Xenical diet pills and diabetes

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Carina1962

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Before i was diagnosed with T2 i used to take Xenical diet pills prescribed by my doctor to help me lose weight. I was wondering if they would still be OK to take? i'm on statins and take various vitamin supplements but not on other medication. Although i have lost a couple of stones since diagnosis i need a kick start to carry on with my weight loss and wondered if anyone else takes or has taken Xenical.
 
Hi Carina

I took Xenical ( better known as Orlistat ) I took them for 18 months, they did nothing for me other than giving me bad tummies, I never lost an ounce of weight so Consultant took me off them. But if they work for you then I suggest you have a word with your Doctor before starting them again, I do know that they affect other medications and I was told to take them 4 hours before or after other tablets.

John
 
Well I don't know of any reason why it would be a problem with those meds. But I don't see much of a reason to take em though. They block fat being absorbed and fat isn't really the problem. Reducing carbs has far more effect on helping with weight loss than reducing fat. Plus it helps to control your BG on top of that.

And calories are a very misleading way of looking at things:
http://diabetesforum.org.uk/component/myblog/diabetes-myth-3-calories-count.html/blogger/VBH/
 
I took them and I take 30 tablets a day including statins, like ukjohn thye gave me really bad tummy problems so the dr told me not to take them, and I had to take them with meals.
 
I'd say the biggest problem would likely be the additive effect of Orlistat and Metformin (if you're on it...). My friend was on Orlistat but had to stop coz she just couldn't bear the stomach cramps and couldn't get the loo fast enough. I don't even want to imagine what that's like on top of the Metformin runs..eessh!
I wouldn't want to taken them myself, but they must work for some people. I'm not sure weather they'd interfere with your blood sugar, you might want to check that with your doctor or DSN. If they stop fat being absorbed, do they also stop sugar being absorbed? Does sugar even get absorbed in the same way? uurrrr, my brain hurts...;-)
I may remember to ask somebody at work tomorrow.
 
I was put on them for a while, along with all the other T2 meds, and tried for a while, but in then end I think the fact that I am on max metformin made it unrealistic to continue. Metformin doesnt cause me any great issues, except for excess wind from time to time (nice to have an excuse for that!), but combined with the orlistat, lets just leave that to the imagination.

Wont be like that for all, so I would say if it worked for you before diagnosis, then no harm in trying again.

Good luck
BigMalc
 
Sorry this veers off topic a bit but I wanted to get this off my chest!

Thank you for these posts - I was put on those tablets some years back by my diabetes specialist - I told him they made me ill - stomach cramps etc and he didn't really believe me - I think he thought I was cheating with my foods! Needless to say I took myself off them!

Then just as I was getting myself back on track a year or two later (had other problems which caused me to veer from the straight and narrow) he put me on meds called Accomplia, which are not recommended for people with a history of depression, which I had suffered with, but he dismissed this. Within a few months I was behaving in a very erratic way and took myself off them 2 days before the NHS banned them! I couldn't face going to see my team for 6 months after that - I felt such a failure and research told me that it can take several months to get the drugs out of your system. When I did pluck up the courage to go, my specialist again looked at me as if I was a bit sad and said he was still prescribing Accomplia to his private (Harley Street) patients with no problems.

Then last October, my DSN in conjunction with another DSN who specialises in Byetta, discussed with me the implications of the Byetta I am now on, I did a lot of research and they both monitored me carefully and to this day I share my experiences with my DSN who passes this info to others in my practice.

My reason for rambling on so is to say that if you ever feel you do not have enough info about a new course of treatment, take matters into your own hands and, starting in places like this forum, do some research and report back your findings to your health team - sometimes they do not know all the answers and we could be helping others by sharing our knowledge.

Rant over🙂
 
In reference to the metformin comments above, its worth noting that many people find that the side effects of metformin can be considerably reduced if their carb intake is reduced. Seems to me to be particularly related to starchy carbs - yes the same starchy carbs that the dietitian recommended you load up on and the same starchy carbs that push your BG up in the first place.

So moderating the carbs can be a way of doing yourself two favours at once. Reducing the amount of glucose that your pancreas has to deal with in the first place and minimising the side effects of the metformin.

This can also reduce the time that it takes for the body to get used to metformin.
 
Am now back on the Xenical as from this week as i hope it will give me that kick start to carry on with my weight loss, although my GP wasn't very encouraging when he said that in all the 12 or 13 years that xenical has been on the market, he hasn't seen anyone lose weight on it :(

If Xenical is a fat absorbing pill, why can't a pill be invented to absorb glucose? there's a thought 🙂
 
My GP says it's 99% fear that causes people to lose weight on it. Basically, the side effects are so crap (pardon the pun) that people darent eat fat because they know the result.

In my case it was too much for me even without fat, lasted a few weeks on it (a couple of years ago - before I became diabetic). I've lost 4 1/2 stones without it just by willpower and eating healthily.

I say willpower, and have just eaten 4 sausages....hmm...
 
I agree Lisa...my friend's experience was exactly that! She felt so terrible all the time that she couldn't bear eating at all!.

I had a word with one of our pharmacists and he said that Orlistat/Xenical shouldn't affect the absorption of glucose. It might make you slightly more prone to vitamin/mineral insuffiencies though.
To be honest, us type 2s (and type 1s as well i think) need to increase the absorption of glucose, although it's not a problem getting from the gut to the bloodstream, it is a big problem getting it to our muscles and the places where we need it, rather than hanging around in the blood causing problems.If you want a drug to do that, it's what Metformin's suposed to do.
 
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