[righteousdude2]

My Endo told me he didn't care if I took Metformin prior to, or, following my meals (500Mg). He said to experiment, and as of today, I have yet to find out which way is most beneficial. Also, if I take before dinner, do I take them a set amount of minutes prior to the meal, or, along with the meal. This would also apply to after a meal, Do I wait a set amount of time, or, gobble down the Metformin right after my last bite of tasty morsels of food??

Your experience would be helpful, as my doctors, and the pharmacy have no real, hard-and-fast rules as to what is the best time to take Metformin.

Thanks for any of your wisdom and insight. I'd really like to get the most benefits out of this pill.

Shalom,

Pastor Paul

 

[onaughmae]

My Endo told me he didn't care if I took Metformin prior to, or, following my meals (500Mg). He said to experiment, and as of today, I have yet to find out which way is most beneficial. Also, if I take before dinner, do I take them a set amount of minutes prior to the meal, or, along with the meal. This would also apply to after a meal, Do I wait a set amount of time, or, gobble down the Metformin right after my last bite of tasty morsels of food??

Your experience would be helpful, as my doctors, and the pharmacy have no real, hard-and-fast rules as to what is the best time to take Metformin.

Thanks for any of your wisdom and insight. I'd really like to get the most benefits out of this pill.

Shalom,

Pastor Paul

I take mine in the morning and night...approximately 12 hours apart. I dont think it really matters if it is at a meal or not since it is not a pancreas stimulating drug. The only thing I can think of is that metformin can cause GI upset so maybe taking it with a meal would help. I have been taking it so long now I dont have the GI issues so I take it just whenever.

 

[Shanny]

The reason nobody has any hard fast rules is because the same rule doesn't work for everyone. You actually DO have to puzzle out what works best for you. The only reason that I know of for taking with food, is if it causes you gastric distress. If you get side effects, then take it with food. If not, then it wouldn't matter if you take it with food or not. I have no ill effects with it, so I take a couple of my doses on an empty stomach, but the midday dose goes down with a meal, since the timing happens to coincide.

Other reasons for certain times would be simply so you don't forget to take it. If it helps you remember to take it when it's mealtime, by all means take it at mealtime. But if you have a handful of pills that you already take in the morning or night on an empty stomach, take it with those (assuming you aren't getting gastric side effects, of course).

If you're taking it with meals, it really doesn't matter if it's before or after - and timing it down to the minute is splitting hairs. The idea is to get it into your stomach & mushed around with all the food so if it DOES cause distress, that effect is blunted - same as with many antibiotics which are prescribed to take with food, since they can upset your stomach. If you'd rather enjoy the lasting flavors of your final bite of food instead of flushing it away taking a pill - for gosh sake take it BEFORE the meal. The only other consideration, and I personally have not experienced this, but some people say extra fatty meals cause them trouble with met.

Metformin doesn't work like insulin or even aspirin; it builds up in your body over a period of days/weeks, and all you're doing now is maintaining that blood level. As long as you're taking it about the same time every day, you should be fine.

 

[jackie]

I take 1 pill with breakfast, 1 pill with dinner and 2 before bed. The reason for this is because I get extreme nausea when I take more than 1 pill at a time. With the 2 before bed, I am sleeping during the nausea. I was told to fit my pills to my lifestyle. As long as you are regular you need to find which way is more convenient for you.

 

[ThoseBackPages]

i take mine with food.

 

[Irene]

i take mine with food.

Through experience I find that taking it immediately after a meal is best. I take a high dose of this drug (2550mg), but unlike the tiny gliclazide, it does not seem to have any adverse effects. I think even one of the pharmacists was surprised, while another said you can take a high dose with no problem-- the latter was right, for me. BTW, i tried taking gliclazide 30 min. prior to a meal (cutting a tiny 80 mg in half--that is the minimum i think) and often fell into hypos; so i take that one prior to my lunch and supper. My dr. changed it from halves to one per day in the a.m. but I am afraid that will really bring me low so i cut it into two.

 

[moon]

My experience coincides exactly with what Shanny said: it doesn't matter. I've yet to find a correlation between my readings and when I took the metformin. The only thing I know is that the last 4 mornings I forgot to take it (because my breakfast is so irregular) and my fasting number has crept up to 100. But, when I would occasionally miss one dose my meter didn't reflect it. As always YMMV.

 

[Carvar]

Hi righteousdude2,
Well it depend upon your condition. Some takes 1 tablet and some take 4/5 tablets in a day.
If you have advised to take 1 doze I will prefer take in early morning.
Better ask your doctor who advised you metformin.

 

[jwags]

I think you have to try different times and see what works best. I rarely take mine with meals. I take the maximum - 2550 in 3 doses of 850. I take 2 doses in the morning because that is when my bgs are the highest. I take one as soon as I wake up and the second around 10:30 am. The last one I take right before bed. This is what works for me. I have noticed if the 2nd dose is late my bgs do spike quite a bit.

 

[Irene]

Thanks jwags -- Metformin has many benefits and is not the heavy duty bg lowering drug, so it may be more flexible. The pharma blurb is what i'm following, but other scheduling may be worth a try.

 

[onlymep]

well with my years of experience on metformin... it didn't matter when I took it really. Metformin didn't actually work that well on me to get BGLs lowered... it did at first in the first year at the most. If you're not getting much difference with BGLs at anytime and you're concerned at all... speak to your doc. I won't go into my experience as it was a bad one and all I can do now is encourage people not to do what I did.

