There you go guys
It is important to interpret this paragraph carefully. It says that the benefit of metformin is unclear, that basically means it has not been well tested on LADA patients. Then the last sentence is where we need to look carefully. In LADA, there is a risk that you can go into DKA. Correct? DKA is the so called “metabolic disturbance” which causes your liver and kidneys to not work properly. If you suffer liver and kidney problems, then metformin (as well as a huge range of other medications like Tylenol) won’t properly be metabolized. So metformin does not “cause” a metabolic disturbance or DKA. However, you may end up in DKA which “is” a metabolic disturbance, and metformin may not be properly metabolized in that case and can cause a condition known as lactic acidosis.
In my view, the risk in LADA is not different than the risk in any other diabetic who “might” go into DKA. So don’t go into DKA and you will be fine.
Myself i have been told to stop taking it as its no good for me but if your on it and told to take it i guess until your told otherwise myself it does not help my condition it does not deal with high sugars as i understand it it seems to stop the liver dumping more. Thats as i understand it. I would say some it helps others based on folks i have spoken to it does little for. My new consultant views it as a wonder drug for insulin resistance however he or rather they have decided i am not. Results will tell. Even i have not cut it out totally just in case! Don’t trust any doc when its in black and white then i will know. I had alot of issues with it tummy wise got better after two years of taking it. I have reduced my dose my condition no worse for it no better either! I just think for me it doesn’t work. For others it may well be great i think that would depend on your condition. However they say you should get your B12 checked if you have been taking it a long time,
I can’t speak for everyone here, but I’ve experienced firsthand that medicine is sometimes a “trial and error” experience. More often than not, the human body is a mystery, even to the doctors treating it. For example, I was born with something called congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI), which causes an over-secreation of insulin. Per the statistics, I should have been mentally disabled to some degree (because prolonged hypoglycemia in infancy and childhood causes brain damage), but I am not. I took diazoxide for many years and later metformin. I’m on metformin now and it was initially given to me to treat my CHI - surprisingly, it actually helped keep my blood sugars more stable and prevented the lows from being too bad. No one really understood how this worked, just that it did.
While I am now pre/mildly diabetic, the result of my pancreas over-secreating so much insulin for so many years, I am pretty sure that the metformin bought me some additional time. For me, metformin has been a wonder drug (compared to the diazoxide I took, it has almost no side effects). But I had to see three different docs before one would even let me try it.
With CHI and pre-diabetes, I’m sort of an enigma to the medical profession. CHI is classified as a rare disorder (although some doctors suspect it’s actually more common and is just misdiagnosed, especially in its more mild forms) and most doctors don’t even know what it is. One thing I’ve learned in dealing with it is that you have to be your own advocate. You’ve gotta speak up when something isn’t right, get a second opinion, and sometimes even get a third opinion. As a patient, YOU HAVE A RIGHT to say that something doesn’t make sense, and you’re entitled to explain how you physically feel. A doctor can only look at lab results and look at the patient in front of him/her - a doctor cannot tell you what you’re physically feeling.
Sadly, misdiagnosis continues to be the rule rather than the exception for those of us who develop Type 1 diabetes/LADA as adults, and I am sorry, Claire, that you have had to go through such difficulty. I am not sure if it is accurate to say that, “metformin damages LADA” but I would say that for almost all people with adult-onset Type 1 diabetes/LADA, the first line of therapy should be exogenous insulin, at whatever amounts achieve tight blood sugar control. Tight blood sugar control, initiated as soon as possible after diagnosis, preserves beta cells, lessens the risk of diabetic complications, and gives a better quality of life. Who wouldn’t want all that?
The best summary article I have seen for appropriate therapy for people with LADA is “Beta Cell Protection and Therapy for Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults” (Diabetes Care, November 2009). That article says that the specific role of metformin in LADA is not known because no studies have been done. The article also states that metformin may be useful for those LADA patients who have some insulin resistance/metabolic syndrome. So other therapies may be beneficial for those with LADA, but the evidence is overwhelming that immediately starting exogenous insulin therapy is the first and best line of treatment. Sadly, many doctors resist doing the right thing.
Did i say that sorry must have had the hump. Sorry guys regarding Metformin I was most likely in protest mode! I get fed up and go off on one from time to time. Its been tough sorry