Metformin - Take it Right and Prevent Side Effects

Last week, one of my patients abruptly stopped taking his Metformin without alerting his physician or anyone else. He was having diarrhea and stomach cramps and thought it would be best to just stop his medicine. Diabetes is tough enough as it is - the last thing you need is to have unbearable side effects of a medication. But you shouldn't stop taking a medicine without telling anyone. Metformin should be taken with food - it helps to ease stomach discomfort and food helps with its absorption. My patient was taking Metformin on an empty stomach. We talked about how and when to take it during our session - he opted to give it another try. When he returned for a follow-up appointment, two weeks later, he was pleasantly surprised to find that he no longer had symptoms and his blood sugars were at goal. The moral of the story here is - if you are a person with diabetes and are starting a new medicine or have been taking medicines for a while that are resulting in side effects - reach out to your health care team to get educated on proper timing/usage of your medicines. You have enough to do when it comes to diabetes, that you deserve to be educated.Metformin - Take it Right and Prevent Side Effects originally appeared on About.com Diabetes on Monday, May 12th, 2014 at 15:36:22.Permalink | Comment | Email this
Source: About Diabetes - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news