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Repeatedly going hypo between meals

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drab4

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Hi all, I'm new here

I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes a year ago. I went on metformin xr 1000mg a day which seemed to sort it out

A couple of weeks before Xmas my blood sugars (which are normally fine) went out of whack. Until then the metformin controlled my bg really well. But since then I've been going low and this has prompted me to over-eat carbs. Basically I'm scared of going low so I eat more than I want to (lowest I've been is 3.1 before I caught it, normally I catch it before that as I feel ill as hell at anything under 4)

I feel as if I’ve shifted to only using carbs for energy or something? Because protein and fat meals don't seem to stop me going low. Not really sure what to do about this, I know a dietician and I've asked him for help in making me a more suitable diet. It is seriously annoying me, the lows are draining all my energy, and I’ve put on a stone of fat in the last two months because of it! Not ideal for a diabetic I hear?!

My diabetic specialist nurse doesn't know what's happening, nor does my GP although he has reduced my metformin dose from 1000mg to 500mg per day which seems to make sense? But I don't know much about it

Has anyone got any ideas what's going on? Been through similar? What should I do?

Thanks!

Dave
 
Hi dave not type 2 but must be one of two things or both . Too much meds which hopefully will help as u said your doc had reduced them. Or not enough low gi sustaining carbs, what do you normally eat. A final thought though its if you are having regular excercise and a healthy diet your body might be utilising its own insulin better.

Sent from my GT-S5360 using DCUK Forum mobile app
 
Metformin does not usually cause hypos. In your place I would go back to your GP and if he really can't help, ask to be referred to your local diabetes clinic. It is just possible that you are not Type 2 at all - there are some odd Types that are sometimes diagnosed as Type 2 in the beginning.

At the very least they should check your insulin production. Unless you are absolutely sure that you have been eating and drinking enough to put on a stone of fat over 2 months (which takes some doing, even if it was Christmas :wink: ), the only thing I can think of is that it may be related to insulin production - too much insulin makes you put on weight.

Have a search round on the main site and look at the other Types. You might get some clues.

Viv 8)
 
Thankyou guys

Brett, thanks. I'm making an effort to eat low GI carbs like you say. Avoiding sugars. But to be honest, I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. When the dietician gets back to me hopefully this will improve! I do exercise quite a lot so maybe that has something to do with it

Viv, yeah nobody seems to have a clue what's causing the lows. Like you say, metformin's not meant to do this so it's confusing. I will ask to be referred to a diabetic clinic. I hadn't heard of these clinics until now. Haha it's a bit weird but because I'm type 2 I'm having to push for any attention! When I was diagnosed it was just a case of, "you're only type 2, here's a leaflet and some tablets, bye". My fasting bg at that time was consistently over 20 so it's not like I was borderline! I got my own glucose meter, talked to my own dietician, and the little I know about diabetes is stuff I've read on the net or heard from other diabetics. My GP and DSN are starting to pay more attention now but **** it took a while!

Oh, also my ALT is high, around 750 (the reference range is 10-50, ha!). No idea what's going on there. Is liver abnormality common in diabetes?

They're running a lot of tests on me now so I guess I'll know more later

I'll look around the site some more. Thanks for the posts
 
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