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Hypo and Metformin

C

curtisllanerch

Newbie
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2
I'm a recently diagnosed type 2 on 2 x 500mg metformin daily.

All going well, blood glucose down on diet and daily excercise, results all typically < 7 before and after meals.

Something happened today. Had a french bread baton (white) for lunch, 2 hrs later BG of 11 ! Tried to walk this off on way home from work - felt suddenly light headed. sat down on train and BG 3.8.

What went wrong today ?? Thought it wa unlikely to hypo on Metformin?

Any help in understanding this appreciated.
 
Hi Curtis and welcome to the forum :)

Anybody, even a non-Diabetic, can hypo, it just means low blood sugar levels. Anything below 4 mmol/l. So on Metformin it is possible to hypo but unusual. Exercise can bring on a hypo which means you should have a few glucotabs with you in future just in case. I am type 2 on Metformin and have some glucotabs in my bag. The white bread would have given you a high as you saw and then the levels would have come down quickly as the carbs in white bread are fast acting (fast up fast down) and don't remain in the blood for long (you don't say what you had with the bread by the way) - brown bread would have been better, for example, with some cheese or meat maybe, then the levels would have come down more slowly and not as low.

Here is a link to some general information on hypos prepared by a forum monitor :
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=18529

And here is a link to general information on Metformin.
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=12124

Hope this helps.

Since you are recently diagnosed here is a link to the basic information on diabetes which was put together by the Forum Monitor's to give to new members. I hope you will find it useful. You may find the advice differs from what you have been told but this works better.

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=17088#p155405

Happy reading...don't hesitate to ask about anything that you still need to know and we will be pleased to help you. :)
 
Hi Curtis, and welcome to the forum.

Probably a combination of things at work here, the "french bread baton (white)" you ate will be extremely high in carbs and those carbs would have been very high on the glycemic index (GI) what this means in blood glucose terms is that that amount of carbs would have spiked your blood sugars and 7 to 11 would not be unusual in fact I would get a higher increase than 4mmol/L if I ate a bagette which I really miss BTW :cry:

Then a combination of the high GI and the exercise would have combined to drop you bg levels quite quickly making you feel hypo, a lower GI bread like Burgen will release its carbs more slowly and should help to stop this happening again. You may find that like many T2's you will not be able to tolerate any type of white bread again. Wholemeal breads are similar as they are made with a highly processed flour but you may find the lower GI linseed and soya Burgen bread or a whole grain bread easier on your bg levels.

Hope this helps.
 
curtisllanerch said:
White bread is out then !
Click to expand...

It is for me but you need to test again perhaps after half the amount of baguette and see what your levels are, you may get away with it, you never know till you test :D
 
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