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Is my Metformin working

wozey

Well-Known Member
Messages
94
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I’m hardly eating carbs as most people are recommending and testing before and 2hrs after eating so 3 days in a row I’ve been before eating 5.0 to 6.0 and 2hrs after I’m at 12.0 to 12.5 I just don’t know where I’m going wrong. Please help!
 
Hi wozey
Metformin works by restricting the amount of stored glucose your liver releases, it can't reduce the glucose that's already in your blood. To reduce your blood sugar directly you would need to be taking insulin or drugs that force your pancreas to produce more insulin.
If you let us know exactly what your meals have contained, maybe someone will be able to figure out what's causing your high post meal numbers.
 
Would you like to share what you ate? Maybe there's some hidden carbs?

Also, if you tested your breakfast, you may be looking at dawn phanomenon/foot on the floor effect, where it's not the food causeing the rise but your helpful liver trying to get you going for the day with a boost of glucose.
 
Today I’ve had lamb with some vegetables broccoli carrots and cauliflower I’ve been drinking water and that’s taken me from 5.6 right up to 12.5 after 2hrs
 
Seems quite a rise for what you ate, did you confirm that 12.5 by re washing your hands and doing a second test?
 
catinahat said:
Seems quite a rise for what you ate, did you confirm that 12.5 by re washing your hands and doing a second test?
Click to expand...

Yeah I’ve done it 3 times with different fingers, maybe the first test wasn’t accurate because I only did that once and was happy with it so didn’t question it
 
I suppose its possible that you were higher than you thought to start with. But to be honest it's perfectly understandable that you wouldn't think to check the 6.5.
What did you do in the 2hrs between tests, any exercise or activity that could have caused a liver dump
 

I’ve just been watching TV and few Jobs about the house, nothing strenuous I went out for my exercise this morning
 
Did you have any sort of sauce or gravy with it? I’m just wondering if some carbs sneaked in that way.
 
Sometimes this diabetes and testing malarkey just leaves us with more questions than answers. You probably need to give it more time, it's taken months, maybe years for your T2 to develop, it's not going to get fixed in a few days.
Keep the faith with low-carb, things should eventually improve, if not go back to the Dr's you could need something a little more effective than metformin
 
Give the LCHF diet a chance - it takes a couple of months to empty your fully carb charged liver and reset the thermostat. Six years ago I was on max dose of Metformin (2000 mg) along with max dose of Actos, and max dose of gliclazide ( 320 mg) and my post prandials were swinging off the rafters between 20 and 35 mmol/l. I was a candidate for insulin. I refused and started LCHF. 6 months later my bgl was going hypo, and I had stopped the Actos and reduced my gliclazide to 80 mg per day. The Metformin I kept at max since it is helpful in protecting the heart.

Since then I have not had another HbA1c in the diabetes range, andI have stopped the Metformin and reduced the gliclazide to minimum dose. I am also on 5mg of Dapagliflozin courtesy of my heart consultant but it does not seem to be doing anything sugarwise. It makes I fart tho.
 
Lobsang Tsultim said:
Did you have any sort of sauce or gravy with it? I’m just wondering if some carbs sneaked in that way.
Click to expand...

No I noticed the gravy was a bad idea just before I poured it on, was a little upset about not being able to have any lol
 
wozey said:
No I noticed the gravy was a bad idea just before I poured it on, was a little upset about not being able to have any lol
Click to expand...
Keep at the low carb. It will take a little while for some insulin sensitivity to get back towards normal.

If the weather isn't too bad going for a walk after a meal really helps. It really doesn't have to be far or fast paced, just a ten minute stroll will help. It gives the body somewhere to put the carbs you have injested.

You might want to add butter to your meat and veg in place of gravy. Very tasty and the extra fat should take the edge off the blood sugar spike as it slows digestion a bit. Your mileage may vary on that of course.

Keep at it and good luck.
 
Perhaps your spike came something else? Food is just one reason why our blood sugars rise and is the easiest for us to control. I recently had two days of higher than normal readings because of an uncomfortable 10 hour bus trip over some pretty rough roads. I’d already pulled some muscles in my back so every now and again it would go into full spasm. Our response to pain tends to increase bs levels.

what I can say is cutting down on carbs has brought my bs levels down, and is keeping them down
 
I can second that. Last Saturday I did my weekly shopping, and carried heavy loads into the house. On Sunday my body reminded me and I suffered painful lumbago as a result. That night I had a ready meal that in the past was benign as it was relatively low carb, My bgl jumped from 5.7 to 10.7 at 2hrs, but fell back to 4.6 at 4 hrs. This is a major excursion for me. Last night I repeated the same meal (I had halved the portion the previous day) and my readings went from 4,3 to 4.6 then dropped to 3.3 and I had my first hypo in the last 3 years or so - full blown vision disturbance, and tingling lips. (readings confirmed by a second meter testing in parallel)

So I reckon that the stress from my back exaggerated my sugar rise. PS hot water botttles applied to lumbar region worked for me. still getting twinges if I stand tensed up, but can clean up the cat puke from the floor.
 
wozey said:
No I noticed the gravy was a bad idea just before I poured it on, was a little upset about not being able to have any lol
Click to expand...

I've never made gravy with flour - I simply deglaze the roasting pan with a little water from the tap, or wine, or water from cooking the veg, or a mix of those.
 
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