Want to know about metformin dosage and learn about metformin side effects for diabetes or PCOS? Metformin has multiple dosages and how to take metformin makes a big difference in how many side effects you get from metformin? Dr. Ergin(SUGARMD) talks about everything you need to know about metformin in this video. In addition to the above Dr. Ergin discusses why metformin was recalled, is metformin good or bad for your heart, and whether it is associated with cancer or not.
Hey guys this is dr ahmed ergan today i’m going to talk to you about something you keep asking about metformin side effects now we’re not going to just tell you about what the side effects of metformin are but also i’m going to talk about how to take it correctly now a lot of people don’t take metformin correctly that’s why they get into problems now how to
Prevent the side effects again it’s preventable again a lot of people don’t know how to do it even doctors don’t know what to prescribe when it comes to metformin to prevent side effects now difference between regular metformin and extended release metformin there’s a huge difference between the two and i’ll go over that in this video metformin recall a lot of
People heard about this a lot of people are concerned about this metropolitan recall they’re concerned about if the metformin causes cancer etc which we will go over and cover that today and then we are going to talk about finally about the use of metformin in pcos and pre-diabetes which i’ve been getting a lot of questions from you guys let’s get started all
Right so metformin side effects what are they of course the most common one that everybody i would say everybody but a lot of people complain about is diarrhea gastrointestinal side effects stomach side effects some people may have gas some people may have a diarrhea abdominal pain all sorts of problems now those are the common problems with metformin uh what uh
What other things can you expect from it from now i mean like any other drug you can get an allergic reaction to metformin you can develop a rash to metformin some people even get a chest pain from metformin now chest pain is something that i don’t really like and it doesn’t really happen common i’ve heard a couple times in so many years um but it happens and we
Don’t know why it happens but i’m like yeah well you got chest pain i don’t think that’s a good idea to continue not that it has any heart problems associated with it uh but if you are having a weird side effect i would not just continue it alright guys let’s go let’s go over the side effects now now metformin has a lot of side effects now the most common side
Effects are gastrointestinal okay so i’ll go over that in detail but if you want to summarize let’s start with the gastrointestinal side effects which are stomach and intestinal side effects so you may have diarrhea you may have loose tools you may have um you know abdominal pain uh bloating and gassiness and all sorts of crazy side effects with metformin the
Good thing is the side effects tend to disappear and i’ll tell you uh of how to remedy all these problems one of the most forgotten side effects is b12 deficiency again metformin may prevent the absorption of b12 in the intestinal system and ironically b12 deficiency can cause neuropathy and diabetes can cause neuropathy so you don’t want to miss b12 deficiency
Especially after a prolonged use of metformin now what are the other side effects sometimes cardiovascular side effects such as palpitations chest pain can happen flushing can happen and we don’t really like those side effects especially if somebody is coming to me with a palpitations or chest pain as a side effect i’m like ah maybe metron is not for you uh
Respiratory side effects some people complain about shortness of breath now general side effects some people will have like tiredness some people will be like weak and they will have muscle pains you know and that they may not know what’s going on because they may not attribute those side effects to metformin but it does happen dermatological side effects such as
Skin manifestations sometimes skin eruptions can happen rash can happen with with metformin but these are typically the most common and neurological side effects we can we can think of like a dizziness or headaches can happen with metformin as well so again there’s a lot of side effects now these side effects that i’m talking about uh other than the gastrointestinal
Side effects are like maybe five percent or less now a lot of people tend to think that if there’s a side effect i’m gonna have it but i think you should think positive you know don’t think that you’re gonna have a side effect now think about the law of attraction law of attraction says think positive you will attract positive things if you say that i’m gonna
Take med permanent i will feel great more than likely you will feel great on it because sometimes our body and the nature around us creates what we are thinking so you create your own world so think like that of course sometimes side effects are inevitable so if you’re taking micrometer next thing you know you’re having diarrhea you know that’s the side effect
Of of metformin but if you’re a little bit tired uh i wouldn’t just jump on and say oh my permanent cost is unless your tiredness is out of proportion that that’s something that you don’t normally feel and you stop the metformin and suddenly goes away then you know then you know what it is uh but i would not necessarily throw a medication right away and since
