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Metformin Regime

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sdgray22

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Newly diagnosed on 2 x 500mg tablets metformin one twice a day. First few days on it only had to take my tablet and eat my dinner and off I went to the loo with no control. Anyway I decided to do a bit of research. Lots of pharmacists and chemists have things to say about metformin, but here is what I found out.
Metformin if taken twice a day should be spread out ie 10 - 12 hours between tablets ideally and as much as you possibly can if not the ideal. Metformin (the ordinary kind not slow release) has a half life of 7 hours ie it is active for 7 hours after taking it. You should make sure your main meals are covered in these seven hours.

So my regime (as I take blood pressure tablets early in the morning as you should) is wake up 8ish take BP medication. 9.30 - 10 breakfast (not much do not like breakfast just a piece of toast or a banana is all I can mamage) 12 lunch with metformin tablet, afternoon snack and dinner about 6ish. So first tablet covers lunch, afternoon snack and dinner. I have a snack before bed 10ish and take my 2nd tablet it covers this. The only meal I can't cover on the half life of the tablet is breakfast. I also have found that small amounts of food with the tablets are much better than taking it with a full meal.
I have no diarrhea on this regime. :D Although I realise I am in my first weeks of taking this medication and things can change.

I understand that the actual benefit of the tablets in taking blood sugar down can take a while to kick in. I have bought a meter which I am planning to start using in the next few days to test foods and what they do to me personally, but how long before I see the reduction of the base line readings?. My diagnosis readings were fasting 12, other readings taken say that I can spike up to 18 with cornflakes after 90 minutes. You are all talking of readings far below that.
Sharon
 
Hi. Are you also watching your carb intake as well as taking Met? Cornflakes for example are quite high in carbs. Although Met should help reduce your BS within a few weeks it's important to keep the carbs down and try to have low GI ones wherever possible. The meter will help you find out which foods affect your BS the most.
 
Metformin will only reduce your blood sugar levels by between 1-2 points and that is when you are on the maximum dose, which obviously you are not. Testing your Bg levels will show what, if any effect it is having. If your bs levels are quite high I doubt that it will have gone down much especially 2 hrs after meals.

As someone who used to take metformin I was always told to take it with breakfast and if needed evening meal. The view was that it's maximum effect was at the 2 to 2.5 hr point and that it then started to be excreted. I wouldn't rely on just the met to control your bs levels, as daibell says, reduce your carbohydrates as well. that should be more effective in the long run.
 
Yes I am learning about low GI and what foods are good and bad. Its not the easiest subject though is it? Carbohydrates are pretty complicated things. I have ordered a book to read about low GI and I will follow that sort of low carb diet that most seem to think is good, and see what effect that has. I have also got my exercise bike out of mothballs and started this morning, it will take a few days to build that up. I can't tolerate the metformin near my main meal which is my dinner at 6pm i am just trying to find a way of taking the tablets with the least trauma involved. Life has to go on and I can't always be sitting next to a loo after eating. If Metformin has that little effect why do we take it? Sorry didn't know about the cornflakes it was at the time when I was told by the Doctor to go on a low sugar diet - nothing about carbohydrates or anything else come to that, and I thought cornflakes, semi skimmed milk and no sugar was OK, it is obviously not. I had got to the stage I was getting scared of eating anything in case it sent my BS high which is why I started looking here. I have learned a bit about low GI and it seems to work for most. So will give it a go and see what happens.
Sharon
 
Hello sharon
Basically most newly diagnosed try diet and exercise first and if that doesn't work them metformin is the usual first line treatment. The medics expect that if your diabetes control isn't too bad that metformin will help with diet and exercise. Mostly though there are many whose bs levels are so high on what they think is a healthy diet that the metformin will be next to useless. The logical step then is increasing meds to try and achieve control. Many on here and myself found quite quickly that diet and exercise was a much more effective tool to gain control.

If you don't adjust the dietary intake of carbohydrates and bs still remains high then for some who want an 'instant' fix the logical step is to inject insulin. Not a route I took but for some it may be needed.
 
