Recently Diagnosed & New Members

[prandal42]

Just been recently diagnose and recently put on 500mg Metformin 2x a day.  How long will it take to bring my numbers down?  Thanks

[carlking2]

Welcome to the boards, and the club no one wants to join.  I will assume for the moment that you are a new Type 2.  Met takes time to build up in your system and you might begin to see results in a week or two.  It does take up to a couple of months to reach its full effect, so please try to be patient and allow it to work.

Tell us about yourself....We are somewhat a nosey bunch  If you care to  please give us some idea of diet and your plans on how you are going to control this disease.  What was your Fasting number and A1c on diagnosis?  Above all please feel free to ask any questions....there are a lot of people on this board with decades of experience in managing this disease.

[Delores12]

Hi !

it depends on what is causing your sugar to go up , my doctor had to switch me over to a thousand mg he is  still puzzle about my constant sugar spikes even

with insulin twice a day , but the good news  is 15 lbs and I'm glad about that . Working on my liquid sugar drinks i'm trying to drink o calorie dr pepper.   Must drink it extra cold to

mass the taste while I slowly get rid of coke products in my system

smileyhappy:

Your doctor may have up your dose because I had been talking metformin for about a year before he went up in strength.  I have an addiction to sugar and I'm trying to gain control

which is hard but I will master it one way or another.

Delores12

[morrisolder]

As noted, metformin may start having an effect after a couple of week, but it could also take 8-10 weeks after you reach the correct dosage. Usually they start lower than that and then increase because the gastro-disastro side effects can be pretty bad for the firs week or two...

But you CAN immediately affect your blood glucose levels by changing your diet, primarily by restricting carbs, and by getting more exercise, unless you are already a fitness devotee... REad a bunch here and you will find all kinds of good ideas on how to do that--or feel free to ask....

[jpg391]

Welcome to the boards.

You already have received some good answers to your question.

Please read some of the threads here and ask any questions that you may have.

[mastratton]

I just want to reiterate what Morris said. I 've been on Metformin for 13 days.  And since my diagnoses 19 days ago, my BG has been much better, and much more consistent.  I attribute that large bulk of that to my diet and exercise (I eat fewer carbs, particularly in the morning, walk on the treadmill 30 min a day, 5 days a week [except this past week]), and test far more than my doctors required me to do.

I'm on Metforming 500mg, 1x day (before dinner).  My disastro gastro effects lasted 2 days, and they weren't very bad, really (not in comparison to what others have experienced.)  What I can tell you is that I don't wake up in the middle of the night any more to go to the bathroom, and I largely attribute that to my Metformin and what it does ("hey, liver, quit producing extra sugar, this guy doesn't need it!)  Now, I'm not a scientist so that's really only anecdotal, but I'm reasonably certain that the med is helpful to me at night, and my diet and exercise have been helpful overall.  I think I'm benefitting from the combined effects of both (but my better numbers, I'm almost sure, are a result of diet and exercise, having lost nearly 10 pounds in 3 weeks since my diagnoses.)

Your mileage may vary, of course, and I only speak for my own experience.  I do not claim, nor do I presume, that my results are typical.

Mark

[carlking2]

Prandal42,

Here is a link to Lizzy's blog on the subject of metformin....Might be more than you wanted to know

http://community.diabetes.org/t5/Lizzy-s-Lounge/All-About-Metformin/ba-p/113693

[k_land84]

Have you talked to your doctor about the best time to take it? I am also on 500 mg a day and I started taking it at night but my doctor instructed it's better to take it with breakfast...

[sunritef]

Metformin takes longer to bring down your sugar levels than changing your diet. I'm Type 1, but was diagnosed as T2 originally and put on metformin.  Numbers were down in 2 days because of my diet change... when I eventually came off the metformin, no change in my numbers because I wasn't insulin resistant... point being, metformin doesn't work great in a vacuum.

[powerwalker2]

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prandal42 wrote:

Just been recently diagnose and recently put on 500mg Metformin 2x a day.  How long will it take to bring my numbers down?  Thanks

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How high are your numbers?  The metformin effects may be almost imperceptible, and you will get more noticeable immediate results from your changes in diet and increase in exercise.  Did your doc mention those two very important lifestyle changes?  From what I've seen, metformin is just sort of a supplement to those.  it has only reduced my A1c a half a percentage point, but is constantly working in the background to help keep my numbers from going higher.  In other words: it helps, but not a lot.