metformin and type 1

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Marple

Metformin Helped My Type 1 Diabetes

Marple

Aug 18, 2011

My name is Marple, and I've had type 1

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/community/type-1-issues/> diabetes

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/> for 13 years. I'm the first in my family

to have the disease, so I've done most of the research and made most of the

discoveries on my own. One of those discoveries was the power of metformin

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/medications/metformin/> (in addition

to insulin <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/medications/insulin/> ) to

help me control my diabetes.

Before metformin, I tried many different medications and methods of

delivery, as well as low-carb diets, to control my glucose levels and lower

my A1C <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/monitoring/a1c-test/> .

Humalog, Humulin, R, and Novolog all eventually lost their potency, and I

finally came to Apidra (currently the fastest bolus insulin on the market).

But as of 2010, even Apidra couldn't lower my A1C of above 8%.

I switched to a low-carb diet to lower the amount of insulin I needed,

hoping that it would lower my postprandial glucose levels. I ate only

between 30 to 80 carbohydrates

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/food/low-carb/> per day. A piece of

bread is 15 carbs and one banana is 22 carbs, so an entire day on 30

carbohydrates is extremely low. I also cut out anything white from my diet,

including white pasta, white breads, white flour, white rice, potatoes,

sugar, and milk.

When my postprandial glucose numbers still hovered at 300 two hours after a

meat and vegetable meal, I looked into a possible gastroparesis

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/complications-and-care/gastroparesis-d

igestion-problems/> diagnosis. Gastroparesis is a delayed stomach-emptying

condition from which many long-term type 1s

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/community/type-1-issues/> suffer. It

is caused by nerve damage in the stomach muscles.

I went in for testing, and when the results came back negative, I was nearly

defeated. After fighting for years to combat my glucose levels, no method

was working. I felt like I had tried every single option out there, to no

avail.

Then I began putting my scientific brain to work. Over the years with type

1, I had needed to increase even my basal dosages on an almost six-month

basis. Because I was basically the same weight over ten of those years,

those increases didn't make sense unless I was also suffering from insulin

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/complications-and-care/insulin-resista

nce/> resistance.

That's when I came upon a highly informative and well researched article

published in January 2010 on diabetesmine.com. The author suggested using

metformin in addition to insulin injections to help treat the insulin

resistance seen in some type 1s.

Wikipedia reports that metformin was first used to lower glucose levels in

the 1920s, before insulin therapy was discovered. This information gave me

the confidence to give the drug a try.

It took three long conversations with my endocrinologist

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/health-care/endocrinology/> before he

would write the prescription of metformin for me. It was unheard of to use

pill supplements <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/food/supplements/>

to control glucose levels in people with type 1 diabetes. After assuring my

endocrinologist that I would never stop my insulin injection therapy, but

would only lower my insulin dosages as metformin did its job, he agreed to

write the script.

I used metformin for only three months. In that time, I lowered my

twelve-year A1C plateau of 8% to 6.9%. I had never had a lower A1C in all of

my diabetes life. Also during that time, I slowly introduced carbohydrates

back into my diet, starting with very small portions at dinner

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/food/dinner/> time only. My

postprandials were the best I had ever seen them. It truly appeared that I

had been cured of all of my diabetes ailments.

After lowering my basal dosages to half what they were pre-metformin, I took

myself off the pill. I truly believe that metformin is the reason my A1C

dropped significantly and my diabetes control improved. It seems to have

" re-booted " my body in the three months that I used it.

I do think that doctors need to be consulted before we try new therapies to

control our diabetes. However, I do not believe that doctors should always

have the final say. They tend to only prescribe what they know, not always

what is best for you. Try as they might, they will never fully recognize the

complexity of our bodies and our disease.

Every single person with diabetes is different and reacts differently to

certain medications. At the end of each day, it's my body and my life. This

particular method worked for me.

I will continue to try new therapies to better my diabetes life. I will

continue to research and petition until my diabetes life is just a memory

and I can stand proud as a former type 1 diabetic

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/> .

_____

Categories:A1C

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/complications-and-care/a1c/> ,

<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/community/diabetes/>