Advice please re gliclazide

[MrBuzz]

Hi everyone a brief bit of background. I was diagnosed type 2 at the beginning of November this year. I was started by my nurse on metformin and increased over a few weeks to 2000mg a day in 2 equal doses. During the first month I got my morning blood glucose down from 20mmol/L to 9mmol/L and lost about a stone in weight. The nurse decided I needed to start taking gliclazide too at this point. Since starting that at the beginning of December, with initially 80mg in the morning which was increased to 80mg morning and evening. Since that start my weight loss has plateaus despite being just as careful with calories and carb intake, my blood glucose morning readings have fluctuated generally between 8.5 and 9.5 and I’ve felt increased hunger most of the time.

I’m considering calling the nurse to ask to stop taking the gliclazide as all I can see so far is that it isn’t getting the blood glucose down and it’s stopping me from losing weight. Any advice would be much appreciated. As first off not sure if I’d be asking for the right think but also a bit nervous to be asking for something different even though I know there are lots of options available and that it’s not logical to be nervous about it.

 

[harbottle]

Are you doing low carb? This can see rapid weight loss at the start.

Gliclazide can cause hunger.

I don't think gliclazide will improve morning levels, as it's designed mainly to act after a meal and if your morning levels are elevated due to 'dawn phenomenon' it won't bring them down.

 

[MrBuzz]

Are you doing low carb? This can see rapid weight loss at the start.

Gliclazide can cause hunger.

I don't think gliclazide will improve morning levels, as it's designed mainly to act after a meal and if your morning levels are elevated due to 'dawn phenomenon' it won't bring them down.

Yea im doing a low carb diet. Started off restricting to around 150g per day ( slightly above the official 130g but much lower than my previous diet) I’ve reduced that further so usually around 110g at the moment.

At the moment I’m thinking I’d be better off not on gliclazide and be more likely to lose some more weight. I think I could probably get another stone or two off in the next couple of months. Everything I’ve read about gliclazide suggests maintaining weight is a good achievement.

 

[Leadinglights]

Yea im doing a low carb diet. Started off restricting to around 150g per day ( slightly above the official 130g but much lower than my previous diet) I’ve reduced that further so usually around 110g at the moment.

At the moment I’m thinking I’d be better off not on gliclazide and be more likely to lose some more weight. I think I could probably get another stone or two off in the next couple of months. Everything I’ve read about gliclazide suggests maintaining weight is a good achievement.

Rather than just looking at your morning reading have you tried testing before and 2 hours after meals to see if it is helping to reduce the increase you get.
You are only a short time since diagnosis so I think you need to be a bit more patient and as long as you are seeing some improvement then give it a bit more time.
In any case it is better to reduce blood glucose gradually as it is less likely to cause problems with your eyes and nerves.