Tingling in fingers and feet after starting metformin?

Horrorislife95 said:

My doctor told me my A1C was 6.2 (prediabetic) twice only to randomly say that I'm 6.6 during my next visit despite only testing me once. So idk if I'm pre or type 2. But anyway, he said I didn't really need Metformin atm but offered it to me and i accepted because at the time he said I was only prediabetic and I wanted to help my chances. Anyway, before my diagnosis, I had no symptoms. After taking metformin, I now noticed tingling in my feet and fingers whenever I put any pressure on them. Again, I didn't experience any of this before. Could this be diabetic neuropathy or could it be associated with the metformin? Tingling isn't a side effect but i find it odd that I'm only now, just 2 weeks later, experiencing this. If it is DN, will it ease up or at least not worsen once I've brought my A1C down? I'd ask my doctor but he won't be in until Monday.

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Hi and welcome to the forums.

Neuropathy can clear up by itself once glucose levels are lowered, but there's a point that you go past where permanent damage is done to the nerve system.

I think at this point, most people find DN to be constantly painful so you're probably not there yet.

On a different point, Metformin is not a miracle drug and the best way for a T2 to get glucose levels down is to look at carbohydrate intake and make some dietary changes. One of our forum members @JoKalsbeek has some great advice about this.

Horrorislife95 said:

My doctor told me my A1C was 6.2 (prediabetic) twice only to randomly say that I'm 6.6 during my next visit despite only testing me once. So idk if I'm pre or type 2. But anyway, he said I didn't really need Metformin atm but offered it to me and i accepted because at the time he said I was only prediabetic and I wanted to help my chances. Anyway, before my diagnosis, I had no symptoms. After taking metformin, I now noticed tingling in my feet and fingers whenever I put any pressure on them. Again, I didn't experience any of this before. Could this be diabetic neuropathy or could it be associated with the metformin? Tingling isn't a side effect but i find it odd that I'm only now, just 2 weeks later, experiencing this. If it is DN, will it ease up or at least not worsen once I've brought my A1C down? I'd ask my doctor but he won't be in until Monday.

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Hello @Horrorislife95 ,

The tingling isn't in the metformin leaflet, but Vitamin B12 deficiency is. I don't know whether it can come on that fast though, but metformin can inhibit the uptake of B12, and that can actually cause issues with nerve endings (tingling, numbness). Should you have been low already, the met might have pushed you just over the edge. Mind you, that's just some theorising on my part.

@urbanracer makes a good point though... Metformin isn't going to properly "fix" your blood sugars. If you want to gain some control of this, you'll want to look at your diet. (Which, in turn, can make the metformin absolete.). https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html is my own little quick-start guide. There's a lot of information online, and by the time someone's ploughed through it all, they're a month further on with still little idea of how to do the groceries, so... This should help get you started, should that be a route you wish to take.

All in all... Your numbers don't look horrible, and you're catching this early on. Do something now, avoid complications later!
Good luck,
Jo

I HAVE TH SAME THING, I STOP TAKIN METFORMIN AND MY FEET BURNING AN TINGLIN GOES A WAY.

DEX2024 said:

I HAVE TH SAME THING, I STOP TAKIN METFORMIN AND MY FEET BURNING AN TINGLIN GOES A WAY.

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Uhhh my doctor uppded me from a half a pill with every meal to 1 whole pill and now my feet feel warm and tingling too. I'm thinking more excercise might be a better path.

See https://www.gov.uk/drug-safety-upda...ls-new-advice-for-monitoring-patients-at-risk

Metformin strips the body of vitamin B12. A B12 deficiency causes neuropathy symptoms. I suggest you take B12 and stop metformin if you are getting negative side effect from it. Metformin only has a small effect on glucose levels, probably about 1 mmol. A low carb diet will reduce your glucose levels a lot more.

Well I'm farily certain B12 won't hurt so long as I'm not over dosing it. A moderate amount should be ok. I'll at least start a bit. But yea, diet and exercise seem to be the best way to handle this.

urbanracer said:

Hi and welcome to the forums.

Neuropathy can clear up by itself once glucose levels are lowered, but there's a point that you go past where permanent damage is done to the nerve system.

I think at this point, most people find DN to be constantly painful so you're probably not there yet.

On a different point, Metformin is not a miracle drug and the best way for a T2 to get glucose levels down is to look at carbohydrate intake and make some dietary changes. One of our forum members @JoKalsbeek has some great advice about this.

