Have you ever had side effects from metformin?

Do try low carb/high fat before going on meds.   I got my BG down from 53 to 43 this way. No bread, pasta, potatoes or rice (or cakes, biscuits or chocs), but lots of meat, fish and veggies.  This seems to have helped my diverticular disease too.  I take mebeverine antispasmodic for a few days if it flares up.

Astra, With all due respect its not true all bottled waters have sugars, and to say tap water is always best for you is a terrible sweeping statement.

As a Former Chairman of Environmental Health I can tell you that tap water contains recycled water and contains tiny particles of drugs like the birth pill, and in some areas can be very hard indeed or like my area in West Yorkshire can be incredibly soft water.

I drink nothing but bottled water, Scottish Highland Spring, Harrogate Spar is a good one but expensive, Tescos Own Label is a good one too.

Be careful friends to water filtering these will not always filter drugs from the recycled water, Water Companies filter water many times and if something is left in home water filters are not likely to remove it.

Simply read food/drink labels, cheap foods and drinks rarely have sugar in them as it is an expensive ingredient!

If anyone who is on Metformin suffers with upset stomach and/or the runs? Go back and ask your GP for SR Metformin (slow release) it is much kinder on your stomach and bowels. Oh, and never take Metformin on an empty stomach, always take it with or just after food with a glass of water.

I experienced diarrhoea with the initial prescribed Metformin over a long period but then in discussion with my pharmacist it was suggested that it may be the coating on the tablets rather than the tablet itself so we explored different brand names and found certain manufacturers where the coating didn't give the side effects. Sadly sometimes they change their processes and then it kicks in again. Am now using uncoated tablets and (touch wood) not having those side effects. Certainly worth a try.

Olwynem, I had similar problems, changed to slow release 4 per day OK for a time the it came back, reduced dose to 1 tab + sytagliptin, later deleted the sytagliptin, and went to 1 Metformin morning and night, Things are now OK

If you have Peripheral Neuropathy or know anyone that does, I can recommend, finger-less gloves to be worn as much as possible, they reduce the pains in the fingers, you can even get gloves known as I touch gloves or E touch gloves, they let the wearer operate touch screen devices whilst wearing them. They cost from £4 up to say £10 and come in a range of colours. Hope this helps.

Phil.

Hi, I would urge you all to read sugar contents of Everything you eat very carefully, sometimes the way that they put the info you need a calculator to work it out. My advice is not to have anything that contains more than 5% sugar, fruit is OK but not too much of it.

Hi all sufferers, I had 3 apples yesterday, they  were so nice and sweet, however, I suffered for it in the night, my feet were on fire and really painful, so, don't overdo it with the fruit, it still contains sugar, even though it is a natural product!

It is sometimes the coating of the tablet that gives the problem I asked my pharmacist to find a different make/supplier of the tablets and that did the trick for me. Worth a try.

I suffered for six years on metformin now on slow release Metforming fine now