Hi, my husband has been type 2 diabetic for 12 years. He has been taking 4 metformin a day plus 40mg gliclazide for several years. He recently had his annual blood test and was told they were concerned about his liver function and to stop taking the metformin immediately and they would retest in 6 months. He checks his blood before driving and, not surprisingly, his counts are going up. We are a bit concerned that he was told to stop the metformin without being prescribed something else. Has anyone else had this?
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Medication stopped.
- Thread starter JanisW
- Start date
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Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Welcome to the forum. The two medications work in different ways, the metformin helps the body use the insulin it produces more effectively and the gliclazide encourages the pancreas to produce more insulin if it is able but both medication need dietary management as well. What extent has your husband been being careful of how much carbohydrate he has in his diet. Now the metformin has been discontinued he may need to re-evaluate his carbohydrate intake as if he is now having more that his body can tolerate then blood glucose will rise.
It may be necessary to start testing the effect his meals have on blood glucose by testing before he eats and after 2 hours, if the increase is more than 2-3mmol/l and more than 8.5mmol/l than the meal is too carb heavy for the body to now tolerate.
Diabetes is a condition that does not remain static and re visiting a dietary regime may be needed especially given a change in meds.
I suspect they want to see how he gets on with just the one medication hence not a test for 6 months.
But you do have a monitor so make good use of it to check as an ongoing thing to see how the blood glucose levels are with some changes to his diet.
A new approach may be needed as there are ideas on how to manage the condition which would not have been considered 12 years ago.
This link might help you with some dietary ideas. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
It may be necessary to start testing the effect his meals have on blood glucose by testing before he eats and after 2 hours, if the increase is more than 2-3mmol/l and more than 8.5mmol/l than the meal is too carb heavy for the body to now tolerate.
Diabetes is a condition that does not remain static and re visiting a dietary regime may be needed especially given a change in meds.
I suspect they want to see how he gets on with just the one medication hence not a test for 6 months.
But you do have a monitor so make good use of it to check as an ongoing thing to see how the blood glucose levels are with some changes to his diet.
A new approach may be needed as there are ideas on how to manage the condition which would not have been considered 12 years ago.
This link might help you with some dietary ideas. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
Hi. I agree that reducing the Carbs as far as he can should help. Gliclazide may continue to help but a lot depends on whether your husband has insulin resistance thru being overweight. Gliclazide may not be optimal in that case as your husband may already have too much insulin.
trophywench
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
When are thy going to do another liver function blood test, to see if it was the metformin causing the prob?
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