Help! My mum is a recently diagnosed type II diabetic and although she's tried to control it with her diet she's still ended taking metformin. She takes them with her meals like she’s been told, but she’s still getting sugar lows and feeling dizzy and shaky. She doesn’t drink that much and I can’t don’t know enough about it. Any help appreciated.
Hi! Your mum shouldn't really be getting lows on metformin if that’s the only thing she’s taking for her diabetes and no other medicines for other conditions. If she is taking something else for other problems the different meds can sometimes interact with the metformin and they could cause her to go hypo. The meds don’t have to be prescription ones either – if she takes aspirin for her heart or ibuprofen for pain that can make it more likely that her blood sugar will drop. Either way if she thinks she’s getting lows she should go to see her doctor. May be worth checking that she’s not drinking too much alcohol as well especially if she has been taking any other meds for different reasons? Hope she gets herself sorted.
Hmmm! Thanks for your reply - that's really helpful. I don't know what other things she takes on a regular basis as she's got arthritis and might take brufen and other things to help with the pain and inflammation but she doesn’t have any prescription drugs for it? She really doesn’t drink much alcohol so I don’t think that’s the problem (like at a family wedding of other celebration she’ll have a glass of wine) but I’ll ask her about the other meds and check when she’s taking her drugs and if we can’t sort it out she’s gonna have to go back to the docs! Need to check that it’s nothing else that could be causing her to feel odd too! Thanks for your help.