how long before body realises 8 mmol/l is not low?

[jfran]

Hi, Im fairly newly diagnosed T2 (5 weeks) and just started taking 1 dose 500mg metformin (up to 3 a day in 3 weeks).

Before the metformin, as i was changing my diet i found that when my bg level his 7.5-8 i would start feeling horrendous, dizzy, sick, tired etc, as though i had low blood sugar. Obviously my body is used to running at a much higher level.

Today though i achieved my lowest fasting bg level so far, 7.2 (attribute to metformin, gym session last night and not eating after 6pm). Then i took my metformin tablet with breakfast.

I have been feeling awful again, bad headache, bit slow/fuzzy head, so ate lunch at 12 and head is now a lot better - so assuming its cos the metformin lowes bg soon after you take it, so i had lower bg level. I forgot my testing kit today, so cant check level.

My question is: how long does it take for your body to get used to lower bg levels? I.e. how long am i likely to feel absolutely rubbish for as my bg comes down to normal levels? I was 15.4 fasting when diagnosed, and have been running anywhere between 8-11.5 fasting since i got my test kit, hence asking for metformin.

 

[borofergie]

In my case it took about 2 months.

I still get a mild headache if my BG hits very low 5s.

 

[xyzzy]

Everyone seems to react differently to this. Some people report its not so much the actual level but how fast the level changes. With me I never had a problem and have gone from in the 20's down to averaging in the high 4's without a problem BUT its taken 16 weeks to get there so the progress has been slow and steady and may well account for it.

I would suggest you try and take it down slowly and when you get the feelings try to eat your way out of them but in a non sugary or carby way if that makes sense.

If you do find a way around it please post it as I'm sure others who suffer the same kind effects would find it useful.