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When is the best time to take medication I’m on 500mg once a day Sukkarto Metoformin (slow release)

K

Kevspurs1961

Member
Messages
20
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi everyone first post diagnosed type 2 a few months ago and my medication has been changed recently to the slow release metoformin due to possible side effects recently
the reason I’m asking as I have started to monitor my glucose over the last few days…and found I’m ever very high or very low 2 hours after eating

I’m on a low carb diet to balance my sugar levels…so far no success

what everyones thoughts on best time to take medication

kev
 
I take slow release metformin and I asked my doctor the same question because I take it in the morning but rarely ever eat until lunchtime. He said it didn’t matter that I took it in the morning because it was slow release.
 
Hi @Kevspurs1961 I was advised to take mine (regular metformin) with my biggest meal of the day - I always have it with my tea so I don't forget.
Metformin stays in your system for ages though, so doesn't have to be taken at exactly the same time each day.
 
Kevspurs1961 said:
I have started to monitor my glucose over the last few days…and found I’m ever very high or very low 2 hours after eating
Click to expand...
What kind of numbers do you see?
Do you test before and after meals to work out how a particular meal affects you?
What kind of meals did you eat before the very high or low results?

I don't think there is a specific time advised to take slow release metformin.
 
Antje77 said:
What kind of numbers do you see?
Do you test before and after meals to work out how a particular meal affects you?
What kind of meals did you eat before the very high or low results?

I don't think there is a specific time advised to take slow release metformin.
Click to expand...
Hi
I was testing 2 hours after my meal…
tested first thing in morning 6.8 no food
2 hours after breakfast (two sourdough crumpet) 5.2
2 hours after lunch (two slices of sourdough bread) 6.6
2 hours after dinner (two sliced beef steak wrap included and pepper) it went up to 13.4…I had my Metoformin

i Have only just started to use a tester….
 
Metformin will not have any affect on your post meal numbers, it works by limiting the amount of stored glucose released by your liver and helps a little with your insulin resistance.
It will not remove any sugar from your blood once it's in there, for that you would need to be on insulin or one of the other more aggressive drugs.
You can take metformin at any time that suits you, the advice though is to take it with food to avoid or lessen any possible gastric side effects.
The crumpets, bread, and wraps will almost certainly be why you are seeing high post meal numbers.
Carbs when digested will release glucose and cause your blood sugar levels to rise.
Your body can't tell if the carbs are wholemeal, brown, organic, gluten free or even sourdough, all it can see is the carbs.
Sugar is just another form of carbohydrate, 1 teaspoon = 4g of carbs
If you check the nutritional info for your sourdough crumpets, I'm guessing they are somewhere around 20g of carbs each. So 2 crumpets = 20 x 2 = 40g of carbs, or the equivalent to 10 teaspoons of sugar.
Check the total amount of carbs in everything you are thinking of eating and work out how much sugar you are about to eat.
The decision to eat it or not it is or course yours, but at least you will know why your blood sugar is high
 
I’m not sure how crumpets, bread and wraps are considered low carb. They are all high carb items.

How are you measuring carbs and how many are you aiming for?

That said it seems you reacted a lot more to the wrap than the sourdough. Did you double check and retest. Sometimes unexpectedly high readings are from contaminants on the finger (though for wraps maybe it’s not so unexpected)
 
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