Did not help me. Caused me to have stomach problems. I just stopped taking it.

Thank You. It's very good to know.

I should have asked, how long were you on it?

Several months. I could not go anywhere without my stomach running off.

Ok I have never read about metformin being addictive. You will not die or risk your health by not taking it. And it is not rare for people to come off of the metformin. Many do, when the A1C is below 6 many doctors will try the patient on diet and exercise again to see.

In the beginning I handled my diabetes for 10 years on diet and exercise alone. This disease is progressive more so in others than some or may not, in time I needed metformin to help control.

Yes by watching diet and exercise you can bring down your numbers. If they were not that high to begin with, ask your doctor to allow you to try exercise and diet first and say if your A1C does not come down say in 3 or 6 months, then you and the doctor can consider meds.

Also know you will not "recover" or "cure" the diabetes, but you will be able to control.

I think she said it's rare because a great deal of diabetics need it to fight insulin resistance. But rare doesn't mean never. I've been on it since 1998 but some people can get off and do diet and exercise alone. Everyone's different, that's a fact.

Thanks again. This is a great support group. I really enjoy all the wealth of knowledge.

I'm very motivated to do all I can to bring down my numbers.

I just spoke with my doctor earlier in the day and he said to combine a little metformin with my current excercise and diet. In the next month or so I will take another blood sample and go from there.

It is reassuring that if at any time I don't think I need it anymore, I can just stop cold turkey. :)

I wondered the same thing and am glad you asked that. Most of all glad you got a good answer to it. I am in the same boat as you with the numbers being borderline. Not sure I can take the sweating every time I go walking for exercise. I think I need to maybe cut my dose down too.

Blue:

My doctor thinks that at around 130, I only need half a pill of metformin (which is 250mg) per day.

I hate starting any medication at night so I will take it in the morning after breakfast.

It is to be taken with a meal, or up to 1/2 hr after

bruiticus-----thanks for the info. The 500 mg 2 X a day is probably why I am sweating so much.....it is too strong for me. You are fortunate that your doctor gave you that baseline of 130 to go by. Sounds good to me. I have also found that this med makes me hungry about 3 hrs after I take it (with food)----I sure don't need this to happen. Drinking lots of water helps with that feeling.

Blue: I wonder why our numbers are so similar and yet you are told to take such a big difference from what I was told to take??!!

Well, I guess 1/2 a pill is perfectly fine for me.

I took it this morning and I haven't felt much different but all the floaters in my eyes are nearly gone. I started having floaters many, many moons ago and had gotten used to them.

I hope things just continue getting better.

Now, instead of the sad/depressed feeling, I feel like there is not just a light but a rainbow at the end of the tunnel.

everybody reacts differently to this disease plus our doctors also think differently. Also many doctors will just do diet and exercise in the beginning especially if just "borderline".

Personally I would not have taken the meds and go with diet and exercise to see if I could control, which I did for years but then the body decided it wanted more

Good for you buticus----so glad things seem to be coming along. I didn't realize that this could take away floaters? But I do notice a big difference in my eyes being not blurry and my sleep. That is the only reason why I keep taking these meds. Most drs I have seen always want to bombard a person with high doses of meds right off the bat. Maybe the 1/2 pill would work ok for me.

This metformin is really cheap---I just bought 300 pills at Target for $17.00. Paying cash is cheaper then the insurance. I need to stockpile because we travel a lot.

metformin does not remove floaters, basically surgery called a vitrectomy ( the vitreous and floating debris are removed and replaced with a salt solution)

this is what I found on the internet MedicineNet. I seriously doubt any eye surgeon would do a virectomy for floaters. Perhaps Metformin does help with eye floaters. Actually I was noticing that I do not see them in my eyes either any more and they were really aggravating for me. It may have to do with blurry dry eyes because that is what I had before and the meds helped me with that. So they are good for something so far.....hoping they help other things to that would be great !

http://www.medicinenet.com/eye_floaters/page5.htm

Can eye floaters be removed with surgery?

Breaking up of eye floaters by the use of a YAG laser has been advocated by some, but there is no evidence that this is both safe and effective. The use of a laser also poses significant risks to the vision in what is otherwise a healthy eye. The vitreous itself can also be surgically removed by a procedure called vitrectomy. This involves multiple incisions into the eye and is reserved for situations in which there is a large amount of non-clearing blood or inflammatory debris within the eye. Surgery of either type should not be performed in patients with the common type of eye floaters due to vitreous syneresis or posterior vitreous detachment.