Timing of taking medications

[ChrisOsland]

I'm type II diagnosed in 1999; the cause was byproduct of pancreatitis - loss of large chunk of my pancreas.
Control by Metformin worked fine for about 12 years- BSL in range 4 to 7 when it should be.
Then control went bad: often 12 or higher when it used to be 5.5.
I was put on Gliclazide and then Pioglitazone. No great improvement.
I happened to attend a diet/diabetes course in January. The nurse explained how Gliclazide and Metformin work and that therefore it was rather important to take Gliclazide 30 to 15 mins BEFORE a meal and Metformin 15 to 30 mins AFTER the meal.

STAGGERING DIFFERENCE.

Now I'm almost always in the 4 to 7 range again. While still taking Pioglitazone I was even tending towards hypos - occasionally going down to 1.8.

My GP was amazed at improvement and took me off the Pioglitazone.

I had been told that taking the meds before and after the meal was a good idea, but this was not stressed and so inevitably, as I have a chaotic lifestyle, there were times when I just chucked all my meds down as I went to bed.

The moral of this story? The NHS might save a fortune on meds, and improve diabetics' control (and so reduce amputations and blindness etc..) if this advice was more widely disseminated.

 

[Brunneria]

Bump!

 

[ChrisOsland]

Absolutely no idea what that means.

 

[Brunneria]

Absolutely no idea what that means.

Whenever anyone posts to a thread, it pushes the thread back up to the top of the forum reading list. If someone hasn't got a comment (and I don't because I don't take diabetes meds), they can post a 'bump' to bump the thread back up to the top of the list - so that as many people as poss see the useful info in the thread.

 

[Lamont D]

Really interesting about taking metformin after meals. When you think about it, it's quite logical. If you are taking meds for lowering your bloods, then after seems right. Doesn't it? Until I got took off, I always took it before breakfast, wasn't told any different.
Did someone mention statins are better for you before bed or am I imagining things again along with chips!

 

[gfmoore]

That is very interesting. I didnt think about how long these drugs take to actually act. I've come off all drugs at the moment, but if I go back on the metformin I shall look at this idea more closely.

 

[OVGreebs]

I haven't heard of this before (I'm type 2 on Gliclazide & Metformin since November last year) so tried it this morning.
My blood sugar went from 7.4 before breakfast, 7.0 after 1 hour and 5.4 after 2 hours which is the first time I've been below 6 at my 2 hour reading.
Think I'll keep doing this for a week or so to see how it goes.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[RosieLKH]

Thanks for sharing that. I shall try that too. I specifically asked my DN about timing and she said it really didn't matter when I took them. I thought at the time it didn't make sense and wasn't in the leaflet.

 

[Molly56]

This may explain to some extent why my partner's bs levels are so high.....he always takes all of his medication (metformin + gliclazide + blood pressure tablets....) together in one gulp.

In fact in the mornings he often takes his medication without food, something I have thought for some time would mean that the medication would not work as intended.

Perhaps I should try for a while to change the tablet regime particularly in terms of the gliclazide and metformin to see if it will make a difference...not sure if he will go along with it as he is stuck in his routines but has got to be worth a try

It's great what you learn on this forum as this has never been mentioned by the nurse...am probably not the first to have said that....but clearly timing can be crucial in some medications and this should be pointed out by the medical staff prescribing them.

 

[ally1]

i take mine before meals