Alexandra100
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 3,742
- Type of diabetes
- Prediabetes
- Treatment type
- Tablets (oral)
Jenny Ruhl certainly believes that Metformin can help both with fasting and post-prandial bg. In the following extract she is writing about the extended release version:I may be wrong (I'm still new to all of this) but I doubt that Metformin would help with post prandial readings as its main aim is to curb its liver dumps and it is unlikely that one would experience liver dump after a meal.
Or I may have missed something altogether.
"If I take the same full dose at 2 PM I will see the strongest effect on my blood sugar after dinner, but I will see a lower fasting blood sugar the next morning than I would if I took the drug first thing in the morning. The trade off is that my breakfast blood sugar will be higher on that schedule if I eat any carbs.
Metformin also builds up a cumulative effect on your fasting blood sugar after you take it for a week. This effect is not dependent on when you take it. If you miss a dose you will probably see a small but immediate difference in your post meal blood sugars. But if your stop taking it for a week you will not only see that effect the day after you you stop it, you will also see a second notable increase in your fasting blood sugar and pre-meal blood sugar about a week later.
If you are taking metformin primarily to lower high morning fasting blood sugars, it may make sense to take your full dose right before bed--but the trade off will be that this timing of your dose may give you the weakest coverage before lunch and dinner, which may leave you with higher sugars for many hours of the day which counteract any advantage you might get from having lowered your morning reading.
Some people take half their metformin in the morning and half at night. That might give a more even effect throughout the day but because you smoothe out any peak in the drug's effect, you might see slightly higher meal time sugars than you would if you took it all at once."
http://diabetesupdate.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/timing-your-metformin-dose.html