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Type 2 Diahroea side effect with Metformin?

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PennyAW

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Help please. I've started on Metformin 50mg once a day for a week upping to two a day. Its giving me terrible problems after I eat a meal running to the toilet.

I take them either with or after food as advised but it's making no difference. Can you tell me how long this is likely to last?

I work as a trainer and go back to work this week. Don't know how I'm going to cope .

Thanks in advance

Penny
 
Hi. It may clear-up after 2-3 weeks but you may need to ask the GP for the Slow Release (SR) version which is much kinder.
 
Hi
When I first went on Metformin, my brother who had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes some years earlier, recommended that I take a good quality pro-biotic vitamin pill daily. I did as he suggested and had no trouble with diarrhoea. This may have been a coincidence of course but may be worth trying. QUOTE="PennyAW, post: 2125940, member: 513405"]Help please. I've started on Metformin 50mg once a day for a week upping to two a day. Its giving me terrible problems after I eat a meal running to the toilet.

I take them either with or after food as advised but it's making no difference. Can you tell me how long this is likely to last?

I work as a trainer and go back to work this week. Don't know how I'm going to cope .

Thanks in advance

Penny[/QUOTE]
 
I had dreadful problems - after about a month I just threw the tablets in the bin.
What was even more upsetting than the incontinence was finding out that I did not need the tablets anyway.
I did find that it was a most remarkable intensifier of will power. I only had to tell myself that eating something might make it necessary to take Metformin for my appetite to vanish.
 
My side effects lasted around ten days. I still take them over two years later with no problems at all. As Daibell suggests you might need to switch to the slow release ones.
 
HI and welcome @PennyAW

I had dreadful problem with metformin and my guts both the regular and slow release.
Dumped them in the bin after 3 weeks changed what I ate and got on pretty well without them (or any other meds).
 
I still think of those weeks on met as "Metformin Hell". I was switched to Gliclazide because I was supposed to be alright after 2 weeks, and decidedly wasn't. But by that time I'd already decided I was going to try a different tack: changed my diet and was off all diabetes medication AND statins for cholesterol in 3 months. https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-nutritional-thingy.2330/ might be of interest to you, (my own little quick-start guide) as well as dietdoctor.com, and this forum's website, diabetes.co.uk (not .org!). Metformin doesn't do anything about the carbs (which practically all turn to glucose) you ingest, only about the glucose your liver dumps into your system, so it's not even all that effective. To me, not worth the grief. You might feel differently though. Could always request the slow/delayed release kind?

Good luck!
Jo
 
Definitely ask for the slow release version as it should hopefully help! You shouldn't have to put up with long term unpleasant and debilitating side effects.

Also be aware that too many carbs can aggrevate the runs, as starchy food is known to sometimes cause gastric problems in combination with metformin, so reducing them ought to help. ( i was lucky not to have any real issues, and the only couple of times I ever had any diarrhoea was when i'd eaten a higher than usual carby meal.)

See http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14045911.php and scroll down to "Side Effects Gastric Distress". But the whole page is worth a read.

Robbity
 
My kind pharmacy have changed the brand of my metformin from one I have had for at least 8 years and could tolerate to another and my stomach problems (and loo finding quest) has started again. Grr.
 
Ah I think that's what is happening to me this time ( and I'm on the slow release ) or maybe its because I'm on double the dose.
 
Initially several yrs ago I only had the odd bout of diarrhea but now I'm on SR and double the dose I am having really bad bouts of diarrhea . Though this doesn't happen every day but its a nightmare when it does Im having to take imodium just to go to work :-(
 
Learned today that slow release doesn't get absorbed well in Roux-en-y patients. So therefore it is absorbed by the large intestine. Regular metformin is digested by the stomach and lower intestine better.
Now.... I've returned to one tablet daily. As my PCOS has come back with a vengeance. Weight loss keeps slowing too but if I can get on well with metformin I can lose up to 2sts and need even less insulin. I'm still producing my own insulin, or was (awaiting test results). Defo type2, confirmed. Had old and new consultant in appointment today.
I'm hopeful for the future and metformin has done so much in my past I cannot see a future without it.
We are all different and I used to feel so normal on metformin compared to no anti-IR medicine. I'd like to get my swimming back and walking without an aid.
Metformin has looked after my kidneys and brain, I feel.
Worth the retry for me.
 
Have you been advised to reduce it again?

Remember metformin has only been tested and agreed safe on a balanced diet. No other.
 
ickihun said:
Have you been advised to reduce it again?

Remember metformin has only been tested and agreed safe on a balanced diet. No other.
Click to expand...
No I haven't been back since May though I am due blood tests and a review . Once I get my FBG in the 5's I'm going to reduce it myself can't break the tablets so I will just take one in the morning and see if keeps my sugars ok . Re the balanced diet do you mean l the one subscribed by most DN's including quite a few carbs each meal ?
 
I believe that's the only diet tested on metformin and insulin and probably most diabetic meds.
 
I was put onto Metformin - years ago now - but didn't do very well with it and was put onto the SR one. Nothing would stop it affecting my bowel. Until, that is, I went low carb. Since then, I have only had a problem when I've had to take an iron supplement. Everyone is different, of course, but low carb seems to help me.
 
Yep I am the same. This evening I begin tablet 2. I found if I take the tablet exactly half way throu my breakfast I am ok. Good luck. I’m sure I was given 500mg - is this a lot if you are 50mg? X
 
SuNuman said:
Yep I am the same. This evening I begin tablet 2. I found if I take the tablet exactly half way throu my breakfast I am ok. Good luck. I’m sure I was given 500mg - is this a lot if you are 50mg?
Click to expand...
The minimum size Metformin tablets is 500 mg,, 50 mg is a typo.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/metformin-oral-tablet#dosage
 
I’ve not had a problem with it, on just one a day - but I’m also taking cocodamol so I think that cancels out any effects!!
 
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