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Does Metformin cause shakes and blurry vision?

M

martin2410

Member
Messages
20
Type of diabetes
Type 2
I have to thank Yorksman for this idea of the subject.
Basically, I have just been diagnosed and started off on 1 metformin 500mg a day for week 1, then 2 a day for week 2 then week 3 onwards, 3 a day. I have noticed if I dont have food at the usual time, or start to feel hungry, I get a bit shaky and sometimes blurry vision. I never got this bad before diagnosis, so is this the first sign of a hypo, or is a side effect of the medication? If its a side effect, well, i dread the 3 pills a day. I dont test my blood as I havent seen a nurse yet. Not been given any monitors or even told to test by my doctor. Just told to ask all my questions to the nurse.
 
It's a hypo, and not caused by metformin. In a T2 hypos are a symptom of insulin resistance. Your body is producing too much insulin at times to try to overcome high sugar levels in your blood. Too much insulin, at the wrong time, and you have a hypo.

What tends to happen is that people change their diet when they are diagnosed and eat much less than they did prior to diagnosis. So they tend to have hypos when they would have eaten enough before to prevent them. The irony of this is that the way metformin works, you'll have fewer hypos when you increase the dose. Most people wrongly associate the hypos with metformin when what metformin does is to make your body more sensitive to the insulin you produce so it helps stop both highs and hypos.

Eat regularly and keep snacks handy for when you feel as though you are having a hypo. Also tell the DN and GP that you are having hypo symptoms and you will be more likely to be given a meter and test strips, especially if you drive.
 
The blurred vision can normally be one of the signs of high blood sugar, the shakes can be a sign of a hypo or in my case when my BS was high (in the 20's) and then came back down to normal levels a false hypo. This is where you become accustomed to high blood and then come down your body acts as if its got low BS and reacts accordingly.

Metformin's side affects tend to be stomach upsets, the need to be close to a loo, make you gassy from the exhaust port :D amongst others.

Up until yesterday I was on 6 metformin a day and luckily only suffered from gas problems and have been on 13 years.

Think myself I would phone up one of the meter providers like Bayer, Abbott Medisense, Lifescan etc, and ask if they will supply you a meter free. Most will send you one free by return of post or fairly quickly, most will come with 10 test strips to start you off, at least you will have an indication of your BS. Take a look at their web sites to see if there's a particular meter you like the look of / or its features, some meters will only be available to type 1's though they may offer you an alternative which may be better for you. When you get a meter test before a meal and 2 hours after to see what your results are.

Depending on the usual post code lottery will also depend on if the GP practice will supply meters / test strips. My practice won't supply meters and one has to source their own, but are supplying test strips on prescription.
 
aaahhh, right, you may have answered another question there, Are the test strips and lances (if I need to test) available on prescription?

And as for stomach upsets and gas-well combine them with my hiatus hernia/reflux and kidney stone, I can see some time off work ahead of me.
 
If you have a problem with normal metformin, there is a slow release version which is a lot more gently on people, which may be more suitable.

The test strips and lancets are available on prescription, but there's a problem if you are a type 2 with some GP's hence the post code lottery.

Some areas will not provide or will only supply tests at a limited rate as they deem that type 2's don't need to test and only need the HbA1c tests that the practice do, which for me is annually. :( The argument from our side is how are we meant to know what foods affect us with out testing. Also what they save on test strip costs is then spent on complications later on plus some.

If you are one of the unlucky ones there are some lower cost test meter / strip options about, but as newly diagnosed diabetic you in theory should be given the means to check yourself.

After a few years I gave up testing regularly and followed doctors advice, this resulted in my BS rising slowly over time and went unnoticed. This year felt some thing was wrong and checked my BS and it was in the 20's :(. After several HbA1c tests and a intervention of a nurse, my meds were changed and I am getting back on track.

Some where along the line I developed a reaction to white floor based products which sends my BS sky high. If I had tested regularly I would of identified the problem a lot sooner. As a result of the new meds I can have hypos and DVLA's guide lines say I need to test, managed to get test strips re-added and qty increased to cover my needs. What used to last me a year on strips now lasts around a month.
 
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