Can I take an extra metformin

Beatrice246 said:

Currently on 2000mg of Metformin in total, 500mg twice in the morning and twice in the evening with dinner. Would it be ok to take an extra 1 just as i go to sleep ?
(In the hopes of lower levels in the morning ?)
Thank you ❤

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I would say that you should never exceed your prescribed dose.
If you feel that your blood glucose levels are too high on your current dose, then discuss it with your doctor or nurse.

Also, if you feel your blood glucose levels are too high in the mornings, then there are quite a few things you can do before resorting to increased medication.
Have a google for Dawn Phenomenon, which may explain what is happening.
And many of us have experimented with different quantities and timing of food and snacks which (for some people) have a great effect on their morning readings.

Hope that helps.

The maximum dose of Metformin is 4 tablets, so the short answer would be no.
I never saw any difference when I stopped taking it, so I doubt it will have the effect you desire. It isn't anything fast acting, so it doesn't have an immediate effect anyway.

Beatrice246 said:

Ok thank you. This morning it was quite a bit lower at 8.3, throughout the day it's around 7 still.

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you do count your grams of carbs don´t you ? that is essential to gain control I believe

yes 2000mg is the maximal dose of recomended metformin, I only get 1700mg a day and must admitt I have in two occasions taken half a pill extra of 425mg... one after a party with mostly high carby foods... don´t remember the reason for the other occasion... but no way around in type 2 it is the food choice that does the difference.

Metformin do also have a place for some, and it does help my numbers every day like around 1 mmol down.. so it is no cure, if I don´t keep an eye and eat the right stuff, metformin is not much of a difference... but lowering numbers from 7 mmol to 6 mmol is substantial I think till now...

Beatrice246 said:

Currently on 2000mg of Metformin in total, 500mg twice in the morning and twice in the evening with dinner. Would it be ok to take an extra 1 just as i go to sleep ?
(In the hopes of lower levels in the morning ?)
Thank you ❤

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Do not exceed the stated dose especially without consulting your doctor. I was on metformin but now stopped (it made me ill) but it doesn't seem to reduce blood sugar much anyway.

Ive been prescribed 3000mg of metformin almost 2 years ago by a diabetic consultant!!

Resurgam said:

The maximum dose of Metformin is 4 tablets, so the short answer would be no.
I never saw any difference when I stopped taking it, so I doubt it will have the effect you desire. It isn't anything fast acting, so it doesn't have an immediate effect anyway.

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Sarah69 said:

Ive been prescribed 3000mg of metformin almost 2 years ago by a diabetic consultant!!

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Obviously didn't read the information in the box.
Does it actually do anything for you?
It just made my life a misery and when I decided to stop taking it, I did not see any increase in my blood glucose levels.

Beatrice246 said:

Currently on 2000mg of Metformin in total, 500mg twice in the morning and twice in the evening with dinner. Would it be ok to take an extra 1 just as i go to sleep ?
(In the hopes of lower levels in the morning ?)
Thank you ❤

Click to expand...

I think you need to see your morning reading for what it is, your morning reading. This as we have all found is just your liver waking you up in the morning and it's what your overall numbers are like for the whole day that really matter, unless your morning number is way too high. If you have only just started taking the drug then you need to give It a chance to work, and if your blood glucose levels were seriously high then you would have been prescribed another drug to take as well.

If you went back to the surgery and asked for a high dose prescription based on your morning level chances are they would not up it. Try not to get too focused on what your reading is on a morning but during the day, and if your numbers are continually high in the day then make an appointment to see your Dr or nurse but i'd certainly avoid upping the daily dose yourself

i wish my readings where 7 all day... metformin does not lower your blood sugars, it stops your liver making glucose to help get things under control, you need to get your carb intake under control, when enough rather than too much is taken in the liver will not need to make glucose and you could be able to reduce your meformin and the associated problems. so I am told

My highest readings recently have been 7.5, after meals, but they are usually lower and often in the 6's - just by eating low carb without any medication. I could probably push them lower, but really want to be able to maintain those sort of levels for a stress free life.
I have no idea when I will have another blood test at the hospital, all I have is the promise of an eye check in about a year.

I'm using one of those Freestyle Libre devices, so I can see the whole picture in the morning. It concerns me as well a little, but now my range is 4-8 I can usually remain within it even with the Dawn Phenomenon pushing it up from the high fours to the high sevens. A brisk walk will help it come down again more quickly, but it's usually completely gone by 10am if I started at about 7am. You might want to talk to your doctor about Sitagliptin though. Unlike Metformin that does actually help prevent peaks. And it appears to affect exactly the systems that cause the Dawn Phenomenon - cortisol on waking telling your pancreas to produce glaucogen but with your insulin system compromised the accompanying insulin release does not help keep your liver under control after the rush of glaucogen. Sitagliptin apparently helps prevent the release of so much glaucogen so the liver isn't stimulated quite so much. I ran out on Monday without arranging a repeat prescription and I can say that my FGM readings have been between 1 and 2 mmol/l higher for the last three days - making that morning spike look really out of place. I got a refill today so I'll see if it comes back down tomorrow I guess.

Resurgam said:

My highest readings recently have been 7.5, after meals, but they are usually lower and often in the 6's - just by eating low carb without any medication. I could probably push them lower, but really want to be able to maintain those sort of levels for a stress free life.
I have no idea when I will have another blood test at the hospital, all I have is the promise of an eye check in about a year.

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With those figures I wouldn't worry anyway! Just keep on the low carb diet. If it makes you feel any better, I often hit the teens first thing in the morning (hence the cheerful avatar).

