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type 2 ..will it lead to injecting insulin within 10 years?

M

milehouse

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Hi I'm 65 years old dx type 2 and have been on Metformin 500gm for just over 18 months. My last Hbac1 reading was 6.5
I am trying to adjust my diet to be sugar free and low carbs. Question is does the body get resistant to Metformin and gradually the daily dosage needs to increase...and maybe eventually lead to having the need to inject insulin? Thanks. :oops:
 
Re: type 2 ..will it lead to injecting insulin within 10 yea

Hi, I have been type 2 for 13 years and been on metformin since day one. In Jan / Feb this year my control went out of the window. They kept me on metformin and added gliclazide which does knock my sugars down. They will increase the metformin over time to a max of 3000 mg (6 tablets a day) depending on your HbA1c results.

With other people, it could well be sooner before they need to change meds or go on insulin, its down to the individual and how well your pancreas works in producing insulin. When I asked the nurse at my practice she told me before switching any one to insulin they will wait until one is on the max dose of all meds, not looking forward to that as already on enough meds.
 
Re: type 2 ..will it lead to injecting insulin within 10 yea

Thanks Pav. That's what I thought would happen. :( Our only hope is that they will somehow find a cure for diabetes then! :think: :crazy:
 
Re: type 2 ..will it lead to injecting insulin within 10 yea

Hi. With an HBa1C of only 6.5 you should have many years yet before insulin. Just keep your weight in the right region and you should be OK. Your tablets can be increased a lot yet before insulin. As far as I know you don't become 'used' to Metformin so this can be increased if needed. If your pancreas starts to decline then Gliclazide and Sitagliptin can be added before insulin. Your nurse is right with regard to only having insulin after max tablets but for me I should have gone onto insulin 2 years ago not 6 weeks ago as the GP left it too long, but that's because my pancreas declined quite fast. I was on max tablets for 3-4 years. See the NICE Diabetes Pathways webpage for the flow-chart if interested.
 
Re: type 2 ..will it lead to injecting insulin within 10 yea

Milehouse,
Your milage may vary, as we are all different, but T2 should not lead to injecting insulin within 10 years, especally if you succeed in getting your carbs down :thumbup: .
I was diagnosed in april 2008 and promptly placed on basal/bolus insulin, which i did not like due to the loss of group C &D licences. after about 12 months I gently weaned myself off bolus, then basal, going on to gliclazide, then weaning myself off that. The tools : Low carb diet and analytical use of test strips.
So progression not only should be not inevitable, but regresion may be possible :thumbup:
Good Luck. :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
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