If you stop taking metformin abruptly, your health may suffer. You may experience side effects such as higher blood sugars, an increased A1c, and even weight gain. Over time, higher blood sugar levels can lead to diabetes complications, including: Retinopathy and blindness.
Do not stop taking metformin without talking to your doctor. If you stop taking metformin suddenly, your blood sugar levels will go up and your diabetes will get worse.
Why Shouldn't You Stop Taking Metformin? Metformin works by decreasing the amount of sugar your liver releases into your blood, making your body more sensitive to insulin's effects. If you suddenly discontinue use, it can lead to dangerously high blood sugar levels.
Generally, if you're prescribed metformin, you'll be on it long term. That could be many decades, unless you experience complications or changes to your health that require you to stop taking it.
More serious side effects are rare. They include severe allergic reactions and a condition called lactic acidosis, a buildup of lactic acid in the bloodstream. The risk for this is higher among people with significant kidney disease, so doctors tend to avoid prescribing metformin for them.
Metformin lowers your blood sugar levels by improving the way your body handles insulin. It's usually prescribed for diabetes when diet and exercise alone have not been enough to control your blood sugar levels.
Long-term side effects
Taking metformin can cause vitamin B12 deficiency if you take it for a long time. This can make you feel very tired, breathless and faint, so your doctor may check the vitamin B12 level in your blood. If your vitamin B12 levels become too low, vitamin B12 supplements will help.
As much as possible, avoid white bread, white rice, white pasta, candy, soda, desserts, and snacks like chips or crackers. Eating foods that can spike your blood sugar will not necessarily make the metformin not work, however, it will increase the burden it has to work against.
If you stop taking metformin abruptly, your health may suffer. You may experience side effects such as higher blood sugars, an increased A1c, and even weight gain. Over time, higher blood sugar levels can lead to diabetes complications, including: Retinopathy and blindness.
Metformin may have an adverse effect on renal function in patients with type 2 DM and moderate CKD.
Fruits with a high GI ranging between 70 to 100 contain high sugar content. Such fruits include watermelon, ripen banana, pineapple, mango, lychee and dried dates. These fruits can cause blood sugar spikes and must be avoided.
Some people are able to stop taking diabetes medication like metformin, by putting their diabetes into remission. This means that blood sugar levels are in the non-diabetes range without needing any medication.
Clinically apparent liver injury from metformin is very rare, fewer than a dozen cases having been described in the literature despite widespread use of this agent for several decades. The liver injury usually appears after 1 to 8 weeks, typically with symptoms of weakness and fatigue followed by jaundice.
The current drug labeling strongly recommends against metformin use in some patients whose kidneys do not work normally because use of metformin in these patients can increase the risk of developing a serious and potentially deadly condition called lactic acidosis, in which too much lactic acid builds up in the blood.
Metformin has also been reported to improve cardiac cell function by altering cardiac metabolism and remodeling. Studies in mice found metformin reduced infarct size by 22 to 65%. Long-term preoperative use of metformin can reduce the risk of non-infarction in patients with acute myocardial infarction [74].
Metformin has two advantages over other diabetes drugs: There's less risk of your blood sugar level falling too low. It doesn't cause weight gain.
Is metformin safe? Recent research has also demonstrated that a low dose of metformin (1000-1500mg/day) can promote weight loss in non-diabetic individuals.
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