Metformin side effects

Diagnosed type 2 August last year and have been diet controlled until a few days ago. Blood sugar levels were increasing after started taking Trazadone for depression. Stopped under medical supervision after 2 weeks but sugars still high. Fasting sometimes 19.7. Started on metformin last Friday. One a day for 10 days and slowly building up to 4 a day. Constantly feeling nauseated and tired since taking them, not that I felt all that great beforehand. Anyone else suffered from these side effects?

Thanks, I've been following the same diet as before, weight slowly coming down, however have lost 5kg since 16 March which I know is due to the high sugars. Will persevere and hope things settle down soon.

Resurgam said:

What sort of things do you eat?
Reducing carb intake is amongst the most effective ways to lower carbs, and is usually the simplest to do

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Breakfast usually consists of porridge or scrambled egg, lunch soup or salad and dinner chicken/fish/meat with lots of vegetables or salad. Pasta occasionally and if I need a snack rice cake with humus or a small portion of berries. I make all my meals as I am wheat intolerant.

Resurgam said:

If you are wheat intolerant - how can you eat pasta?
I don't eat it as it is high carb, but with an intolerance on top I'd have thought that you'd have avoided it.

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Gluten free pasta is available in the Free From aisle in most supermarkets and health food shops, I usually buy lentil pasta. I have it occasionally and only a small amount.

Bluetit1802 said:

Do you use your meter to show you what your food choices do to your levels? It may show you at a glance that porridge isn't a good choice. It is very high in carbs, and worse if made with milk. Do you make your own soups? What do you put in them? Hummus can also be very high carb.

I suggest you try testing immediately before you eat and 2 hours after first bite. Keep a detailed food diary including portion sizes, and record your levels alongside the food. Look at the rise, if any, from before to after eating. If this is 2mmol/l or more there were too many carbs in that meal. You can soon see patterns emerging and see which your danger foods are, so you can either seriously reduce the portion sizes or eliminate some of them.

If you feel tired or hungry, which is normal when you seriously reduce carbs because you are losing a source of energy that needs replacing, add some good fats to your meals, fats such as avocado, olive oil, real mayo, butter, cheese, full fat yogurts, cheese, nuts, as these will replace the lost energy..

You will feel so much better if you can get those high blood glucose levels down.

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After being diagnosed I adjusted my diet with the assistance of the community dietian and I have been seeing her every 8 weeks. The first time I saw the nurse at my GP practice she told me to cut out butter, avacado, cheese and all the things you suggest. I wasn't given a meter and told I didn't have to test blood but to keep an eye on my sugars, difficult when you don't test. So after some research, NHS diabetes education class and speaking with my dietian I purchased a meter myself.

My level of activity has been increasing and I swim approx 7 miles a week, walk every day and take 2 reformer pilates classes a week. Levels have been good since August, with only 2 spikes no higher than 13.2 mmol/l between August and beginning of March, and I even managed to bring down my Hba1c. The problems have occurred since starting antidepressants, coincidental or not.

I add nuts to salads, I don't eat much cheese and don't eat yoghurt as these tend to bring on eczema flare ups. I cut back on my portion size a while back and have 2 portions of fruit a day.

The pharmacist did suggest that my hormones could be out of whack causing the continued highs and since I started the menopause a few years back that would make sense.

I shall persevere and push past this. Thank you all for the advice.

Being a shift worker suffering from insomnia doesn't help either but will try and keep positive and keep moving forward.

Have been taking Metformin for almost 3 weeks now, nausea not as bad but hits me in waves at odd times of the day. As I increase the dosage having a few other side effects, particularly fatigue.

However, pleased to say that after being in a state of constant hyperglycaemia for 7 weeks my blood sugars are ranging between 5 & 9.

My diet hasn't changed greatly since first diagnosed but am now having to cut out tomatoes and rice cakes as they are giving spikes at the moment when they didn't previously.

Taking it one day at a time and seeing what works for me.

Bluetit1802 said:

Well done on the blood glucose front. That is brilliant.

I can understand the rice cakes as they are very difficult for T2s. However, I eat a load of fresh tomatoes every day at some point (half a dozen cherry toms or one grilled ordinary one with no appreciable effect. Tinned are a different matter.) How much do they spike you?

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Went from 7.2 before eating to 11.9 2 hours after. Meal consisted of grilled chicken breast, lettuce, cucumber, spring onion, diced red and yellow pepper, avacado and cherry tomatoes. Tried the same next day without the tomatoes and reading was 6.5 before eating and 7 2 hours after.

I know, weird that I didn't have the problem 8 weeks ago.