor agonists, dual GIP/GLP-1 agents, pioglitazone, and some newer liver-directed treatments may also help in selected patients. Overall, the guidance frames diabetes care as whole-person care aimed at preventing complications and improving quality of life.

Reference: American Diabetes Association Professional Practice Committee for Diabetes*. 4. Comprehensive Medical Evaluation and Assessment of Comorbidities: Standards of Care in Diabetes-2026. Diabetes Care. 2026;49(Supplement_1):S61-S88. doi: 10.2337/dc26-S004.

The FDA approved Signos’ glucose monitoring system as the first device specifically indicated for weight management, creating a new, consumer-accessible option alongside, or in place of existing approaches like GLP-1 medications and bariatric surgery. Those treatments can be constrained by eligibility, high out-of-pocket costs, limited insurance coverage, and supply issues. With the approval, any patient can purchase a Signos membership that pairs an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven platform with an off-the-shelf Dexcom continuous glucose monitor (CGM) to deliver real-time glucose insights and personalized lifestyle recommendations. Signos frames this as a tool for a wide range of goals—from modest weight loss to more significant reduction—while emphasizing behavior change and long-term weight maintenance.

Authors also underscore the broader context: obesity-related costs to the US healthcare system exceed $170B annually, and roughly three-quarters of Americans are overweight or obese, making scalable lifestyle support appealing. Signos offers 3- or 6-month plans (reported at $139/month and $129/month, respectively) that include shipment of the CGMs needed during the subscription period. While insurers don’t typically cover it yet for weight management, the pricing is positioned as far below the roughly $1,000/month list price often cited for GLP-1s in the United States. Users wear a CGM sensor (typically on the upper arm) that streams glucose data into the Signos app, where they can also log food and activity. The AI then generates recommendations to help users understand how specific meals and exercise patterns affect them. The system can be used with GLP-1s or after bariatric surgery, and the company also highlights its potential role in maintaining weight after discontinuing GLP-1 therapy, noting it has scaled inventory and software capacity to support broader uptake.

Reference: Constantino AK. FDA approves first-ever glucose monitoring system for weight loss from Signos. CNBC. Published August 20, 2025. Accessed February 27, 2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/20/fda-approves-signos-glucose-monitoring-for-weight-loss.html?

Researchers of this new-user, active-comparator cohort study used a large deidentified electronic health record network (January 2016–July 2024) to clarify whether GLP-1 receptor agonists (RAs) are associated with depression risk, given conflicting prior evidence. Researchers compared adults with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes and overweight/obesity who started a GLP-1 RA versus an SGLT2 inhibitor (SGLT2i), excluding anyone with prior mood disorders to better isolate incident events. After 1:1 propensity score matching, they analyzed 25,704 GLP-1 RA initiators and 25,704 SGLT2i initiators, tracking outcomes from 1 month to 1 year after initiation. The primary endpoint was a composite of new depression diagnosis or antidepressant initiation, assessed with Cox models and time-varying analyses to capture potential changes in risk over time.

Among 51,408 matched patients (mean age 56.8; 48.9% male), GLP-1 RA initiation was associated with a higher incidence of depression than SGLT2i initiation (17.0% vs 14.8%; HR 1.09, 95% CI 1.04–1.14; p<0.001), translating to a 2.2% absolute increase over one year. The association was more pronounced in adults at least 65 years old (HR 1.15) and appeared to plateau after about 6 months, suggesting a subacute risk window early in treatment. In secondary analyses, GLP-1 RA use was linked to lower all-cause mortality (HR 0.74), underscoring the need to balance potential mood effects against broader benefits. The authors recommend shared decision-making, counseling patients on possible mood changes, and closer monitoring, particularly in older adults and during the first several months after starting therapy.

Reference: Chang Y, Hsieh MH, Ju PC, Chang CC. Risk of depression with GLP-1 receptor agonists use in overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes: A new-user, active-comparator cohort study. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2026;28(1):197-209. doi: 10.1111/dom.70175.