METFORMIN AND HYPOGLYCEMIA?

Metformin is a glucose disposal agent that mimics the effects of insulin. That means it gets rid of excessive blood sugar from the blood stream. Because you are insulin resistant, your cells do not respond to insulin, so blood sugar stays high because insulin is what carries sugar to the cell in the first place. This is where metformin comes in. Metformin acts like insulin in order to carry sugar to the targeted cells so it will no longer be in the blood stream. If metformin is making you hypoglycemic then it can only be from two things: 1) you are not eating enough carbohydrates with the metformin in order to balance out its effect, or 2) you are taking too much metformin for the insufficient amount of carbohydrates you're eating.

In other words, either boost your carbohydrate intake or lower your metformin dose (with doctors orders only). The reason you felt shaky 2 1/2 hours later is because that's how long it takes blood sugar--from food--to clear the blood stream. However, metformin has a half-life of 6 hours in the blood stream. This means you have to eat at least 1x every 3hrs within a 6hr period or you will become hypoglycemic. This is how humans are suppose to eat anyway. The reason your blood sugar increased after a meal is because you ate something that balanced out your blood sugar for another couple of hours.

The good part about your dilemma is that insulin resistance is not diabetes, which means your pancreas still works, it's just that your cells are not responding to insulin. If you are genetically prone to diabetes however, and you continue to dwell in insulin resistance then, you will definitely get diabetes sooner or later. There's no doubt about that! On the other hand, if you correct PCOS, and get your cells responding to insulin again, which is not hard, then you can at least postpone any health issues in the future.

As far as a night time snack goes, I would go for it if I were hypoglycemic, but it also depends on when you took your last metformin dose too. If you do eat something, just make sure it's not anything that may cause love handles...

Hi, I have the same problem, minus the PCOS. I take 500mg Metformin a day. But I have really restricted my diet lately and just eat salad and chicken and soup. So, my blood sugar drops. I also get shaky and sweaty when my sugar drops. I just eat fruit. That helps a lot. Years ago, I would be at my desk at work and pass out by 10am. So I just kept an orange at my desk so I could eat it a little at a time. As for nighttime, what I do is put some graham crackers in a little Zip loc bag next to the bed. If I wake up and feel goofy, then I have a cracker or two. But the big thing is to discuss this with your doctor and see what they say, maybe a dosage change is in order. Take care and email me if you'd like to talk further

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