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Originally Posted by bonechew
Lee, I have never heard of this before. Met decreased my FBG by 10 pnts only - so over time, I will become a diabetic anyway - Metformin or no Metformin - if I don't change the way I eat and start exercising (from what I've read, the most effective reducer of insulin resistance). Met alone is not going to stop a person from becoming diabetic. It didn't stop my BG from rising over time-so I kept marching right into diabetes while I took Met.
And Met did nothing for my weight either. Even when I low carbed. It is true that Met isn't helping weight loss as much as it was touted to. The only times I've seen that happen are when the person is so sick from the side effects that they can't eat.... or they recognize the wake up call and go on a strict low carb diet and start exercising. There is a time when Met will decrease the appetite, but it doesn't last forever. It's just a phase.
Met actually made me eat more because I had this strange "hunger void" that I tried to fill with food. I wanted to eat something, but didn't know what it was.
So I agree with other poster. Met isn't going to help with weight loss for most people.
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Metformin doesn't help everyone with PCOS, and for some may only help with menstrual cycle and not with weight loss. There are some that metformin doesn't seem to help at all. I suspect that not everyone has the same type of PCOS, and that some women develop cysts on their ovaries for reasons other than insulin problems - for those people metformin wouldn't help at all. And some may just be resistant to its effects, as you probably are. Metformin has taken me to a lower weight than I could get to - even eating 600 calories a day. If only I could stay on plan, I'm confident I would continue to lose weight. But its true that no drug works for everyone, and no drug works in the same way. I know a few women with PCOS, and though metformin helped their periods return, they never experienced easier weight loss. I also know someone who really struggled with weight loss and once on met lost 120lbs. I also know someone from work with PCOS who took met when trying to conceive and it didn't even help with periods. Everyone's different.
If you already had a higher than normal FBG when you started taking metformin, then it may delay the onset of diabetes for a pre diabetic, but probably wouldn't prevent it.
When I talk about being prescribed metformin early enough, I was talking about really early. I was diagnosed with PCOS aged about 19 or 20. I had already had PCOS symptoms for more than 10 years. At this point I was making so much insulin that I had reactive hypoglycaemia - I was never told this of course - I found out by accident while practising taking blood sugars as a nursing student - it then became fascinating to my friends (fellow students) to take my blood sugar after meals to see how low it went - the lowest was 1.9 (34.2). My doctor's advice was to eat sugary food when my blood sugar was low - so I did - a lot.
Now as you can probably see, had I been prescribed metformin 17 years ago on diagnosis, it would have regulated insulin production, reduced insulin resistance, and if I had also been advised to eat low carb, then I wouldn't be pre diabetic now and probably wouldn't have put on 250lbs. But of course 17 years ago they didn't know about insulin being a factor in PCOS, and reactive hypoglycaemia wasn't taken seriously - my doctor didn't even do blood tests. (but he was a really bad doctor) Even better, had I been 9 years old right now, and had a caring parent who took me to the doctor when I first exhibited symptoms, then I could be given treatment and dietary advice right then, with careful management and good medical advice, today's 9 year old could grow up to not have a weight problem at all and never develop diabetes.
That's what I meant by early, and it only applies to PCOS. With normal type II pre diabetics, Met will also only delay diabetes, dietary changes are the most important factor.
Lee