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Metformin And Milk

M

maverickuk

Member
Messages
17
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi,

I have been taking Metformin for four or five weeks now and have had no bad reactions. I take 1000mg with breakfast and 500mg with dinner. My BS is coming down very well and I had my first "within normal" reading today, two hours after breakfast.

However this afternoon, I have had quite bad diarrhoea, for the first time for as long as I can remember.

I have the same breakfast every day of rolled oats, a little portion of low GI fruit, some nuts, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon powder, mixed with milk and kefir (fermented milk). Today my wife put in more milk and kefir than normal.

Does anyone know if milk or kefir can react with metformin? I cannot think of anything else that could cause such a reaction.

Cheers
 
I think that Metformin can recact badly badly with carbs in general. Diarrhoea is one of the more common side effects of Metformin, and I've heard many people say that carbs make it worse.

There are about 5 grams of carb in each 100mL of milk, so that definitely could have exacerbated the problem.
 
I have never heard of kefir and having Googled it I think it sounds disgusting.
But .... where can I get some because I love yoghurt which in similar write ups also sounds disgusting.
I fancy trying some.
Sorry about you having the trots afraid I can't help with that.
kefir
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir
 
#uart, the whole point of taking metformin is to help the liver deal with the sugar content of carbohydrates, which is why people take it on the first place! So to write that metformin reacts badly with carbohydrates is simply not true. However there are some people who just cannot take metformin for different reasons, getting diarrhoea is one of them.
 
When I was prescribed Metfomin I was told that one of the main side effects was diarrhoea , and that this outcome became more likely if you had too many carbs. That's actually what the DN told me.

The main things that Metformin is supposed to help with is to increase the body's insulin sensitivity and to reduce the rate of gluconeogenesis (the production of glucose from non carbohydrate sources) in the liver. That's not really the same thing as "helping the liver deal with sugar from carbs".
 
Last edited by a moderator:
#uart if that was the case, no-one would be taking metformin!! Not only this, but I would have had diarrhoea for five weeks, as I have had the same breakfast every day for years now.

Besides, I would never take the word of the DN on issues such as this. A good example of what not to believe is for example - that the official advice being given out on official Diabetes health lines still advises diabetics that potatoes and bread are ok to eat....LOL. When I challenged the advisor on the veracity of what she was saying, she told me that she was just handing out official NICE guidelines.

As far as you comments on what metformin does, that is just semantics. The function of metformin is to help the body control blood sugar.
 
Quite a few people suffer the trots from Metformin.
It usually settles down.
 
If you carry on having problem ask your gp for the slow release metformin which helps a bit but have to say that even with this I still have problems after many years
 
Being a type two Virgin I looked up and must have read everything the western world has written metformin I personally find milk ok but sometimes if I have seeds and grains for breakfast and overdo the pumpkin seeds. I run like the clappers to the toilet I think if we just overdo the carbs and the protine It reacts this way
 
When I got my repeat meds recently the metformin was from a different manufacturer than normal and tasted horrible, made me feel sick and gave me the worst diarrhoea (far worse than the nomal touch of the runs I get now and then). Spoke to my friendly pharmacist who gave some some of the ones I'd had before. All settled back down. Probablt the coating on the different ones that disagreed. You've not had slighlt different ones have you?
 
Hi, I had to stop taking Metformin as it was causing same symptoms and bad stomach ache resulting in my having to have a colonoscopy! The consultant said it was clear and that Metformin cn cause these symptoms and I have not taken it since. With a few days my symptoms completely disappeared.
 
Unfortunately for me I am one of the people Metformin does not agree with so i have had to be taken off it.
Good luck with it though as it does help.
 
Welcome all you new members.
I hope you enjoy the forum and find it helps you.
I would have never coped without it.
 
As you posted on Thursday, how were you the rest of the day and since ? Have you gone back to your normal amount of milk and kefir ? That may give an indication as to the cause.
 


I have tied diarrhea to the combo of metformin and milk (finally). When I first went on Metformin, I had bad bowel experiences; going to Metformin ER helped tremendously, and for several years. Last year my Doctor upped my Metformin ER level to 1500mg/day, and the bowel problems returned. I recently went on a trip where I didn't drink any milk (I usually drink between a quart and a half gallon of skim a day), and viola, no problems. I changed to lactaid milk, and then Almond Milk, and no more bowel issues. Just to confirm the theory, I had a glass of milk with lunch, and the problems returned. So, in a nutshell, yes, in my case, Metformin and Milk don't mix very well.
 
Never heard of anyone taking Metformin like that, mostly it's 500 three times daily i.e. 1 tab breakfast, 1 tab lunch, 1 tab dinner time..?
 
Martin2018 said:
Never heard of anyone taking Metformin like that, mostly it's 500 three times daily i.e. 1 tab breakfast, 1 tab lunch, 1 tab dinner time..?
Click to expand...

According to my doctor, taking the Extended Release Metformin is a once a day thing, as it is a slow release across 24 hour effect... When I was on Metformin (not ER) I was on multiple times a day as you suggest.
 
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