Wow, you hit the nail right over the head. We don't care about cute glucometers, poking ourselves, inhaled insulin. HELLO? We want a cure.
Blythe
Re: Metformin
My doctor took me off of Metformin, I was taking 500 mg in themorning and 500mg at night. He said that my potassium levels were too high and that metformin was the culprit. Also, I was taking Diovan for my blood pressure as well. I have been searching everywhere to see if metformin is actually the culprit. I now control my diabetes (Type 2) with exercise and a lo-carb diet. So far, my blood sugar levels are remaining in a good range, but not like it did on metformin. Is metformin the culprit for the potassium levels? Also, I've been off the Diovan and metformin now for 6 weeks, and my potassium level went way down, as well as my blood pressure.
I'm afraid I don't know if metformin could mess up potassium levels.
The only way to really find out how it affected you would be to test potassium levels both on and off the drug. But there is a metformin side effect called "lactic acidosis," which can be serious, and it affects electrolytes, of which potassium is one.
I'd ask your doctor for more details about your potassium levels on and off the drug. You should have a record of what they were on the drug. Are they different now?
I've noticed that i'm not as hungry when taking Metformin. does it have some kind of suppresant in it that i cant find?
Yes...OMG... HELP! My doctor just upped the dosage on my Metformin from 1000 to 2000 and I can't eat, the nausea is ridiculous and I already had the stomach cramps and diarrhea but now i can't eat and the I feel like I am having morning sickness... and Lord forbid that happen since I have had a hysterectomy already....haha. I have been on this with glipizide for the past 2 weeks and I am tired of feeling not myself, I drink so much water I could float half the time and my blood sugar just wont go down any... what do I do?
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Gretchen,
That's very interesting news re metformin & kidney disease. I hope someone pushes the research out to diabetics soon!
Are you saying that some people get GI benefit from taking metformin and milk thistle together? I thought they did something of the same job for the liver, is there a danger of overdoing the good thing?
Nicky.
The information about milk thistle is annecdotal: Some people say the milk thistle got rid of the GI problems caused by metformin. I haven't searched for any formal studies. You could Google it.
Both drugs work on the liver. The milk thistle is supposed to keep the liver healthy, but it doesn't affect blood glucose levels. The metformin reduces the production of glucose by the liver. I don't know of any evidence that it keeps the liver healthy.