Time for one of my rare diabetes related posts. Like many young males I spent my youth avoiding the doctor at all costs. Eventually this led me to being hospitalized with Diabetic Ketoacidosis after ignoring the symptoms indicating the onset of Type 1 Diabetes. That was six years ago and looking back it seems a bit silly. Since then I've seen a doctor at least every six months as part of my ongoing diabetes treatment and I've also been extra times to my GP for non-diabetic related things. In all those times I've always done my best to follow the recommendations of the doctor, until now. A patient's level of control over their diabetes is generally noted as a HBA1C percentage, 6-7% is good, 12% is bad, my last one was around 9%. So while my control is still not perfect it could be a lot worse. One problem I have is that my body is actually quite resistant to insulin which leads to me taking quite high doses to keep my blood sugar levels down. For this reason my doctor suggested that I try taking a drug called Metformin. This drug is primarily given to patients with type 2 diabetes as the main method of control but it has uses in other situations, like mine.
However now that I've got my prescription I'm not sure I want to take it and that's because of side effects. Reading through the leaflet put me right off. More than 1 in 10 people will experience nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain & loss of appetite. What's "more than 1 in 10"? 2 in 10, 5 in 10? I presume it actually means between 1 and 2 but they could be more descriptive. The doctor did warn me about these possible symptoms and said they will decrease as your body gets used to the drug. Still I'm not sure I'm prepared to go through that. Rarer side effects include anaemia, hives & hepatitis. That's only 1 in 10,000 but it still seems like quite a risk to me. Then there's the possibility of lactic acidosis which, while the rarest effect, would require a trip to casualty!
On top of all that alcohol increases the chances of lactic acidosis so you are not supposed to drink while taking Metformin. Now I don't drink all that regularly but when I do it tends to be quite a large amount. With all that in mind I think that this is not a drug for me and honestly I wonder how others are willing to put up with all those side effects. It doesn't sound particularly healthy to me. I will have to work harder at the lifestyle changes instead.
That was a very interesting post and of course I am very glad to read these details, and sympathise very much with the dilemma, which you describe very well. It does sound as if the percentage might come down a bit more with further lifestyle changes, which might be preferable to you compared with taking the Metformin. Would like to talk to you more about this, but this probably not the time or place!
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