Metformin and Anemia?

CDudley

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Does anyone knows if Metformin can cause anemia? I am so tired and keep getting chest infections
 

Totto

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Metformin can cause B12 deficiency.

It's also more common in diabetics to have hypothyroidism.

Go and get checked, including Ferritin, Hb and vitamin D.
 

Liam1955

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@CDudley - Metformin does not cause Aneamia, already challenged my GP about this, but it can cause B12 deficiency as the previous post has said. (Totto)
However, I do have Aneamia and I get my Ferritin Levels checked for Iron count every 3 Months, and I take Iron tablets daily that I get on Prescription.

P.S. Forgot to say I have been taking Metformin for 15 years now.
 
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Mars1946

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Does anyone knows if Metformin can cause anemia? I am so tired and keep getting chest infections

If You have used Metformin for a long period, then you have probably to low Cobalamin ( B12 ) vitamin.

The treatment is with injections of B12 vitamin or with B12 tablets.

Ask Your Doctor for help. He or she can make a blood analysis for B12, cobalamin.

Have a nice day
 
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Hanny 66

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Does anyone knows if Metformin can cause anemia? I am so tired and keep getting chest infections
I have been type 2 for 22 years and on insulin for last three years as well as metformin. I became anemic about 10 years ago had all the tests but never found a cause. At first I had iron infusions every 6 months for three years. Now on iron tablets. Then three years ago I was told I was B12 deficient as well due to metformin which stops your gut absorbing B12 so am now on B12 tablets as well.
 
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Mars1946

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I have been type 2 for 22 years and on insulin for last three years as well as metformin. I became anemic about 10 years ago had all the tests but never found a cause. At first I had iron infusions every 6 months for three years. Now on iron tablets. Then three years ago I was told I was B12 deficient as well due to metformin which stops your gut absorbing B12 so am now on B12 tablets as well.

The poorly absorption of B12 vitamin (Cobalamin) is because the Gaster Ventriculus parietal cell do not produce Intrinsic factor . This IF must be in the gut to bind to the B12 molecule. If IF is absent then you have a poorly absorption of B12.

Now you take B12 tablets. Normally you shod take Calcium tablets together with Metformin. Many doctors do not know about that, but it is recommended in the Endocrinology literature.
 

Mars1946

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@CDudley - Metformin does not cause Aneamia, already challenged my GP about this, but it can cause B12 deficiency as the previous post has said. (Totto)
However, I do have Aneamia and I get my Ferritin Levels checked for Iron count every 3 Months, and I take Iron tablets daily that I get on Prescription.

P.S. Forgot to say I have been taking Metformin for 15 years now.

It is true that Metformin do not cause direct anaemia. The deficiency of cobalamin B12 vitamin can be the reason for anaemia perniciosa, macrocytaer anaemia. Metformin can cause deficiency of B12 vitamin and the result can be uptake to anaemia perniciosa. Its all my friend.
 
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Mars1946

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I do know, and further know that the bioavailability of B12 differs. I take a compounded form by injection

Dear Galja

Reasons for B12 deficiency are many. One of them can be use of Metformin.
I use on my own Metformin and the amount of Cobalamin (B12) has been of about 387 pmol/l.
After I use the B12 tablets (CyanoCobalamin) the number has improved.

Ask your doctor for advices.

Have a nice day
 
A

Avocado Sevenfold

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Don't know where you are but unfortunately in the US where I am, B12 sublinguals, the only tabs that work, are compounded with lactose, to which some individuals are intolerant. However, it can be compounded as a liquid for injections, which can be manipulated as to dose. Different people have different needs. It is on doctor's advice and after testing that a person can obtain such a prescription. In fact, some people must go to their physicians for such injections.

What country are you in?
I use these dairy free sublingual tabs. I buy them in the UK, but they are also sold in the USA ( I am not deficient, but am on metformin)

http://www.amazon.com/Source-Natura...463679329&sr=8-3&keywords=source+naturals+b12
 

Mars1946

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Don't know where you are but unfortunately in the US where I am, B12 sublinguals, the only tabs that work, are compounded with lactose, to which some individuals are intolerant. However, it can be compounded as a liquid for injections, which can be manipulated as to dose. Different people have different needs. It is on doctor's advice and after testing that a person can obtain such a prescription. In fact, some people must go to their physicians for such injections.

What country are you in?

Hi Galja

I am from Denmark. I know about sublingual tablets, but this therapy is obtainable in Sweden. In Demark you can get injections by the doctor of cyanoCobalamin or tablets of the same .

This sublingual tabs are of over dose. Persons who have B12 deficiency there parietal cells in the GV (Gaster Ventriculus) do not produce the Intrinsic Factor ( IF ) and it is not possible in the intestine to absorb B12. An over dose of B12 as sublingual tablets sometime help. But all that is the choice of the patient and the doctors advices. If the B12 is very low, then there will be developed a Pernicious Anaemia.
The blood red bodies will be very big and not able to transport oxygen to the tissues.

Latin : Memento Vivere ( Stay in life) and be happy.


Edited by Moderator.
 
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Mars1946

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I use these dairy free sublingual tabs. I buy them in the UK, but they are also sold in the USA ( I am not deficient, but am on metformin)

http://www.amazon.com/Source-Natura...463679329&sr=8-3&keywords=source+naturals+b12

Hi Avocado

If you do not have deficiency of B12 and you use Metformin then in the Endocrinology literature some expert say the persons who use Metformin they shod use it together wit tablets of calcium ( chalk ). Try to do it, it will not harm you.