Resurgam said:

The maximum dose of Metformin is 4 tablets, so the short answer would be no.
I never saw any difference when I stopped taking it, so I doubt it will have the effect you desire. It isn't anything fast acting, so it doesn't have an immediate effect anyway.

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The maximum dosage of Metformin is between 2000mg and 3000mg depending on where you look for that information.

Freema said:

yes 2000mg is the maximal dose of recomended metformin, I only get 1700mg a day and must admitt I have in two occasions taken half a pill extra of 425mg... one after a party with mostly high carby foods... don´t remember the reason for the other occasion... but no way around in type 2 it is the food choice that does the difference.

Metformin do also have a place for some, and it does help my numbers every day like around 1 mmol down.. so it is no cure, if I don´t keep an eye and eat the right stuff, metformin is not much of a difference... but lowering numbers from 7 mmol to 6 mmol is substantial I think till now...

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The metformin also helps protect the heart

Tony1975 said:

The metformin also helps protect the heart

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well so does exercising and eating low carb... what we forget is how much the health benefits of metformin are promoted, where the sideaffects are not promoted at all...

for instance I had to get up to the toilet many times when I took my metformin late in the day, now taking it all in the morning I don´t have to go to the toilet 3-4 times in the night which was so anoying.. and from that one can clearly understand that at least it affects my kidneys too much..

2000mg of metformin is enough daily prescription.In addition to one tablet 60mg of Gliclazide at the morning.Eating low curbs food and walking 30 minutes aday will keep your HbAic below 7

Freema said:

well so does exercising and eating low carb... what we forget is how much the health benefits of metformin are promoted, where the sideaffects are not promoted at all...

for instance I had to get up to the toilet many times when I took my metformin late in the day, now taking it all in the morning I don´t have to go to the toilet 3-4 times in the night which was so anoying.. and from that one can clearly understand that at least it affects my kidneys too much..

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That there are other ways of protecting the heart is great but we need all the help we can get. Coming out in research there are also the cancer protective properties of Metformin that we are beginning to understand.

Of course some people cannot tolerate Metformin, but that is no different to most drugs. Despite what you say, the majority of posts on the forum about Metformin are relating to the gastrointestinal issues for some people. It gets quite an airing! This appears to have affected some people so much that they will not even try Metformin. They are convinced by the negative posts that everyone will get side effects. Not true, of course.

Contralto said:

How long have you been diabetic? We have folks dispensing advice on a regular basis on this forum who are "prediabetic" which is another word for either not quite yet but might become diabetic OR already diabetic but not so bad a case. We have folks dispensing advice on this forum who are not diabetic at all. We have folks like me who have been diabetic a dozen years or more and have tried various medication strategies along with the medications for their other co-morbidities, i.e. the other conditions that tend to cluster around Diabetes.

How high has your A1C ever been? What is it now?

How precisely did Metformin make your life a misery and could any of the other drugs you were taking or food you were eating have caused the problem?

With what methods and medication combinations and diets has your particular case been improved?

What dose were you taking of Metformin and how were the parts of the dose spaced?

One common combination of Metformin for people who need slightly higher doses is three separate spaced (and one of these at bedtime after having had a small snack to prepare the tummy for the drug) extended relase version of either the 750 ER mg or 850 ER mg. doses.

I personally take 3 tablets of non -colored generic version (for me, the coloring in the non generic and several other generic versions causes me gastro and/or allergy problems) extended release 750 doses a day, 8 hours apart roughly as follows: Shortly after waking halfway through breakfast with a prepared tummy, eight hours later with a mid afternoon part of lunch, and before bedtime prepared with the snack. Meanwhile, I eat no beans, nor cruciferous vegetables. I have kefir or yoghurt daily, usually cut down with water as a drink. My highest A1C while tested was 12.8. My highest single bloodsugar while battling a raging infection was 670.

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I was diagnosed 6 months ago, my highest reading which I believe accurate was 17.1mmol/l, my reading just now was 7.5 - after eating. My Hba1c when diagnosed was 91. When tested after 80 days it was 47.
I was told to work up to three tablets of Metformin per day, starting with just one. After only a few days I was rushing to the toilet, after a week I was living in the room next to the toilet as I could not manage to get up the stairs fast enough. I was told to take a statin as well, so some of the symptoms could have been down to that, but I experienced muscular pain, itching all over so intense that I had to cut my nails right down as far as I could to stop myself doing damage to my skin, I was unable to remember what I was doing, if I had made my husband's meals, where I had put things, why I'd gone to a cupboard. I tried taking the tablets at different times of day, but nothing had any effect. I was soiling the bed, even though I wrapped a towel around myself, and I sometimes leaked on my way to the bathroom despite having another towel handy. I was unable to go out of the house if I had eaten in the last 24 hours, and even then that sometimes wasn't safe. I did try to take two tablets per day but the pain was terrible, even though I took them alternate days and with meals.
After about 5 weeks I had to try to prepare for Christmas, and I managed to go to the supermarket, as there is one with toilets inside the shopping area. I had to go in there twice and when I left I could not remember where I had parked the car. When I found it the back was full of shopping I had forgotten about, so I just sat there crying for a while, then drove home determined that I'd taken the last tablet of Metformin and Atorvastatin.
I ate low carb as per Atkins throughout Christmas and New Year, and my blood glucose levels were almost normal, so I have just kept on eating the same way.
My memory is not back to normal, and I can't walk far - though I am not bad with sticks. The itching has gone so I have regrown my nails.
I eat nothing with flour, oats, rice - any grain is out, even sweetcorn. no potatoes or starchy root vegetables, Nothing with high amounts of fructose - measured amounts of berries are OK if I have them as part of a meal with no extra carbs. No sugary foods at all. This seems to be all that I need to do to keep my blood glucose readings down to normal.