I've been fooling around with using regular metformin the past two weeks instead of the metformin ER I usually take. I've found that the trick to making it work is to time it properly. If I take it 2 hours before eating, I see the strongest blood sugar control after meals.
If you take regular metformin WITH meals, it won't get active until long after your food hits the system, which means your blood sugars will be higher than they need to be.
Once I got the timing straightened out, it seems to me that the identical dose of regular metformin gives me slightly better control than the ER version did.
But itis very hard to remember to take 3 different pills 2 hours before meals. (I usually eat breakfast a couple hours after I wake up.) So it is a trade off. The ER is convenient. I can take it all at once. But the 3 regulars give me better control at 2 out of three meals.
The regular is also tougher on the digestive tract. After 2 weeks of using it my body seems to have just about adapted, but the first week when I switched, even though I'd been taking 1500 mg of Metformin ER for years, it was Newbie City all over again, and it was a good idea to be near a bathroom at all times.
April 19, 2007
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6 comments:
Thank you, this is very good to know.
I have to laugh at the type 2's I know who pop an extra metformin when their sugars are high, like it's rapid-acting insulin or something! I at least know that won't work in time!
Hi, Jenny
I am also suffering from diabetes from last three years.I was searching for some health treatments regarding diabetes. I found your blog very informative and nicely managed. good work , keep posting
My problem is post supper spikes.My fasting BG appears to be okay so far.I have started Metformin (500 mg after supper) but have not seen any effect after 14 days. How long does it take to act ?
Thanks
sam
500 mg is too low a dose to have any effect on most of us. Usually it takes 1500 or more to see an effect.
Doctors are supposed to start people on a low dose and work up, but usually you can work up within a week or two.
Talk to your doctor about this.
If you don't see a result at a higher dose, then it is possible you aren't insulin resistant but insulin deficient.
Hi Jenny,
Great website !
I was wondering if you knew of anyone who took both metformin and metformin er and if it was dangerous to mix them. I seem to have read a post somewhere on the net where someone took regular metformin before lunch and dinner and then took metformin er before bedtime to help with morning numbers.
Thank you
Larry
I hadn't heard of anyone mixing the two kinds of metformin, but there shouldn't be a problem as long as the total daily dose of BOTH versions stays under the maximum daily dose allowed.
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