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Dry throat.

M

Mrsmith247

Newbie
I’m a fairly recently diagnosed Diabetic and with the help of Metformin and adjustment of diet I’m managing it reasonably well. One thing that is a constant pain is how dry my throat and mouth is all the time! I drink a reasonable amount during the day and at home and I’ve tried oralieve but it doesn’t help. I suck on no sugar drops as well and it’s only a temporary relief.
Can anyone recommend any product that could help with this? It’s waking me up through the night
Thanks
Paul
 
Hi and welcome. I have a thing called xerostomia which is excessively dry and sticky mouth but only overnight when asleep. It's a known diabetic complication. For me it's not linked to high blood glucose as it only appeared some months after my BGs were back in normal range. Some sources link it to night sweats (which I also get) but I rarely get both at the same time, and the night sweats started many years before the sticky mouth.

It's often put down to medication or just being a bit older - I'm not on any meds but I do fall into the "bit older" class. I can't predict when it will happen and I have no solution.
 

I am 73 and pre for over 14 years, I do not take any medication. My BG is well under control. I get up at night about three time to wee and I have a very dry mouth. Every time I get up, I take few sips of water and go back to sleep. I am use to it now.
 
Morning folks
On the subject of dry mouths throats I also get them but it’s not just restricted to night time I get during the day also.
I try to keep as hydrated as I can but also being on the older side I have to run constantly to the toilet and it’s frustrating at times but again have learnt to live with it.
I have a couple of cups of coffee during the day but coffee makes me sleepy ,then I stick to sparkling water the rest of the time.
 
Last month or so. My mouth has been dry, coupled with urine urgency. Up anytime after 0400, urgent toilet rush, pad change as recently started to need more clean pads each day. Then back to bed. 0630 start when Husband's night carers leave. Last week or so, urgent rushes have also been daytime, leaving soaking pads.
I heard years ago, frequent trips to the toilet = diabetes!

I drink weak black tea or coffee, water with medication (that has been same for ages, none for diabetes) Trip to endo in a couple of weeks, now its for thyroid. I had a spell in hospital with dehydration and don't want to repeat that. After all these years I wonder what I will be told.
 
I often pop a couple of tic tacs in the night. It gets the saliva running which helps lubricate my throat.

There are specialy mouth washes and toothpaste you could try. Ask the pharmacist for ideas.

I can't eat a lot of sugar free candy as it does not agree with me.
 
Possibly a bladder infection?
 
My thoughts are with you @carolm. I hope you are getting support and love through this unhappy time. Please do come here any time you'd like to for any reason. We are all here for you.
 
Xerostomia or Dry mouth is a fairly common problem, I got it a year ago. My GP and Private health plan GP, and the diabetic nurse and the Practise pharmacist said there's nothing that can be done, but that's not really the truth.
I researched it and it can be caused by dozens of reasons. So I started doing simple things to eliminate the long list of possible causes the first was to change time of each drug that had dry mouth as a known side effect things like Metformin, Dapagliflozin, Amlodipine and Atorvastatin etc. If the Dry mouth comes on at night an hour or two after taking tablets in the evening it could a side effect of one of your meds, only change one drug to morning every couple of days or you will not know which was the villain.

Several Vitamin and mineral shortages will also trigger Dry mouth as will high Calcium levels so cut down on dairy and take a good multivitamin, these will take a while to correct so don't be down hearted if nothing changes in a week.

Around this point I tried a third GP (group practice) to ask for alternative drugs for those that are a bit iffy to put back or stop, he understood the research and was onboard with trying to fix my problem so we swopped out Aspirin for an alternative and started some more specialist tests with Urology, Rheumatology and Endcronolgy.

Also on recommendation of a new Diabetic nurse I asked for a free trial of a Libre 2 plus constant glucose monitor to see the exact impact of every meal and every medication and change of medication timing. It was a revelation, I saw that my biome was unbalanced and could process things like porridge and shredded wheat any flour product immediately, no long delay like we are told whilst stews, roasts, English breakfasts did not move sugars at all. So my "good diabetic control" wasn't good at all but with changes within 2 weeks my projected HBA1c was 6.5% or 48mmols.

I could also see the sugar lower and increase as the drugs with shorter effective perids run out of steam so could fine tune the taking of Dapagliflozin and Glicazide to match my peak sugar (meal) times.

I highly reccomend trying this device.

For me, most of the problem seems to be eating wrong diabetic recommended foods and taking tablets at wrong time of day and the need to stop taking Dapagliflozin altogether.

Persevere there may well be solutions for you out there, Good Luck
 
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