Byetta plus Metformin

I have a type 2 friend on insulin who finds that Byetta works great when she uses it with metformin, but it doesn’t work at all when used alone.

She took metformin alone for several years and found it had no effect on her attempts to lose weight. Then she added Byetta, and she said it was like a miracle.

She said she felt full after eating very little, didn’t feel nauseous but
lost her interest in food. She said it was as if she’d had a brain
transplant, and she started losing weight without effort. It was wonderful.

Someone else said the same. With the combination she had the same normal appetite she’d had as a child. She was so happy she cried.

Then my friend had a kidney test, and it showed only 30% kidney function. You’re not supposed to take metformin when your kidneys are impaired, so they took her off the metformin. Without the metformin, the Byetta didn’t do a thing for her. Didn’t affect her A1c, didn’t help her eat less, didn’t help her lose weight. So she dropped it.

Now she simply can’t stop nibbling all day.

IOW, metformin alone didn’t affect appetite. Byetta alone didn’t affect appetite. But metformin plus Byetta worked wonders.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? I’m speaking primarly of weight loss here, not BG control.

Most of the research papers on Byetta used patients already on metformin, and it’s FDA approved for use with metformin or sulfs or both, not as first-line therapy or for people using insulin, although there’s a lot of “off label” use.

This is really interesting Gretchen. I hadn’t heard about this.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to also ask your question in the Byetta Users Forum.

Thanks, Kristin. I haven’t figured out yet exactly what the difference is between the zillions of forums and just a general post.

Yes, it’s not a simple difference. In my experience, the main difference is that a general discussion (like this one) will almost only get responses when it is on the main page, which may be for 1 day or 1 hour depending on the level of activity in the community. (The “forums” are just ways of labeling the topic of the discussion-- it does not change the ‘location’ of the discussion.)

If you post a discussion also in a group, then that discussion will stay on the main page of the group for months. So you will be more likely to get responses from that targeted group even later (though some groups are more active and some are not active at all!).

Also, I have my email settings set so that any time someone starts a discussion in a group that I belong to, I am notified by email (called “Following a group”). So perhaps some Byetta Users who don’t happen to see this discussion on the home page will get an email that you have started the discussion.

This isn’t a simple answer :slight_smile: But it’s the best I can do for now!

Summary: It is OK to duplicate the discussion in GROUPS-- those don’t show up on the main page anyway (but there is no point in duplicating discussions in FORUMS-- that would just be creating duplicate discussions on the main TuD page, just with different labels on them.)

Gretchen, I thought that you had to be on insulin to use Byetta. In other words, Byetta can’t be used alone. What’s the current thinking on this?

I take 1500 mg of Metformin ER and find that it keeps me from gaining weight but has no effect of weight loss. I only lose when I do a lot of cardio exercise and reduce the calories.

I think you’re thinking of Symlin, which is for type 1s.

Byetta is approved for use with metformin, sulfs, or both, or TZDs. See http://pi.lilly.com/us/byetta-pi.pdf. If you want to lose weight, you might ask your doctor about Byetta. David Mendosa has written a book about losing weight on Byetta.

Hmmm. I’ll admit I enjoy the twice a day cardio and I do strength train 3 times a week too, but I would love another weapon in my health arsenal. Thanks, I’m heading over to the Byetta site now . . .