Why are people rushing to NOT take the wonder drug?

[zand]

Did you supplement with vit B12 zand?

Yes, I was unknowingly supplementing with B12 in a tablet for joint pains and I still became slightly deficient. My GP gave me an injection and I am supplementing myself again one year on.

Edit: Also I needed to low carb whilst on metformin to avoid the nasty side effects, so I figured I may as well just do low carb without the metformin

 

[Elamber]

When reading up on Metformin I'm wondering why people are in such a risk to get off this anti aging, cancer reducing, cardiovascular improving wonder drug?

For some reason I react very badly to metformin. I wonder if it may have something to do with metformin's effect on kidneys, as I seem to have some problems in that area.

 

[TriciaWs]

Apart from the terrible side effects, witnessed when my mother was on it, the great benefits are only potential not proven. And it clashes with some of my other meds.

"Because the vast majority of research regarding metformin included only people with diabetes or prediabetes, it’s unclear whether these potential benefits are limited to people with those conditions, or whether people without diabetes may derive benefit as well."

Is metformin a wonder drug? - Harvard Health

Metformin, a medicine prescribed to treat type 2 diabetes, also has cardiovascular benefits and is used off-label to treat other conditions. Interest is growing in its potential to help lowe...

www.health.harvard.edu

 

[Billy Barroo]

My own personal view (after being tied to the toilet for 3 weeks when using it) was to save it for future use in case my dietary changes should ever loose their efficacy..

7 years down the line and still in remission it looks like I made the right decision.

Every drug will have side effects I prefer to avoid that risk.

Edit to add every single benefit listed in the article could also be claimed to arise from a low carb diet...
I know full well which I'd choose to follow.

Wise decision

 

[glittergirl_]

Some of us have tried ,and been successful, in controlling our diabetes with diet and exercise.
However, after 5yrs of this success I had to go on metformin. Years later started gliclazide. Few years later started on empagliflozin.
Now 20yrs later I’m taking Victoza.!
Everyone is different…our bodies all react differently to diabetes and to medication.
It’s time to stop being soo judgemental and critical of we “ lesser mortals “ who’ve tried and failed to control our diabetes .
I’m sure we’d rather not have to take meds but some of us don’t have a lot of choice if we want to live.!

 

[OrsonKartt]

Some of us have tried ,and been successful, in controlling our diabetes with diet and exercise.
However, after 5yrs of this success I had to go on metformin. Years later started gliclazide. Few years later started on empagliflozin.
Now 20yrs later I’m taking Victoza.!
Everyone is different…our bodies all react differently to diabetes and to medication.
It’s time to stop being soo judgemental and critical of we “ lesser mortals “ who’ve tried and failed to control our diabetes .
I’m sure we’d rather not have to take meds but some of us don’t have a lot of choice if we want to live.!

I’ve just started taking metformin. Nearly 5 years on low carb / keto / carni. I’ve had consistent hba1c of 43 and every year I’ve reduced my carb intake and maintain an active life. Dealing with the dynamics of this disease is not a linear event. I’m experimenting with met to see if it helps with my frozen shoulder and Vikings disease. Both of which are associated with higher than usual blood glucose. I pretty much dreaded taking medication but 5 weeks in it’s far better than I worried about.

 

[Ajax]

My diabetes ✻logbook✻ ..shows my HbA1c fell from 94.5 mmol/mol to 53 mmol/mol in 65 days ..when I was put on 500mg Metformin a day ..that made me flatulent ..so I was also ℞'d Peppermint Oil capsules ..which put that right.

 

[bulkbiker]

Also this...

long use of metformin, leading to lack of folate,

Have been told I might have to come off Metformin! and use just Insulin because lack of folate, is this a thing or is it just me? this gives me concern, I will have to up my insulin!! Quite worried,

www.diabetes.co.uk

 

[JohnEGreen]

I took it for several years with not too many problems but my doctor has taken me off it now because of my CKD and metformin is harmful for your Kidneys you can take it if your eGFR is above say 35% but below that it becomes problematic.

 

[JTL]

Do people trust these reports?
There has been a growing number of people saying they want to do it by diet and rejecting the drugs suddenly we're told lots of none T2's are taking it because it's wonderful?
Am I cynical? Yes.
Same has happened with the backlash against Statins now it's all in our heads and it wasn't statins that had me blue lighted in so much leg pain I couldn't walk and the same German doctor saw me each time in AnE telling me I must stop taking statins!
Am I cynical? Yes.

 

[sue512]

Any drug has side effects as well as positive gains. Personally I wouldn’t take anything unless it was necessary and as far as life expectancy is concerned I’ll take what I get. Having said that there may come a point where I have no choice, then fair enough. Glittergirl_ that isn’t a failure but just what will happen to some of us for no fault of our own, just body reactions to life!

 

[AloeSvea]

If it AIN'T broke, don't try to fix it with pharmaceuticals.

 

[OrsonKartt]

If it AIN'T broke, don't try to fix it with pharmaceuticals.

Yea but if I wasnt broke I wouldn’t be here ….

 

[AloeSvea]

Oh yes @OrsonKartt - absolutely!

I was just answering the original post (my fault - I should have included it... I was going for very short and snappy). I had been thinking it was as in ordinary un-broken blood glucose system folks, but on re-reading I see that it's not what I thought. Hmmm. Those folks (highly educated, wealthy folks I see in above, oh dear...) were an adjunct, to the rest of it, us lot. And yes. I definitely have a very broken blood glucose system. And quite happy to experiment with metformin at the mo' to help get me out of the quagmire.

But, yes, I also am looking forward to getting off it. and let my body take over, if it can, and all part of the experiment. One cannot tell if one's body IS taking over, and getting some of it right at least, unless one is not taking meds. One of the big reasons I see taking meds as a metabolic shake-up, and hopefully not a forever kind of thing. I like to be optimistic.

Also, can't imagine living with the intermittent nausea indefinitely.

And, metformin is a metabolic stressor, but in a good way, and maybe I see stressors as an intermittent thing... not a forever kind of thing...

 

[emfaz]

I tried Metformin years ago as treatment for PCOS and I couldn’t tolerate it, made me so sick

 

[clauski]

I've found I've become very used to taking Metformin daily, and indeed Simvastatin for my cholesterol. I'm happy that they are controlling my conditions, and any wider benefits are of course great. But deep down, I know I'd surely be better off not requiring them, as a sign I've done what I need to in order to self control as far as possible - the risk I find is over reliance on the medicine stopping the willpower to self improve.

 

[Retanna]

I know I may be in the minority for us Metformin users but causes me the most horrendous constipation I have ever had ( I know most suffer the opposite). Have massively increased my fibre and water intake. Also put it down to causing me lower back ache which only started on taking the medication. Dr has but it down to Muscular pain but I disagree as I know my body. Can't wait to get off it.