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Diabetes medication - suitable for Vegetarians & Vegans

Do you trust your GP or DBN to know if a medication is suitable for vegetarians or vegans

  • Total voters
    5
  • Poll closed .

Enclave

Well-Known Member
Retired Moderator
Messages
2,602
Location
Scotland
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Metforum
Vegetarian Vegan

Is Metforum suitable for vegetarians and vegans, as the first thing your Dr or Diabetic Nurse may prescribe when it is confirmed you have T2 Diabetes, you need to know is this tablet suitable for a vegetarian/vegan. This is the list of ingredients listed by Bristol Laboratories where they confirm that Metformin is suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

Tablet core
Sodium starch glycollate, Povidone, Colloidal anhydrous silica, Maize starch, Magnesium stearate
Film-coat
Hypromellose, Titanium dioxide (E171), Macrogol 6000, Propylene glycol, Purified talc

If you at the ingredients in Metforum you will understand why it will give most people an upset stomach.
Do look on your information sheet that is in your box of Metformin, as indigents can change.
This ingredients list is for the standard Metforum Not the slow release version.


Simvastatin
Vegetarian Vegan

Is Simvastatin suitable for vegetarians and vegans
As the first thing your Dr or Diabetic Nurse may prescribe when it is confirmed you have T2 Diabetes, you need to know is this tablet suitable for a vegetarian/vegan. In the list of ingredients listed by Bristol Laboratories they confirm that Simvastatin is suitable for vegetarians BUT Not for vegans,(lactose)

Simvastatin are a hypercholesteraemia (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor)

Do look on your information sheet that is in your box of Simvastatin, as indigents can change.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
that is actually a good point! I am vegetarian and take Metformin so is it for veggi?
 
lynn007 said:
that is actually a good point! I am vegetarian and take Metformin so is it for veggi?
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You will need to go through the list of ingredients for your brand of Metformin, most are OK for vegetarians and vegans
 
As all medicines are tested on animals it's a bit of a mute point, also in some case the only medication available is neither vegetarian or vegan.
I have to take Creon which is a replacement digestive enzyme made from pig pancreas, it is one of the few meds that Jews and Muslims are allowed to take as there is no alternative.
Another thing when you take it you also get whatever meds the pig.
 
Yes, Shar67, I think we all know that just about all medication has been tested on animals. But I am a vegetarian that is not wanting to ingest animal products. I also never give money to any charities that still do vivisection or animal testing for their treatments.
The important thing to remember here is ... Yes it's unacceptable that animal testing has taken place .. But if I need to take a medication to stay well then I do have a choice .. I choose to take the medication and hope that the world will stop testing on and eating animals. (But the wife will not take any medication... Choosing to give the animals rights before her own... She was vegan for years but now eats a very small amount of cheese and sometimes eggs from our hens)
We have a choice .. Let it be an informed choice .. My Dr is not bothered if a medication is from salughtered animals or not ... It's not is job to worry about that !!!!!.
 
Sometimes companies list ingredients suitable as the amount of animal is seen to be negligible, both Macrogol and magnesium stearate can be made using animal fats, you would have to ask the source, that is the company that provides the raw material if either contain animal fat. Lots of pills and tablets use these to make digestion easier
 
I am Vegan & just found out that my Insulin contains Salmon sperm & the vials rubber stoppers have calcium stearate which could leak in to the Insulin. Is anyone aware of any Insulin that doesn't have any Animal products & therefore suitable for Vegan???
 
lynn007 said:
that is actually a good point! I am vegetarian and take Metformin so is it for veggi?
Click to expand...
Most time delay pills use a cellulose based agent to as the enteric coating to slow metabolism, but some (esp Sukkarto) use a shellac or varnish coating instead. Shellac is derived from insects, so is still vegan friendly.

https://www.vegansociety.com/whats-new/blog/my-medication-vegan
Note: it is not just the question of ingredients. Most of the older medicines had to undergo animal based testing as part of their licence application, and this makes them unacceptable to vegans.

Note also that many medications (and also supplements) use gelatine capsules.
 
I don't want to wherever possible use, ingest, or inject any animal products, insects included. Will be speaking to my Doctor & hopefully find some alternative meds that are Vegan..
 
Mr_Pot said:
Do vegans eat insects?
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Ento-vegans do. Normally insects are classed as arthropods, and are part of the animal kingdom. fungi and bacterium are not and can be eaten as can burgers derived from those sources be.
 

At some point in drug testing, to a drug to be licensed it will have to be tested on animal models, before it can be tested on humans. Testing on humans has its risks, and worst case they have a huge immune response and have multi organ failure.
Neither papracetamol or asprin would have passed modern drug testing.
Then how can you test anything on children, chidrens bodies are not as developed as adults, and they process drugs differently, so things go very slowly.
There are a lot of people alive today because of animals, from antibiotics, analgesics, to transplantation, and when a product says cruelty free, does that mean all the ingredients, some of which at some point have probabely been tested on animals in the past because if they haven't and somone gets a nasty reaction they will get sued.
So if you are truely vegan, or against animal testing, you may have a short, painful life
 
Lantus and Novarapid both meet vegan criteria.
 
pxh said:
Lantus and Novarapid both meet vegan criteria.
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Insulin would never have been discovered without animal testing, and for many decades was derived from animals.... (I was on animal insulin as a child).
 
I have alpha gal and therefore cannot take any medication containing any animal products. I cannot take glipozide or januvia. I also had a reaction to metformin.
What other vegan forms of diabetic medication are available?
 
I know that I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the pig as 44 years ago the insulin came from pigs , I had a choice take it or die as I’m still here i obviously took it .
 
Angela h said:
I have alpha gal and therefore cannot take any medication containing any animal products. I cannot take glipozide or januvia. I also had a reaction to metformin.
What other vegan forms of diabetic medication are available?
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Hi and welcome, @Angela h I think that alpha gal is a condition that causes severe allergy to meator derivatives of animal products from mammalian animals? Possibly due to previous tick bite? Please do correct me if I am mistaken.

It would probably be best in your situation to discuss with health care professionals, including pharmacist , what sort of medication is suitable. I hope you have had an assessment by an allergy or immunology consultant?
 
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