Hi everyone! I’m just back from a doctors apt and she has decided to take me off of the 2000 mg of metformin I was taking. Now, I have done a great job with diet and exersize getting my A1c from the 12’s to the5’s, but I’m a little scared to be off the metformin. It feels like I’m out swimming without a life vest! I’m hoping I can make this happen so does anyone have suggestions on supplements I can take to help with BG controll? I currently take cinnamon, chromium, biotin, taurine and fish oils
Thanks
Sandy
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what was the rationale of going off metformin once you have been diagnosed as diabetic? i don’t think that is standard practice.
I also don’t understand why you have been taken off Metformin. Keep close watch on your BG’s.
Probably the best-known example in the DOC of a T2 getting off meds is the long-time Diabetes Advocate, David Mendosa. It does happen. You can simply search his name and locate his regular columns—for Diabetes Daily, I think…He did it with diet and exercise changes, specifically for him, Bernstein’s approach. I more or less started with Bernstein and haven’t needed meds yet (approaching 9 years).
There are some supportive supplements, but what works for me may not work for you—just like any med any of us might take. And you should never add more than one at a time, and only after making notes on current eating and “life” habits to establish a sort of informal baseline, including watching those meter #s closely. Just like most meds, if you don’t have an immediate, nasty reaction like digestive upset or bad spikes, give it a little time so you can analyze its impact. A log book does help in the process.
I have worked with Nopal powder, Fenugreek, Gymnema and Milk Thistle (liver support). Since juices give me a bad spike, I also take a cranberry supplement for UT support. Many of us need potassium—I can’t eat bananas, but try to eat some avocado everyday.
And since I come from a gene pool full of strokes and heart attacks on both sides, I use hawthorn in my herbal tea mix, and in tincture form when I travel. Hawthorn is actually prescribed by docs in Europe for folks recovering from cardiovascular problems–like docs here prescribe ginger in any form for nausea.
I began studying these things in 1996 when I realized that nothing could be done for my fibromyalgia beyond treating individual symptoms…
It is also very important to know your source. I live at the North end of Oregon’s rich Willamette Valley and my source is just a bit south of me, easy to check out as trustworthy…
Do take care and take your time figuring it out. You are obviously on a generally good path. The challenge will be to sustain that–with or without meds. And sometimes well-meaning docs don’t get that changing things that are working could set you back to where you were. So be sure to TestTestTest! And keep us posted…Blessings
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Thanks Judith, great info! My doc had me on insilin and 4 metformin a day, then cut it to just 2 metformin and my numbers have been good so she wants to try with no meds just diet and exersize. I’m hoping for the best but if the numbers go up I’ll get back on the pills real quick!
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@Sandy31…If you have been on insulin, be especially cautious—slow and graduated—about changes. If your sweet body—the only one you’ve got, after all—needs insulin, then insulin it should have. Study up and be sure your doc is on the same page…
We can love our docs for lots of reasons, but unless they or a loved one actually has The D—well, you will know as much about your D as they do…
“If you want to treat Diabetes by The Book, then you need to write a new book for every diabetic.”…Judith in Portland…
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Well this ain’t working! I’m so irritated! My fasting is under 100, But when I eat I’m above 160! If I eat just 10 carbs or more my BG goes up, I’ll be ok if I just don’t eat! I know it’s a learning thing and I need to learn to roll with the punches but geeze! Maybe I’m not exercising enough or eating at the right time or with the right combination of foods. Why can’t we just have some " rules to follow" and take the guess work out…ok, my rant is over. I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday! 
Have you thought of going to a CDE? A Certified Diabetes Educator might be able to fine tune the proper medication. It might be insulin, it might be Metformin, or a combination, or perhaps Afrezza for meals. Use the tools you need to get the results you need. @David_dns here explains it better than I could, Yoo Hoo David!!
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This picture is not making sense from where I sit. Why is your doc trying to fix what wasn’t broken? (I refer to the fact that the regime you were under was giving you good control and the new one–isn’t.)
Metformin has some benefit in terms of reducing insulin resistance, but its primary effect is to stop the liver from releasing glucose into the blood (very much as alcohol does). You obviously needed it in the first place, so what earthly reason is there for thinking the need has magically vanished??
Being diabetic is like being an alcoholic: once you are, you are–for keeps. It is possible to reduce or even reverse some of the symptoms and complications, but the underlying disease is always present. If you remove the control mechanisms, it reasserts itself once again. Which sounds like precisely what is happening to you.
As Judith says, every case is individual and requires an individual treatment regime. (Words to that effect ought to be carved in stone, somewhere.)
