Hi. My hubby is type 2 and being a type 1 I'm unfamiliar with his meds. Can anyone tell me if it's absolutely necessary to take gliclazide with food or not? The reason being that he finds it very difficult to eat breakfast but has been told he must take one first thing in the morning. He usually gets up at 6 and eats for the first time around 11... TIA x
I have been on Gliclazide for about 6 months, after a hba1c of 111. It is prescribed 2 twice a day with food. I often take it it 30 minutes to an hour before my breakfast, but I make sure I have breakfast, and I have been fine with my glucose levels (no sudden drops). On a couple of occasions I have forgotton to take it by about 4 hours and my glucose has spiked. My fasting glucose has, until recently, been around 7 - 7.5, recently it is around 5.5 I have now got my hba1c down to <48, which is remission level if I can keep below that for 6 months. Through regular testing (roughly 2 hourly), and healthy diet (I recommend slimming world because carbs aren't a problem to keep in the diet plan) I have been able to manage my glucose closely. a daily average of 7.7 over 3 months could get you into remission levels, it has for me. A well managed diet of slow burning carbs should help because if you drive you need to keep your glucose above 5, I have lots of fruit on hand for natural sugars (jelly babys for emergencies) and eat potatoes, pasta and rice regularly in healthy proportions. I wouldn't recommend taking them a number of hours before food when your up and about, because you're burning energy, as a hypo is a risk.