Have a nice afternoon
 

Mars1946

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Type of diabetes
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Hi,

Nice to know where you are from; I myself have some Danish heritage. You understand my injections. Good.

I briefly read your post on proteins but it disappeared. You could email it to me by writing some kind of personal letter on this forum. Unfortunately, I am not sure I know how this works on the forum. I was only able to do this once by accident.

btw, I think that the overdosing on the sublingual tablets is intended as overcompensation for the lack of bioavailability of the same. But, as I said, many of my family members cannot use these sublinguals because of being formulated in the US with lactose or flavorings or other unnecessary ingredients. Recently, some companies have come up with vegan formulations, however. I may try them if I am no longer given RX for the shots. Meanwhile, I do not wish to risk not having an appropriate amount in my system. One of my doctors has suggested that any excess is actually ****** out of the system in urine, so I am not concerned, especially as I have periodic testing for deficiency.

Here is one article that may interest you:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1884303/

Hi Galja
Thanks for the links to the NCBI. This article describes the problem.
In the article and what your doctor has informed you about B12 is not complete information about B12.
By the adult people the organisms total amount of cobalamin B12 is about 5 - 10 mg. One part of this depots is in the liver and the another is in the CNS (the brain), but the depots in the CNS is difficult to be mobilized. The daily consumption of cobalamin in the body is 0.1% of the depots amount, so cobalamin deficient develops slowly and sneaking over many years. The Cobalamin, B12 has an enterohepatic circulation in the body, i.e. it is excreted by the bile and enters in the duodenum, where in the ileum is again absorb. In the tissues cells cobalamin has function as coenzyme. B12 deficiency can develop of different reasons. I am talking here about deficiencies as side effects/ complications of using Metformin. The cobalamin from the depot is not ****** out , but it is excreted trough the bile in the facet (****) i.e. it is not excreted by the kidney.
The tablets I am using has the name: "Betolvex 1 mg, cyanocobalamin". Ask your doctor or pharmacist for side effect using this medication.
PS About E-mailing you activate the envelope on the upper right corner and activate the green bottom. You will be guided for the remnant.
 

Mars1946

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I read the remnant of your article. I would say that the kind of pemmican that those explorers were using does NOT replicate normal native american pemmican which does include both fiber and especially dried fruits and sometimes dried vegetables in addition to fat and bison or deer or wild boar meat. Thus, the problems that the explorers had with their version do not replicate the normal native American experience. I actually try to incorporate numerous native foods in my diet as I am part native and imagine that it is part of my nature to thrive on native foods. I also incorporate fish, shellfish and various kinds of preserved foods in general including smoked fishes and meats of various kinds. I have a dehydrator and ingest certain kinds of probiotic foods. Some of the stuff I buy periodically and eat through the year may not be found in Scandanavia. For example, I eat grains of various kinds and dired vegetables particularly from Peru including ancient kinds of corn and beans, readily obtainable in North and South America. So, my diet is a tad odd.

I would like to see some of the things aluded to in your article, especially the long term effects of hyperglycemia.

Galja, the article is a story from 1930. I do not know nothing about American native food , I only republish this story from a volume " Biochemical, Physiological and Molecular aspects of Human Nutrition" from Elsevier, Saunders. For the moment I am waiting to receive a permission for the article to be published in this forum. As I can see, every time I use a medical word , I must have permissions from Who???.
. In 1930, the medical persons find out the intake of to much protein, the result of that has been Ketonuri and loos of the Calcium from the body. On that time they have find that. If the same experiment is done now, the med. science will find much more negative thing about that.

About your wish to explane about the consequences of the long term effects of hyperglycaemia, I must first to write it. This problem is the main reason for the diabetic complications, but no one of this doctors inform the patient. They talk to the patient as this persons are senile dement. Medical theoretical text are very simple, but the terminology is something unique. You must learn that from the beginning.
I know who a doctors are , but many people think they are a members from the club of the gods. Ordinary physicians are not researcher, they are like me a persons who use the researcher results.

I hope I get time to write that tomorrow. You hear from me.
PS Have you find out how to send the private messages?




Edited by Moderator to exclude assumptions about Moderators. OK
 
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Mars1946

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No, I didn't figure out the message thingie.

I wrote about native American diet because you wrote about pemmican that is not real pemmican that includes no fruits, vegetables or nuts in its composition.

I have long wondered why people on high dairy diets and diets with fish bones end up osteoporotic

Hi Galja
Osteoporosis is divided in two type: Primary and second.
The primary osteoporoses , of what Postmenopausal osteoporoses , because insufficient in the oestrogen , productions in the Ovaries and on account of age, the senile Osteoporosis.
This two types are a big health problem in the society.
Osteoporosis results in fracture frequency, where 20% are Hip-fracture.
The treatment is : D-vitamin + fluoride + sufficient calcium supply, supply of oestrogen and treatment with bifosfonat.
The second osteoporosis can be a result of treatment with Glucocoricoider , i.e. prednisolon, endocrine disorders, immobilisation and more.
What do you mean : " HIGH DAIRY". Do you mean high carbs?

PS About pemmican I believe to you, but the text is not mine, it is from the book.
 
C

catherinecherub

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Does anyone knows if Metformin can cause anemia? I am so tired and keep getting chest infections
Hi @CDudley,
You really need to see a Dr. to ask for blood test to reveal as to whether you are anaemic, have B12 deficiency or there is another reason as to why you are so tired.
There are a small percentage of Metformin users who will experience low B12 levels and this article explains the symptoms and how it will be treated. It also discusses anaemia.
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Anaemia-vitamin-B12-and-folate-deficiency/Pages/Symptoms.aspx
 
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