Metformin and Hypoglycemia
Believe it or not, most type 2 diabetes sufferers know almost nothing about Metformin and Hypoglycemia. But not you!
Low blood sugar is actually a side effect, a condition that can be caused by the use of Metformin. Mind find this surprising. Sometimes people feel that if high blood sugar is a bad thing then surely low blood sugar is a good thing. Unfortunately, that’s just not the case. Balanced blood sugar is the goal. For some people, Metformin causes the side effect of hypoglycemia. The mechanism causing the problem is key to understanding your treatment and the course of Diabetes.
Eating a meal typically increases blood sugar. How much the level increases depends on how many starches, or carbohydrates, and what kinds you eat during a meal. Simple carbohydrates push blood sugar levels up higher and faster. Foods that are high in simple carbohydrates are typically sugary or very sweet. Cookies may be an obvious one. However, bananas and pasta are also in that group. Most vegetables are considered more complex carbohydrates. All this means is how long it takes your digestive track to break things down into simple sugars for cellular fuel. The resulting drop afterwards is also steeper than more complex carbohydrates.
Metformin is designed to help reduce the levels so your blood sugar doesn’t spike as much. Spikes up or down are both undesirable. That’s exactly why hypoglycemia is not any better than diabetes. Many people who end up as diabetics started with hypoglycemic symptoms.
Metformin and Hypoglycemia
Metformin can cause blood sugars that are too low. Let’s say that you start taking Metformin and are doing pretty well on it, but you haven’t really changed your diet. If later you change your diet, you may be on too high a dosage. As a result your blood sugar levels could end up lower than is health for you. This is a simple illustration to how the combination of Metformin and diabetes could result in hypoglycemia.
The most common reasons for hypoglycemia as a result of taking Metformin are a sudden increase in exercise or other conditions. Avoiding the swings between high and low blood sugar is important for long-term health.
As your body systems begin loose that normal balance, one tendency is to swing back and forth between blood sugar levels that are too high and too low. Both are a reflection of the problem. Metformin works to use up excess blood sugar. In fact, sometimes you can end up with not enough blood sugar. For example, if you change your level of exercise and don’t change your dietary intake, Metformin can cause hypoglycemia. The combination of factors can bring you to low blood sugar levels.
You can see that even small changes may justify attention when treating your diabetes. Individuals taking Metformin need to be familiar with the symptoms of hypoglycemia to avoid problems.
Now you understand why Metformin and Hypoglycemia is not a topic worth neglecting.
