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Err - Hello! &... Impact of Metformin on blood sugar levels

Shep1001

Member
Messages
14
Location
South UK
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
(1) Diabetes :)
(2) Being told what to do
(3) Seagulls (3a) Seagulls that poo on my car
4) Vimto
Had my Type II diabetes diagnosis confirmed mid August.


I have been checking my blood glucose typically twice a day for a while now, kind of anticipating what the doc was going to tell me. (when I wake up & before my evening meal) before I started my Metformin meds a week ago my blood glucose was typically 10-12 in the morning and as high as 16 late in the afternoon.

My first HbA1c test came back at 11.8. Thankfully BP, Liver & kidney function is good & my cholesterol & lipid panel results are good too.

Since taking the Metformin; 500mgs in the morning & the same at night I have seen a significant reduction in my blood glucose readings usually 6-6.5 in the morning and between 8-9 in the evenings. Is this typical of what to expect? I understand the medication is supposed to assist my body manage blood glucose but I have also been told Metformin has a 'negligable' effect?

My diet & exersize recently whilst not perfect, hasn't changed significantly since starting the meds, although I am working on portion size control & carb reduction. Is it the case that Metformin has a variable impact on different individuals? Ultimately my goal is to manage my diabetes through diet alone if possible for as long as possible but I need understand more what impact the meds are having and what is attributable to me modifying my diet and getting off my fat ar*e and taking more exercise
 
Welcome. I think it's great that your BGs are coming down so much, and that it seems to be due to metformin. I think all drugs have a variable impact on people, one way or another. It's usually the case that metformin doesn't do much but it wouldn't surprise me if it did more for some people.

You might find this info about metformin interesting. Written by a well informed layperson who has diabetes:
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14045911.php
 

Welcome to the website.

A good result so far!
Diet and exercise work wonders.
Cut the calories, cut the carbs.
 
Hi. It's great to hear that Metformin has been a great help. For many it does little but we are all different. It works best for those who have excess weight and hence insulin resistance.
 
Good Metformin seems to have worked for you more than for a lot of us and fairly quickly but the next step is diet.The official NHS diet advice tells you it is OK to eat foods with carbohydrate but if you want to see a real improvement try a diet much lower carbohydrate but higher in fats and oils.
 
Daibell said:
Hi. It's great to hear that Metformin has been a great help. For many it does little but we are all different. It works best for those who have excess weight and hence insulin resistance.
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I guess you are right. I didn't get a belly from eating apples! shedding a stone or so whilst challenging won't be that difficult, if I need to get my BMI to 'healthy' then that is going to be hard. Not been 12 stone since I was 20 - thats 20 years ago!
 
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It will take some time, I don't think I can go cold turkey!. Before I knock the spam fritter butties on the head I might have to wean myself off having them on wholegrain rolls. Thankfully I don't have a sweet tooth so eliminating sugary foods is doddle.

Thinking about carbs more and portion size reduction will be my biggest challenge.
 
You can have spam or bacon grill fried but batter is a no-no as are rolls.
Bacon egg sausage has zero effect on blood sugar.
 
Sirmione said:
You can have spam or bacon grill fried but batter is a no-no as are rolls.
Bacon egg sausage has zero effect on blood sugar.
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Spam is just not the same unless its deep fried and served in a bun - oh well looks like I will be knocking them on the head then! Do you know if chicken livers are OK? another of my guilty pleasures is spicy chicken livers wrapped in bacon
 
Shep1001 said:
Spam is just not the same unless its deep fried and served in a bun - oh well looks like I will be knocking them on the head then! Do you know if chicken livers are OK? another of my guilty pleasures is spicy chicken livers wrapped in bacon
Click to expand...
they should be fine but test before and after to find out
 
Yours sound like they are going in the right direction.

I've been on Metformin coming up for 2 weeks, and it has made a significant reduction to my blood sugar - I was diagnosed with blood glucose readings of 10.9 and 17.9 and a HbA1c of 106

I started on 500 and am now on 1000mg - my highest reading since I started has been 12.2 with only 2 readings over 10 (both after meals) and all fasting below 7 (this mornings were slightly higher (6.7 at 7am) - I'm no expert but that might be due to a late night snack of strawberries and grapes.

Having suffered a number of attacks of acute pancreatitis - and losing my father to it (both of us tee-total) - although we don't know for definite - for the moment we are working on the basis of Type II - so I'm very pleased with the levels I'm getting now and have learnt a lot more here about testing than I learnt from the medics

I've also made some drastic changes to my diet in that I'm actually eating now and have removed high sugar drinks from my diet - and if I do need sugar - going for natural sugars
 
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One thing I have learned from this forum that diabetes is different for each person.


Grapes are essentially sugary water and would send my blood glucose readings interstellar.
 
What sort of natural sugars do you go for? Have you tested before and 2 hours after to see if they spike your BG? The only fruit I can eat are berries and apples, and I don't have fruit juice.
 
Shep1001 said:
I guess you are right. I didn't get a belly from eating apples!
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Probably not, but apples are quite high in sugars - naturally occurring sugars, but sugars nevertheless. Varieties grown commercially for the shops have been bred to taste sweet, hence they contain even more sugar than the traditional varieties. That's not to say you shouldn't eat fruit but I used to eat four or five pieces a day, which, with hindsight, probably wasn't too clever.

I now have two bits of fruit a day, which seems to be OK and, having been on two metformin tablets per day, I was advised to drop to one per day at my last review because my levels were well under control and I didn't need as high a dose.

It sounds like you're heading in the right direction, anyway, so good luck
 
The "natural sugars" thing is a myth.
 
Sirmione said:
The "natural sugars" thing is a myth.
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True, in that all sugar is still sugar. But at least fruit has water and fibre, and hasn't been processed to within an inch of its life. I once saw a doco on how sugar is refined from cane into the white stuff. Amazing what it goes through.
 
I just did a little experiment in the kitchen
A grape is roughly 15% sugar.
I put a clean empty plastic jar on the scales and zeroed the scales.
I then added 15 grams of sugar - which turned to be exactly 4 slightly heaped teaspoons.
Then added water to make up to 100 grams, which is almost exactly half a cup.
 
CatLadyNZ said:
What sort of natural sugars do you go for? Have you tested before and 2 hours after to see if they spike your BG? The only fruit I can eat are berries and apples, and I don't have fruit juice.
Click to expand...

Still working on that atm - but I do have small orange juice with copious amounts of ice - and it certainly hasn't impacted on my post meal BG

I've got fruit here because I am now (first time for quite a while) starting to get sugar lows - I'm disabled and it's nigh on impossible for me to cook whilst home alone - I've also got coeliac which puts a fair few options out of reach for me

I'm sure I will learn as i go along - but when you think of what I was doing until shortly before the diagnosis (I horrify myself now - but I could not stop drinking sweet drinks) - so my body has had quite a dramatic change - loving the headaches (not) - but my sugar levels are considerably better and my BP diastolic although not particularly high to start with - has dropped by around 15 points

I start Weight Watchers on Monday courtesy of being a newly diagnosed diabetic meeting their criteria (overweight) - so have 12 weeks to see where we go - it's the same group my daughter goes (she's in Oz for just over 3 weeks - so would be nice to lose some before she gets back) - she's lost over 6 stone since having my grandson - she also specialises in diabetes (as did my sister) and she was saying that the majority of WW customers who are Type II are no longer on any type of medication - we shall see how things go
 
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