The bottom line in managing any chronic condition is to do what works! If that means diet and exercise, then that’s the answer. If it involves medication, oral or otherwise, then that’s the answer. It’s a simple matter of the right tool for the job. To dust off one of my favorite analogies, if you had a broken leg, you would want a cast to help it heal. You wouldn’t say, “well, let’s just wait and see whether that’s necessary, maybe it will get better by itself.” (At least, I hope you wouldn’t! 
)
As far as supplements go, the evidence for their effectiveness is at best ambiguous. There isn’t space to delve in detail here, but suffice it to say that many of the studies that claim to offer evidence are not peer reviewed, were done in third world countries, or both. At best, supplements have only a very minor effect. No dietary supplement can do what metformin can do, let alone insulin. (One of the best commentaries I’ve ever heard on the subject goes like this: if “alternative medicine” worked, they would just call it “medicine”.)
I would have a long talk with your doctor. Based on what you’ve written here, empirical evidence argues strongly that diet and supplements aren’t going to give you the control you want (and deserve).
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Peer review does not guarantee the best.
"The mistake, of course, is to have thought that peer review as any more than a crude means of discovering the acceptability - not the validity - of a new finding. Editors and scientists alike insist on the pivotal importance of peer review. We portray peer review to the public as a quasi-sacred process that helps to make science our most objective truth teller. But we know that the system of peer review is biased, unjust, unaccountable, incomplete, easily fixed, often insulting, usually ignorant, occasionally foolish, and frequently wrong. " - Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet
Nothing wrong with wanting to use supplements or another approach that is not based on pharmaceuticals.
Trouble with diabetes is YMMV and one size for all does not exist.
Sheepdogs
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Of course not. NOTHING “guarantees” the best. However, some things do improve the odds, sometimes dramatically. With all its faults, peer review can and does weed out a great deal of unsubstantiated (and unsubstantiatable) nonsense.
And there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with supplements. Just don’t expect them to do what they cannot do. In the present case, they obviously aren’t doing the job and something better is needed.
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Great advice and I thank you all. I’m not going to mark off anything right now. I’m going to be my own walking experiment and see what’s right for me. Right now I’m holding good without the metformin but its with really tight controll on the diet. I’m wondering if it’s worth not being on metformin and putting the work into it that it takes or just taking the metformin and making it easier.
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That is a deeply personal question and the right one to ask of yourself. We all have to find our own way. I can say that once I adapted to eating low-carb, the reward was in my numbers and I’ve never wanted to eat any other way since. This does not mean I will not need meds in awhile. But that’s okay. With everything I have learned here at TuD, I am not afraid of taking whatever steps I must to keep my #s in reasonable bounds. Here is a blog I wrote about how I have done it so far…
judith, off topic- whose advice do you like for fibromyalgia? have you found anything that seemed to help both your fibromyalgia and your diabetes?
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Good question, my friend. I struggled for the better part of a decade with figuring out how to exercise regularly again. So that aspect was in place when the diabetes dx hit. And then within about 6 months of going low-carb, I found that I was having fewer scary fibrofogs (cognitive difficulties that are similar to a diabetic low) and fewer general flareups.
Regular exercise does help both—I developed a “menu” of options, from a vigorous 2 -3 hours in the garden, to any one of several workouts and walks varying in length from 30 minutes to an hour. Then I just “click” on the menu option that fits my level of fatigue and/or pain for the day.
Sleep is also an issue that comes with fibromyalgia and that increased as a difficulty with The D—maybe as simple as anxiety—over-stressed adrenals may be one cause of fibromyalgia. So I rotate through various gentle calmatives like valerian, passionflower, chamomile, etc. which also help both…Blessings, as ever…
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Judith, I’m trying to do the low carb eating but it’s not working out real well. I can go as low as 80 carbs a day but I still have BG in the 170 area. With the metformin I was getting BG around 100-130. As much as I hate to I’m going to tell the doc to put me back on the met.
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@Sandy31… There is no shame in being on meds, my dear. The point is to do what is necessary to keep your readings as calm and steady and in healthy ranges as possible. Big swings from way high to way low are actually more dangerous then a little high or a little low if it is consistent…
If you ever wish to try lo-carb again, Bernstein’s recommendation is 6-12-12: 6 carbs for breakfast, 12 for lunch and dinner, or 30 carbs/day. I do 25-35/day and vary when I eat the most carbs…
Some moderation in carb intake is necessary for all of us. But it is up to each of us to figure out what that means for our bodies and the lives we live in them…Take care and keep us posted…Blessings…
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Thanks, I have been on other sites and always felt attacked by some of the responses I would get from people. It’s like if you don’t follow the advice they give you are so wrong! I appreciate this forum for letting me feel guilt free for what I choose to do with my diabities care. It’s nice to feel accepted no matter what I choose. A big thank you to the community!!
Ps, I did start back on half the dose of metformin I was on before and my numbers are already coming down!! Yeah me!!
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