 

[Irene]

Hi onlymep,

'Tis true, metformin does not lower bg's very much; at dx i had reached 30-- which is high enough to have put me into ketoacidosis snooze. The pharmacist wanted to raise the Met from 800 to 4x that immediately; but the diabetes team may have been afraid of an abrupt rise (some people are sensitive to it) an took a month to bring it to 3x850mg, with the addition of a min. dose of glubutride. The met was compensated with starvation diet and walking 2 hrs. per day or so. But the met affects the liver not the pancreas like the others-- for me it is a very good drug, and you may have read that it is good for the heart, it makes you lose weight, and it is currently studied as an anti-cancer drug. Also, i have no side effects whatever on it. I take with food as the pharm blurb recommends.

 

[onlymep]

Hi onlymep,

'Tis true, metformin does not lower bg's very much; at dx i had reached 30-- which is high enough to have put me into ketoacidosis snooze. The pharmacist wanted to raise the Met from 800 to 4x that immediately; but the diabetes team may have been afraid of an abrupt rise (some people are sensitive to it) an took a month to bring it to 3x850mg, with the addition of a min. dose of glubutride. The met was compensated with starvation diet and walking 2 hrs. per day or so. But the met affects the liver not the pancreas like the others-- for me it is a very good drug, and you may have read that it is good for the heart, it makes you lose weight, and it is currently studied as an anti-cancer drug. Also, i have no side effects whatever on it. I take with food as the pharm blurb recommends.

yeah I've heard it has a good wrap. Lucky for most people it seems to work fine. For me it was a different story.
My stomach was normal prior to taking metformin... now it's stuffed up and I've got to take medication to fix it... they're still trying to figure out exactly what's wrong with it and it's been one long ride. Have a guess what is known to cause dyspepsia... metformin. I'm not so sure it's that great anymore. I'm probably cynical I know but that is based on my experience and I just wish I had refused to take that drug sooner. My thought is that it weakened my stomach at the very least. I've had other drugs since that could have contributed also. I have a lot of "what if" questions... I've just got to keep my chin up. The latest test on my stomach shows my food doesn't even make it to my stomach after an hour, then at 2 hours it sticks to the top of my stomach clumped together... exactly where I get regular pain too apparently. So it appears top of my stomach is moving a lot slower than the lower half is. I'm not sure how on earth they are going to treat that? It probably explains some of the hypos I've been getting in less than 2 hours after eating though. No wonder I've been having hard time figuring out BGLs. Well I'll stop my grumbling. lol.
PS... does anyone else reading this have this stomach problem? if so, how do you manage?

 

[Irene]

Hi again onlymep,

I have read some literature on diabetic adverse effects; in this case where you post about stomach problems, i might refer you to the neuropathies-- one of which commonly affects the stomachj. It's called gastroparesis, and in milder forms just the stomach nerves not being as they used to pre-diabetes. Now, it may be the metform, as that is a side effect. I wonder-- if it was not the diabetic effects to begin with.

 

[onlymep]

Hi again onlymep,

I have read some literature on diabetic adverse effects; in this case where you post about stomach problems, i might refer you to the neuropathies-- one of which commonly affects the stomachj. It's called gastroparesis, and in milder forms just the stomach nerves not being as they used to pre-diabetes. Now, it may be the metform, as that is a side effect. I wonder-- if it was not the diabetic effects to begin with.

yeah the chicken or the egg I guess.... but all I remember is I prided myself on a strong stomach before metformin and I was so sick when I was on that drug... was on it for over 5 years along with other meds too. It wasn't fun. I'm now dealing with the aftermath. It could be partly diabetes... but I really don't know... I'm just relating it to the metformin as that is where everything started going wrong.

 

[Irene]

In either case (I am suggesting this because I, too have noticed a slow digestive process since being dx'd) I have found that what helps is eating small numerous meals through the day and keeping a smooth bg curve if you can. Eating three large meals a day with small snacks almost guarantees a bloated stomach for me-- not very flattering and rather painful too until the food is digested.

 

[ConnieB525]

My Endo told me he didn't care if I took Metformin prior to, or, following my meals (500Mg). He said to experiment, and as of today, I have yet to find out which way is most beneficial. Also, if I take before dinner, do I take them a set amount of minutes prior to the meal, or, along with the meal. This would also apply to after a meal, Do I wait a set amount of time, or, gobble down the Metformin right after my last bite of tasty morsels of food??

Your experience would be helpful, as my doctors, and the pharmacy have no real, hard-and-fast rules as to what is the best time to take Metformin.

Thanks for any of your wisdom and insight. I'd really like to get the most benefits out of this pill.

Shalom,

Pastor Paul

Personally, I found that I have to take it with food or just after eating. If I take it before, I get nauseous. My preference is to eat a little bit, take my meds, then finish eating.

 

[jwags]

The reason most take it with meals is because some get digestive problems with metformin. I never had that problem. I found that it was a lot more effective when I took it at other times of the day. I take the maximum 2550 mg. I take it when I first wake up, again sometime late morning- 10:30 am and then again right before bed. That gives me the best coverage. I think everyone is different so you have to experiment.

 

[Irene]

Thanks for the feedback jwags; good to know there is some flexibility with the timing of this drug. I spread it throughout the day around meals. The only slightly problematic one is the gliclazide as it is potent, but i have come around that by splitting it in two -- not sure if the half life makes a difference but experience has shown that it can really bring on the hypos.

 

[kengra]

I have read all of this and have heard mostly the same thing - my Doc and Pharmacist both say that it does not matter when you take it as long as it is a consistent time each day or dose.

Interesting thing however is that I was recently in the hospital for a couple of days and they would only give me my diabetic meds - metformin - when I ate. They would bring my other meds - cholesterol and blood pressure - first thing but not the metformin until breakfast arrived. Perhaps this was to protect against the stomach upset?