Type 2 Alogliptin effects

[123abcd321]

Hi, I’ve started taking alogliptin yesterday after being prescribed by my doctor. My average blood sugars are around 9 throughout the day without medication. Since starting the medication im now experiencing lows or quick drops in sugars which is making me feel awful. Yesterday I had a reading of 3.4 which took some time to get back up and today I was at 11 but within an hour and a half I have dropped down to 6. Just wondering if anyone has had any similar experiences or can reassure me as I’m having family members ask me to speak with my pharmacy to stop the medication but I’m aware I’ve only been on it 2 days and want to give it a proper try.

 

[Chris24Main]

Hi there and welcome to the forum.
Is this your first experience with any meds to address blood glucose ?

Nobody on the forum can really comment on your dosage or medication prescription, but if you can give some general info - how long since diagnosis, current HbA1c - that kind of thing, there may be some general help we can give..

You may see from around the forum that many T2DM people here have been able to reverse their diabetes, with and without meds - you may find something useful here.

As for the effect of this med - it persuades your pancreas to produce more insulin, which will bring your blood glucose level down - so what you are seeing is around what is expected, in terms of dropping that level. I'm not sure what you are expecting as "normal" or what you are aiming for though, so I don't want to comment on the absolute numbers.

 

[123abcd321]

Hi there and welcome to the forum.
Is this your first experience with any meds to address blood glucose ?

Nobody on the forum can really comment on your dosage or medication prescription, but if you can give some general info - how long since diagnosis, current HbA1c - that kind of thing, there may be some general help we can give..

You may see from around the forum that many T2DM people here have been able to reverse their diabetes, with and without meds - you may find something useful here.

As for the effect of this med - it persuades your pancreas to produce more insulin, which will bring your blood glucose level down - so what you are seeing is around what is expected, in terms of dropping that level. I'm not sure what you are expecting as "normal" or what you are aiming for though, so I don't want to comment on the absolute numbers.

Thank you! I have tried metformin before and was on this for around 6 weeks but I was also experiencing the same thing where I was getting readings below 4 but I wasn’t getting such a sudden drop over an hour or so and it was causing daily vomiting. I was diagnosed last year and my hba1c was 52 so the doctors started me on metformin but once I explained that it was causing daily vomiting they were happy to let me try managing it through my diet. I recently had this done again and it has gone up to 68 which is why my doctors wanted to put me on medication as soon as possible. My doctors have said anything below 4 and they would be concerned but they’re aiming for me to have readings between 6-9 at the moment as my average is 9 without medication. Think I’m just more concerned that I’m feeling so awful as I’m not used to my blood sugars dropping so much within an hour or so or going below 4.

 

[Chris24Main]

Would you mind expanding on what you mean by managing through your diet?
(sorry to be so obtuse, I know what I mean by that, I just want to get a feel for what you have tried).

There are many successful strategies to manage blood glucose, but often some of the advice you can get actually works against lowering it -

 

[123abcd321]

Would you mind expanding on what you mean by managing through your diet?
(sorry to be so obtuse, I know what I mean by that, I just want to get a feel for what you have tried).

There are many successful strategies to manage blood glucose, but often some of the advice you can get actually works against lowering it -

No problem. I mainly made as many swaps as I could to lower carb and sugar options. I swapped fizzy drinks for water and if I wanted fizzy drinks it would be no sugar ones occassionally. I also tried eating more fish and chicken and focussing more on protein or fruit and veg whilst trying to eat lower carbs and fats. Overall though i didn’t change a massive amount just made swaps to lower carbs options and just generally focussing on more healthy options. I do have an endocrine condition(pcos) which I have been told can affect managing diabetes but I just didn’t expect the change in my hba1c within one year to go as high as it did.

 

[Chris24Main]

OK - sounds like you're way ahead of most then.
Just one comment - "trying to eat lower carbs and fats" -

We're all told to reduce fats, but this is the thing that can work against trying to reverse diabetes.

If you understand that the purpose of lowering carbs is really about trying to lower insulin by reducing as much as possible, sugar and starches.. so that your liver doesn't need to deal with them.. then you still need to fuel your body, so you need energy from something - and if your body isn't getting enough fats, then it will turn more stuff into sugar.

That may seem bizarre, but take a little time looking into the success stories around the site - low carb and low fat, is really starvation, and that triggers a bunch of things (which works for some, there really isn't a "one true way" here) which often don't help in the long term.

A combination of low (and usually very low sugar and starch, you'll be surprised how much there is in lots of things you may think of as healthy, like fruit - an apple is too sweet for me right now, for example) carb and high fat, with adequate protein.

Diabetes is really also an endocrine condition - (T2 is too much insulin) and there is a pretty good link between PCOS, insulin resistance and T2DM - the good news is that anything that helps, helps all round.