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Metformin - a miracle drug (from HbA1c 53 to 42)

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Peterpan67

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A year ago, my hbA1c level was 53 and it has now gone down to 42 due to metformin. Did not change my diet a lot except for eating black eye beans every lunch time. Very pleased with the result. I am now thinking of stopping the Met form in.
 
If you stop the metformin and don't address the issues that have given u the Hba1c of 53 your blood glucose will rise again
 
Dare I say it?

Well done on your A1c results, smashing job, however if you had adjusted your diet as well as taking Met you may have seen a greater fall in A1c in an even shorter time.

Do you use a glucometer at home? I only ask with regard to the beans, I have not seen anything that says black eyed beans are of benefit to people with Pre Diabetes or Type 2 Diabetes.
 
Peterpan67 said:
No I don't use glucometer. Beans is a low GI food
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They may be low GI but you have no idea of the affect they are having on your blood glucose levels. Remember that the A1c is an average of glycation over a three month period (the last 4-6 weeks being the most telling) but this measurment cannot show you anything about blood glucose spikes and it is the spikes (long term) that do the damage.
 
I find that beans (flageot, black eyed, butter, aduki, etc.etc.) all spike my blood glucose far higher than the carbs they are declared to contain suggest. Sadly, the only way to understand what a particular food, in a particular portion size is doing to us, is to use a glucometer, since people can have very individual reactions to different foods. For example, I tolerate potato better than carrots or wheat, and get a silly-high spike from plain greek yogurt.

Regarding Metformin, there have been a number of studies over the last 10-15 years that suggest that optimal dosing will reduce the average HbA1c by around 1.1% (American units) which equates to approx 12mmol/mol (UK units). So that would fit in nicely with your reduction from 53 to 42.
Here is a link to a meta study showing the drop averaged to 1.12%
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/diacare/35/2/446.full.pdf
 
It's good that your result is lower but you may well be spiking and your level is still pre diabetic so you are at real risk. If you stop the drug your levels will likely go up and you risk suffering complications long term. Have you thought of changing your diet a bit or testing to see what is happening when you eat? I don't know how old you are but at 63, I want to keep my blood glucose levels normal, preferably without drugs.
 
I also find that legumes spike me more than their carb content would suggest, and the GI level makes no difference, so to get a good understanding of ones own response to carbs it is best to test.
Going low carb sorted out my diabetes very quickly, after finding out just how intolerant of Metformin I am I am really glad that there is another option, but if you can take them without the side effects then the tablets can help.
 
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