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Metformin side effects

M

mk5

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Messages
7
just wondered if anyone else gets heartburn and constipation? also when i get my period i feel really faint. never had this before

been on Glucophage SR for nearly 3 months and have never felt so ill or miserable. i have my 3 month review with my doctor in a couple of weeks and will obviously mentioning this to him then

been diabetic for over 10 years and until recently controlled it by diet alone. had no symptoms and felt fine

i'm female, early 40's and i'm not overweight
 
Metformin did that to me too. so it appears to not unusual. not sure about the heartburn but i wasn't on it for very long. Maybe 2 weeks. Most uncomfortable.

not sure on a solution to be honest. hope the others can help!
 
Been on Glucophage SR for three weeks. First week just one tablet with evening meal - very uncomfartable at first - bloated/swollen stomach - but I was expecting that. I found it affected me less if I eat half my meal before taking the tablet. Now on tablet at breakfast as well - not having any problems with bloated stomach. Don't have bowel movements as often as before started medication but not constipated. I am low carbing but lost it completely yesterday and ate 3 oatabix - as expected felt terrible for the rest of the day - however very good movement this morning!

MK are you taking any other medication - in my area the standard treatment is medication for diabetes, blood pressure and statins.

I was prescribed amlodipine for my BP six weeks before I was diagnosed as type2 - didn't take them at first - tried more exercise and cut out chocolate, snacks, etc. Managed to reduce BP to approx 130/80 but them it started to go back up again so I thought I had best take the amlodipine - took it for three weeks but didn't seem to make any difference to my BP - I would have thought it would have had an immediate impact. I used to take it before bed because I didn't like the side effects.
After I stopped taking it the following morning my BP had dropped and my mood had changed considerably - I felt great - I couldn't belive the difference it made. Not taken it since.

No intention of taking statins - not convinced thay are safe.

MK if you are on other meds as well it might be worth experimenting to see if that makes any difference.

All the best

Alan
 
had no heartburn with metformin and as for constipation??? - jebus heist ... nope ~ totally the opposite, couldn't leave the bathroom for five days ... liqui-poop ... all seems fine now though, been on it a month :)

what's the concerns with statins?

even though my chol is "only" 5 my "team" wish to start me on statins in a few months time ...

taaaaaaaaa xxx
 
Hi Jem

My father has very high cholesterol levels if left untreated - apparently it's heridtary although it doesn't affect me - take after my mothers side. Otherwise he is fine - he has taken medication for a long time, a few years ago they changed it to a statin - very bad side effects - he could hardly walk - he complained to his doctor and they put him back on his old medication which works ok for him. A similar thing happened to a friend of the family. So when they prescribed statins I was a bit cautious - did some research on the web which I found disconcerting. It appears that clincal trials were never completed properly, there are views that a statins are only of benefit if you have already had a heart attack, also there is doubts over whether high cholesterol levels lead to heart disease.

So for now I don't want to take statins. I am willing to be corrected if I had read duff info and will keep an open mind. Google it and see what you think.

Incidently my DN thinks they are the best thing since sliced bread and that everybody should be taking them - whether you have high cholesterol or not. She also explained why T2s are precribed medication for diabetes, blood presuure and cholesterol and made a convincing case. Since I am not a medical expert I found it tough to ignore her advice but ultimately you have to decide what works for you and what risks are worth taking.

I am not a luddite and all for medical advances - but there is still room for doubt, medical opinion changes - e.g. five portions of fruit and veg a day has now changed to nine portions, god knows what a safe cholesterol reading is now, also there is no link that eggs raise cholesterol levels.

My concern is that I was not offered an alternative option - given the three lots of meds and of you go. I can see it from the HCPs point of view - people won't change their lifestyle - just give them medication - why do people still smoke, why have I become obese. But I want to try to control my diabetes and blood pressure with the least amount of medication possible, as long as I am aware of the risks then I should be allowed to try.

Sorry Jem rambled on a bit - if you have the time Google for statin side effects - and see if you would feel confortable taking them.

Regards

Alan
 
no i'm not on any other meds :mrgreen:

one thing that worries me though - you said BP of 130/80 was high - that was my last reading and i was told it was fine...

i feel bloated quite frequently and have stomach ache nearly every morning. i take my pill with my evening meal, towards the end. i'm not very good at taking pills and these are HUGE :shock:

"liqui-poop" would be most welcome :shock:
 
MK5

Sorry I didn't make myself clear - I managed to get my BP down to 130/80 with diet and exercise - which I think is okay. The DN said anything below 140/90 is fine - again opinions differ. I started taking the amlodipine because it rose to approx 145/90 for a few days and stopped taking it when my BP didn't fall much. This morning it was 127/76.