Hi. One or two extra points. Do ask your Doc for Metformin SR if you are having bowel problems with the vanilla variety. Met seems to help most with those who are overweight and hence insulin resistant. In my case being underweight and not producing much insulin it only had a small effect for me and as Angeleyes says diet is very important. You'll soon get used to reading the nutrition information on the packets at the supermarket. For breakfast my wife makes up home made muesli for both of us based on oats and many different seeds and low-sugar fruit. Even oats have to be taken in smallish quantity. The nice thing is I have eggs and bacon sometimes which are fine for diabetics although I try to avoid too much saturated fat. Most diabetics are put on statins so this helps with the cholesterol. Proteins are no problem. My local baker sells low-GI bread made from multi-grain flour (www.lowgibread.org.uk) as normal bread can be quite high-GI
 
I hadn't heard that Metformin could play you up - I take 850 twice a day and thankfully it doesn't affect me the same way.

As for Cornflakes, I would echo that they're probably not one of the best cereals. You'll find after a while that your taste buds change and you can taste the sweetness. Cornflakes put me off now as they taste sweet. I find that the ideal is homemade porridge (not the packet microwave variety) and I don't add anything except a little salt to it. It all sounds depressingly savory to start with but your tastes do change. I make my own bread using a jumble sale breadmaker. Not because of the DB particularly, just because it tastes good and is much cheaper.

Simon
 
Thanks. My cholestrol is very good, have had high blood pressure for years so no salt anyway. I will be going the diet route. As i have always said, medical people tick boxes.Had test tick Diagnosed tick, seen practice nurse tick written prescription tick. Not working more drugs tick. They have flow charts they follow and rarely stray from them - they are not allowed to.

Little bit overweight and predict this diet and a bit of bike exercise will soon get rid of that. I am quite looking forward to dropping a jeans size!

Off tomorrow to get a GI counter book and I will get some recipes from the recipe thread. Low GI Bread that sounds interesting.
Thanks for replying
Sharon
 
swimmer2 said:
I find that the ideal is homemade porridge (not the packet microwave variety) and I don't add anything except a little salt to it.
Click to expand...
I sprinkle some ground cinnamon in
 
Tablets have acted up again had to stop taking them. I am seeing the Practice Nurse next Thursday and will ask for slow release,
Struggling with carbs decided to go down low carb way. Suggestions please
What did you eat yesterday on low carb diet?
Sharon
 
sdgray22 said:
Tablets have acted up again had to stop taking them. I am seeing the Practice Nurse next Thursday and will ask for slow release,
Struggling with carbs decided to go down low carb way. Suggestions please
What did you eat yesterday on low carb diet?
Sharon
Click to expand...

Hi Sharon, here's a copy of a reply I put on your other post which might help:-
"Sharon, don't get mixed up between GI and amount of carbs; it's not one or the other, you need to look at both.
You need to settle on a level of carbs, for example 100grams a day for you would be 50% of guideline amount for a woman. THEN you make sure they're GOOD (low GI) carbs.
GI isn't a definitive thing. They arrive at figures for GI by getting non-diabetics to eat that food and seeing the effect on their blood sugar. This could vary a lot from test to test, so it's only an estimation. Nonetheless, it's a good guide.
You get other clues to GI. When you look at nutrition labels, it will say "Carb content..." then next line "Of which sugars...." In general terms, if 2 things had the same carb content, but one had higher "Of which sugars..", then that higher one wouldn't be so good. You can't rely just on that though. Flour would have virtually no "of which sugar", but white flour is very high GI.
Regarding calories, it's up to you. However, many find that if you're reducing carbs considerably, then your weight will fall anyway even if you don't study calory content. Same approach with fat. I know saturated fat is bad for all of us, but by focusing on carbs and ignoring fat intake, my cholesterol has fallen from 5.5'ish to 3.8 last test.
I concern myself as a diabetic ONLY with sugar levels, and keeping reasonably fit. I therefore focus only on carbs and exercise. But that's my approach......."
 
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