Metformin
Known brand names include Glucophage, Glumetza, and Riomet.
A pill for type 2 diabetes, used with diet and exercise. It lowers blood sugar mainly by making the liver release less glucose, and it does not cause low blood sugar on its own.
Known brand names include Glucophage, Glumetza, and Riomet.
A pill for type 2 diabetes, used with diet and exercise. It lowers blood sugar mainly by making the liver release less glucose, and it does not cause low blood sugar on its own.
Metformin lowers blood sugar both between meals and after eating. It signals the liver to make and release less sugar into the blood. It also lets less sugar be absorbed from food, and it makes muscle and other tissues respond better to insulin so they take up and use more sugar.
It does not make the body release more insulin, and the label's low blood sugar warning is about using it with insulin or with pills that push insulin release. The body does not break it down, and the kidneys clear it unchanged in the urine, more slowly when they work poorly. It also cuts how much lactate, a type of acid, the liver takes up, which raises lactate in the blood. That helps explain lactic acidosis, a dangerous acid buildup whose risk rises with kidney problems, heavy drinking, and older age.
Metformin is a pill for type 2 diabetes, a condition in which the body does not respond to insulin as it should and sugar builds up in the blood. It is taken along with diet and exercise to bring blood sugar down. Keeping diabetes under control in this way may lower the chance of complications such as heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, nerve damage, and eye problems.
It is used by adults and by children 10 years and older with type 2 diabetes. It can be taken on its own or with other diabetes medicines, including insulin, and the regular tablet is usually taken with meals. It helps control diabetes but does not cure it. It is not used for type 1 diabetes.
Upset stomach is what people notice most: diarrhea, nausea, gas, and stomach discomfort, along with weakness or headache. Over time it can lower vitamin B12. The label treats lactic acidosis, a dangerous buildup of acid in the blood, as serious, and warns that blood sugar can drop too low when it is combined with insulin or certain other diabetes pills.
A clinician may order these while someone is taking it.
This is the boxed warning, the warning the FDA label prints first.
Lactic acidosis. Rare but can be fatal, with a subtle onset of malaise, myalgias, breathing trouble, sleepiness, and abdominal pain. Risk rises with renal impairment, age 65 or older, iodinated contrast, surgery, hypoxic states, heavy alcohol use, hepatic impairment, and drugs such as topiramate. If suspected, stop metformin, give supportive care in hospital, and start hemodialysis promptly.
Sources: [1]