Regards

Alan
 
cure for constipation:
a) drink loads of water. the function of the colon and rectum is to retrieve water from the undigested material in there.
b) answer the "call" every morning. the longet you leave it, the longet the colon and rectum have to function and make the situation worse
c) be patient and make time. If you need to sit on that loo for half an hour, make sure you leave time to do so.
d) visit the loo every morning after having a hot drink. Why this works, I'm not sure, but it seems to.
e) eat loads of fibre. The green veggies, especially thee brocolli help the waste through the pipework.
look up "peristalsis".
f) if you're still stuck, go to the pharmacist for a GENTLE laxative, but don't rely on it all the time.
I can't think of any more just now, but one of these SHOULD help
 
hanadr said:
c) be patient and make time. If you need to sit on that loo for half an hour, make sure you leave time to do so.
Click to expand...
Keep a book of crossword puzzles or sudoku in the loo :idea: :!:
 
So glad to hear someone else constipated too (well not really but you know what I mean). Certainly not got liqui pooh and believe me it can be really painful. :oops: Only thing that seems to work with me is drinking loads of water but then I spend most of my life on the toilet but not for the reason I want. I have found that if I have my tablet half way through the meal that helps with the windypops, have had heartburn a couple of times but that may have been the aspirin that I have to take in the morning. Am also on statins but was on them before diagnosed because of familial (not sure if that the right term??) high cholesterol - not sure that they working though.

Chris
 
thanks everyone for the input.

i already drink loads and eat a high fibre diet. my hubby finds that the first hot drink of the day makes things happen, but it doesn't work for me.

sometimes its difficult to spend time as much time as i'd like in the loo. i work full time and look after a husband and 15 year old son so time can be precious.

going to speak to my doctor about finding a long term solution because quite frankly its making my life miserable. i put up with a badly damaged hip for most of my life until i had a hip replacement 3 years ago. i have a lot of time to catch up on and do not want to be a slave to my diabetes (and the side effects of the medication)
 
regarding the making of sh!* happen ---

whenever I flew anyplace (long or short haul) I would always get really painful constipation and found that the answer was (bearing in mind this was back in the days when I smoked and took in caffeine) >>>

have a VERY strong cup of real coffee following by one fag --- in cool air --- and this was followed rapidly by the call of the porcelaine throne >>> usually before said fag was entirely finished. Bizarre what works for some people. now I just need to know my mother-in-law is phoning!

mind you (not accounting for the time I didn't **** properly for about 3 weeks because my c/section surgeon had managed to not only give me a huge uterinal infection, but kill the nervesin my bladder area AND put a nice kink in my bowel) poo-ing is not one of my usual problems. I do drink over 2 litres of water every day and have always taken a decent amount of fresh vegetables and fruit ;) - probably insatiable thirst brought on my years of undiagnosed (more likely misdiagnosed) diabetes!!!!

and my god but those tablets are frankly huge ... not as big as the evening primrose oil vegecaps I've elected to start taking - my old man actually thought they were suppositories they were so massive!

re the statins :

little bit worried abou the potential side effects when compared to the fact that my chol isn't actually all that high in the grand scheme of things ... although I may need to start taking them due to the fact the only way I can face buggering decaf (not literally) is to add cream! HAH!

blood pressure was quite high last time it was checked, but seeing as that was post pap smear ... not surprising - about 145/80 or something ... I've always had considerably lower bp than that ... so presumably that was white coat hypertension? (or something witty to do with a speculum??)

never apologise for rambling Alan, all info is very useful and will go toward my decisions later on - will also check wikipedia's multitudinous volumes later on after work - thanks for your thoughts :)

best, Jem xox
 
Hi Jem,
There is an alternative to taking statins, and it is recommended by the British Dietetic Association. This is to have foods containing added natural plant sterols. I believe that Flora are into this in a big way and have added sterols to their spreads and their Pro.Active low fat yogurt range.

Apparently an intake of 2.5g of sterols per day (so 3 yogurts) is the equivalent of the normally prescribed dose of statins, but is natural rather than chemical.
 
I always find that chewing on liquorish root soon shifts me if I have any problems :shock:
 
Heartburn? Yes, I suffered more of it than usual when on slow release Metformin. I got stomach inflammation (bleeding) because of it; when I then had a Gastroscopy (camera in stomach/duodenum) they took at least eight internal tissue samples. The holes left behind continued to bleed and I was rushed to hospital twelve hours later. I vomited huge quantities of clotted blood and, amongst other things, received a BLOOD TRANSFUSION of six units of blood.

I was immediately taken off the Metformin and have recovered. I must add too that I already had a long-term problem of excess stomach acid, causing heartburn. So it was probably the cumulative effect of this pre-existing condition, plus the Metformin, that caused me to almost lose my life! :)
 
Hi

I don't suffer from Heartburn but the stomach upsets, cramps and wind are awful!! I take 4 slow release tablets, 2 in the morning and 2 at night and I can be in and out of the bathroom all day, crampy pains and I'm totally fed up with taking it! Recently I have cut back on the 2 in the evening to try and get my tummy under control again but of course sugars have risen and each time I try and intoduce the 2 evening ones I have awful tummy upsets again! Wish I could come off the horrible tablets!!
 
I can blame the farts on metformin?

oh joy!
 
whoooops!

sorry I meant to add - thanks for infos on statins in flora products --- I will conduct a cost exercise and see if it's viable.

have started using rice bran oil in some of my cooking as it aparently has the net effect of lowering chol ... we'll see!
 
Yup, definitely get a bit blocked up on the Glucophage. I got some Movicol from the doctor - a couple of sachets did the trick nicely. Also get some Dulcoease which seems to make life easier if you are ...um...a bit uncomfortable... :oops:
 
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