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Diet is certainly the way to go. My husband was diagnosed T2 some years ago. Having seen me dealing with insulin & various meds over the years (I'm T1) & having lost his mother following a leg amputation due to T2, he was determined to get control by diet alone and he did it. His GP has said that if it were possible to remove a diagnosis, my husband would lose his as his control has been perfect for several years. His HbA1c hovers around 41 and his cholesterol around 3.2. He eats very little bread, cut out beer almost completely & eats a good diet with plenty of fresh veg. He's never looked up what to eat - just gone for a healthy, balanced diet. He lost a ton of weight & I've never known him so healthy. Diet is definately the way togo with T2

I have been on Metformin for 26 years and always had indigestion problems. Last Christmas I cought a infection which caused my indigestion to worsten. After 3 trips to the hospital it was discovered that my liver was enlarged and I had galstones. I began to suspect metformin had a hand in the pain so I stopped the metformin (I told the gp what I was doing). After 3 days the pain eased my liver settled and so did the galstones.
in 6 weeks I had lost 10kg. The gp said to go back on the metformin. Within 2 days the pain started, the liver started swelling again. So I stopped metfomin again and things quietened down. Now 4 weeks without Metformin and my weight is increasing.

It was then that I noticed that tingling in my fingers had stopped, this was a problem for most of this century.

So I now hate Metformin.

Horrorislife95 said:

My doctor told me my A1C was 6.2 (prediabetic) twice only to randomly say that I'm 6.6 during my next visit despite only testing me once. So idk if I'm pre or type 2. But anyway, he said I didn't really need Metformin atm but offered it to me and i accepted because at the time he said I was only prediabetic and I wanted to help my chances. Anyway, before my diagnosis, I had no symptoms. After taking metformin, I now noticed tingling in my feet and fingers whenever I put any pressure on them. Again, I didn't experience any of this before. Could this be diabetic neuropathy or could it be associated with the metformin? Tingling isn't a side effect but i find it odd that I'm only now, just 2 weeks later, experiencing this. If it is DN, will it ease up or at least not worsen once I've brought my A1C down? I'd ask my doctor but he won't be in until Monday.

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I,m type 2 and take semaglutide, I have had tingling in feet and hands for ages, had them checked at doctors and no neuropathy but it continued so I went back,blood test showed I was very low in vitamin d ,when I looked at symptoms tingling was one of them as well as fatigue which I also had. Maybe worth getting them to check your vitamin levels

Zaphod said:

I have been on Metformin for 26 years and always had indigestion problems. Last Christmas I cought a infection which caused my indigestion to worsten. After 3 trips to the hospital it was discovered that my liver was enlarged and I had galstones. I began to suspect metformin had a hand in the pain so I stopped the metformin (I told the gp what I was doing). After 3 days the pain eased my liver settled and so did the galstones.
in 6 weeks I had lost 10kg. The gp said to go back on the metformin. Within 2 days the pain started, the liver started swelling again. So I stopped metfomin again and things quietened down. Now 4 weeks without Metformin and my weight is increasing.

It was then that I noticed that tingling in my fingers had stopped, this was a problem for most of this century.

So I now hate Metformin.

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Hi @Zaphod - please don't take this as advice, only something to consider; my own experience with Metformin stretched only to a couple of weeks before I stopped, and it was mainly that I was fasting every other day and didn't want to take it on an empty stomach.

However, I've had indigestion on and off most of my adult life, and have had none of it since going over to the low carb high fat side of things. Through lots of reading etc, I now realise that most indigestion is as a result of ... well, not being able to digest the stuff we eat knowing that it can't be digested, ie plants.. (that's totally over simplifying, and I cannot speak for the long term, but the science makes sense; carbs drive indigestion, lower carbs means less indigestion, and that has been my experience).

My wife had gallstones, very nearly killed her in fact, and despite what we thought then... is not causes by fatty food.. in fact the opposite; if you avoid fat, there isn't the need for regular doses of bile to break down the fat, and thus the gall bladder can get jammed up with solidifying bile..

We have a wonderfully complex system for managing fat, and we're told - "don't use it.. cut out the fat... "

.. this is something I haven't quite had the nerve to tell my wife when she talks about how low-carb may be something good for me, but not relevant to her...

If you've been used to something for 26 years, any change is bound to have effects, and this whole thing is so complicated that almost any single thing can be explained in some way or other, it's difficult to know what to do, and in many ways, the truth will only be the truth for your body and your living history - we really are all unique snowflakes when it comes to metabolism - but lots of people here have found lowering carbs and increasing fats (fats, not seed oils) to be beneficial across the board (and in my case, I quickly agreed with my GP that Metformin was unnecessary).

Horrorislife95 said:

My doctor told me my A1C was 6.2 (prediabetic) twice only to randomly say that I'm 6.6 during my next visit despite only testing me once. So idk if I'm pre or type 2. But anyway, he said I didn't really need Metformin atm but offered it to me and i accepted because at the time he said I was only prediabetic and I wanted to help my chances. Anyway, before my diagnosis, I had no symptoms. After taking metformin, I now noticed tingling in my feet and fingers whenever I put any pressure on them. Again, I didn't experience any of this before. Could this be diabetic neuropathy or could it be associated with the metformin? Tingling isn't a side effect but i find it odd that I'm only now, just 2 weeks later, experiencing this. If it is DN, will it ease up or at least not worsen once I've brought my A1C down? I'd ask my doctor but he won't be in until Monday.

Click to expand...

All tablets and medicines are a trade off, you just hope the tabs have much less side effects than your symptoms. If not then perhaps you should question it.