Most side effects tend to disappear in time especially the gastrointestinal side effects now the good thing about metformin the gastrointestinal side effects uh it can be prevented quite a bit so we’re going to talk about this this is the first topic that i want to stress about most people do not take metformin correctly uh and and the reason for that is like
Doctor prescribed uh let’s say a thousand milligrams twice a day regular metformin oh my god that’s like worse than a suicide or you a hundred percent if you prescribe 100 milligram i mean thousand milligram med permanent twice a day 100 you will get diarrhea the very rare people will will not have diarrhea so the way to start this is starting very small like 500
Milligram and then another important thing is to start with your dinner and always take it with meal if you take an empty stomach you’re going to be in trouble so take it with meal start with dinner take it for a week and see how it goes and if everything is good you don’t feel bad no side effects then maybe you can start 500 milligram twice a day and again with
Meals and maybe you can start with the breakfast and dinner this time another important thing that’s uh forgotten all the time yes i know metformin is free at publix in the united states but that doesn’t mean that free is good for you all the time right so extended release formulation has four times less side effects so when it comes to diarrhea and bloating and
All that metformin extended release which is metformin er or xr whatever your pharmacist has much much less gastrointestinal side effects than a regular metformin so if you think that you want to be on med permanent you want to stay on metformin start with external release i mean you can you can you can if you have the guts you can say oh i my guts are good so i
Will just go with the regular metformin since it’s free and if i have a problem then i’ll i’ll i’ll go for extended release well let me tell you guys i don’t have that kind of time if i was diabetic i wouldn’t just mess around with it uh but if you want to save a couple bucks that’s okay you know tried regular medform and see how it goes start with small dose and
Advance slowly that will do it now the maximum dose is typically around 2500 milligram of metformin not that you have to go to maximum dose every time i i would say the maximum dose is the dose that you can tolerate so just because you want to go to 2500 milligram you don’t want to really push it to a point where you cannot tolerate anymore so again to summarize
Guys start slow start with meals start with dinner once a day only and then advance or twice a day maybe 500 milligrams twice a day and then advance to maybe a thousand milligram twice a day now quick caveat for you in the united states again i’m not talking about canada i have you have a lot of uh um followers from canada and uk and rest of the philippines the
Rest of the world sometimes i get upset when i don’t say anything about that so the problem is i live in the united states i have no idea what’s going on in this country so i apologize for that uh but the bottom line is metformin extended release is generic okay but it comes in generic only in 500 milligram in the united states a thousand milligram is not really
Generic yet uh or even if it is generic i think it’s general but it’s kind of expensive so we end up doing like maybe uh prescribed 500 milligram tablets and then we sometimes tell them take two towels twice a day and that’s sometimes easier anyways because metformin tablets are kind of big you know a lot of people have trouble uh taking that down so i mean you
Know you can think about that as well as a clinician you know really i have to think about everything just prescribing a medication and sending patient home does not necessarily solve the problem you need to make sure that the patient is comfortable you need to make sure that patient can take the medication that’s all that’s that’s what what a doctorship is about
You know that’s how a doctor should treat their patients so how to prevent side effects now of course you know we discussed about this you know take it with meal uh use extent release metformin um and the difference between the regular and excellent release we already jumped to that topic as well and extended release is much much much better now b12 deficiency
Now what you do with that so basically you just have met b12 checked maybe once a year or so uh or every other year it’s not really your v12 levels are not going to drain very quickly because v12 is a stored vitamin so i would not uh panic about that check your b12 if it is normal you don’t have to check it for another year but b12 is very easy you can take you
Can take your b12 uh you know supplement if you’re deficient uh if you have pernicious anemia you can take an injection now recently there was a metformin recall now with the metformin recall i wouldn’t worry about this gmat because when when there’s a drug recall they’re going to let your pharmacy know and pharmacy will call you now metformin recall does not mean
That they recalled all the metro in the world no that’s not true some metformin brands again there’s like a god knows 20 30 100 brands out there that make metformin because the most commonly used medication in the market right now so uh some of the companies screwed up and if they figured that out very quickly and they said you had to pull that drug immediately
Transcribed from video
Metformin Dosage and Metformin Side Effects! Diabetes, PCOS & weight.. By SugarMD
