Glipizide and carbs

[popsy]

First of all I apologise if this subject has been covered. I have read a lot on here about low carb diets which make absolute sense as I understand how carbs can affect bg's.

I was diagnosed T2 about 3 years ago, went onto Metformin and was ok for around 18 months when my readings started to climb. The dosage of Metformin gradually increased to the max. My doctor has started me on Glipizide and my first day taking it, in conjunction with Metformin, was yesterday. I have been doing my finger prick tests for a while and my readings were consistently pretty high pre-Glipizide, around 12 and as high as 18 but only ever as low as 9.6 with absolutely NO carbs that day, but yesterday after my first day on Glipizide my readings walloped down to 5.1 my lowest being 4.4 which I must say scared me a bit. I got a thundering headache and my heart was racing. Having felt pretty well on Metformin this new med is worrying me a bit. If I cut out carbs I am afraid that I will induce a hypo so have figured I need to eat some carbs to avoid this. It seems a very delicate balancing act to me and i am guessing I will get used to it.

What is your opinion about the headache etc.? Are these serious side effects that will last or will my poor hard-done-by body get used to this new med?

I weight 104.6 kgs so am obviously overweight but I used to weigh 129.8 and was diagnosed with T2 AFTER I lost the majority of my weight which seems a tad ironic :wink:

I would be glad of any opinions. I only found you guys yesterday when I went looking for Glipizide side-effects. I live in New Zealand but was born in Bristol, England.

Thanks so much.

 

[Paulgoldie]

I saw a diabetic nurse this week with my partner who has just been put on to some different med and she said it would be at least a week until results would be seen!!


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[popsy]

I know! I was pretty damned shocked I can tell you as I thought that it would take a while too. Ah well, we will see 8)

 

[desidiabulum]

Hi popsy,
It is a GOOD sign that you are responding so dramatically to glipizide -- I certainly had an instant response when I was started on it. As your body gets used to lower levels you will stop having hypo symptoms when you are quite so high. You may need to juggle doses and timing a little to avoid going too low, though. Everyone is different, but I find my body is very sensitive to meds in the morning, much less so in the evening. When I was on glipizide I found I couldn't take it in the morning without having very low sugars in the afternoon. When do you take it, and how much is your dosage?

 

[popsy]

Thanks for that desidiabulum, sounds encouraging. That's what I was wondering about, whether I would feel okay after a while.

As I have just started on Glipizide, I am only having 5mgs a day broken into two doses. It just says take twice a day so I have had a dose before breakfast and one at night. Maybe juggling around with it may help but I will have to see how I progress I suppose.

Thank you

 

[desidiabulum]

You might try taking at lunch rather than breakfast, and maybe also see how your sugars are on just one dose -- I found my GP and DN were happy for me to tweak the dosage so that I could monitor closely how my body responded, and avoid hypos. When you were given the prescription they may not have expected your body to respond so strongly, so it is sensible to adapt. The key thing is to not end up having to boost carb intake to stave off hypos, especially if you are trying to lose weight. Given how strong your reaction has been, you may even find that you can gradually wean yourself off it. Test, test, test -- I'm sure you know the score! Good luck!