What medication should i stick too

Andy, I'll bump your post up to see if someone can answer.

Andy,
You say your diet is good. It might be an idea to say what a typical day's food intake is. This may help decide if your intake is influencing your blood sugar readings. I know nothing about the Glic. medication but I am sure someone will answer soon.

Catherine.

Andy, first and foremost, DON'T PANIC!

80 mg of gliclazide is generally considered to be the lowest dose that will have any noticeable effect on your BG levels. It would be irresponsible for anyone here to offer specific advice about what level of medication you should be taking but, please have a look around the forums for advice about what you should or should not be eating!

If you're using your meter correctly and still getting high results, it's time for another appointment with the doctor or nurse. Don't be shy, it's what they're paid for.

Keep coming back and ask as many questions as you like, many here are more knowledgeable than I, and more than happy to help.

Hi Andy,

There is no reason why you can't have both metformin and gliclazide, and from what you have told us it seems likely that you have some insulin resistance so really need the metformin.

Metformin is a medicine that does a number of things but the two most important are:
- one common problem that type 2s have is that the liver produces glucose that the body doesn't need and metformin cuts this production by a third
- the other most common type 2 problem is insulin resistance - metformin helps make body cells more receptive to the glucose that insulin tries to store in them, so makes your insulin work more effectively.

Gliclazide on the other hand does something entirely different - it forces your pancreas to produce insulin (the higher the dose then the more insulin) and continues to do that until the tablet wears off after around 10-12 hours.

If you have insulin resistance, which most type 2s do, then it really doesn't matter how much insulin gets produced if your cells are resistant to it. It's a bit like having a car with a blockage in the fuel line. If the petrol isn't getting through to the carburetta, the car is going nowhere no matter how much petrol you put in the tank!

Neat analogy Dennis. Is this another engineers' point of view?

Afraid not Hana - my qualification is in science, same as yours. Shame - I could have saved a fortune in car servicing over the years!

Metformin is a long acting drug and mostly needs to build up to full activity: when you stop it the effect drops off slowly.

It sounds very much as if the metformin fade-out occurred as you were starting the glic, I'd be asking to go back on the metformin alongside the glic. (And watching out for hypos). Many people don't get much effect from metformin under 1500 mg, you are obviously one who does. I don't really understand why they didn't increase the met first, max dose is around 2500 mg, rather than switching you over completely.

Excellent news! Keep smiling, Andy.