I’m 26 years old male from India. Two years back, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes when I visited the doctor for some other reason.
It was no surprise to me as both my parents have type 2 diabetes and I am also moderately obese with no physical activity. My RBS was 280
The doctor prescribed Amarly M1 to be taken before breakfast and Janumet after dinner. Upon taking both, my RBS usually stay at healthy levels between 100 and 130.
But during the medication, I experienced the following side effects:
1) Hard to remember names (sometimes even my friends) and numbers such as the floor on which I parked my car or important dates.
2) Weight gain without overeating
3) Occasional mood swings
The first two gets vanished when I stop taking the medicine but the RBS level spikes to the risky zone.
Any suggestions to keep my sugar levels in a healthy range as well as stay in shape without experiencing memory loss or mood swings?
Thank you!
Written by
secretsubject
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Welcome to the forum. Please do not measure your random blood sugar. Always measure your Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS), Post prandial blood sugar (PPBS) and HbA1c.
What was your latest HbA1c reading? Also please mention your weight.
Try increasing your physical activities(minimum of 1 hour walk daily in my view). Check all the foodstuff that goes inside your mouth.
Avoid polished rice, packaged food, fast foods. Increase your complex carbs and add good fats.
secretsubject , FBS is high. Your body weight is also on a higher side as well. You have to change your lifestyle along with medicines. You can switch to millet based diet or Emmer wheat(Samba Godumai) based diet. I have tried the latter and have reduced my HbA1c from 14+ % to 5.9 % in around 3 years. Search for "Shooter George Emmer wheat". Incidentally, Mr.George is also a member of this forum. As a first step, shun all type of rice(even hand pounded!). Stop unnecessary coffee/tea. Have it once or twice that too without sugar or with little palm sugar. Increase your physical activities as much as you can. start regular walking, cycling, etc. Most importantly, stop having food in a restaurant for some time till your BS settles down. Follow all the above strictly for next 1 or two years. Please do not forget to take HbA1c tests every three months. Good luck. Cheers.
I am from India as well. I was diagnosed with T2D one month back as I was losing weight rapidly. My HbA1c is an alarming 10.7 and currently on insulin.
You probably need to get HbA1c, PPBS, FBS from a certified laboratory. As you mentioned your weight, I am in the same weight range as yours, but your weight is significantly higher. I suggest you reduce your calorie intake, especially carbohydrates or try intermittent fasting. I am currently on IF (16 hours from last night dinner), I skip my morning breakfast and the in the eating window I try to eat less carbs and have some exercise. My initial starting weight was 76Kg and now I am 66.3Kgs in 1.5 months. In most cases, FBS, PPBS normalizes with weight loss.
Regarding the side effects, I think it could be a temporary side effect. But it needs evaluation. Please visit an endocrinologist.
It sounds like possible medication side effects. Can you please call/see the doctor and let him/her know what you told us? They may want to switch/lower the dosage and type of medication.
Doc told me - those might be because of the stress. But I am not buying it. By the way, I need a help. I am a vegetarian and have problem eating eggs coz of its smell. Any advice?
Please must see your doctor for redressal of ur symptoms of forgetting things after the medication started and maybe he will change the medication or whatever he feels is good for you,but pls see ur doctor ASAP
As several members have already pointed out u need to loose weight , more physical exercise
Follow a low carb regime. If ur a non vegetarian then can enhance ur eggs and meat intake , avoid red meat though
Take Green leafy vegetables, cauliflower , bhindi, c other seasonal vegetables,avoid root vegetables as far as possible
Try cooking in coconut, mustard oil or ghee
Have a control on your carb consumption, u can down load any app for calculating nutrition facts of any food and maybe loosely stick to it
Buy a meter to check ur sugar fasting as well as PP Random is not that important
Eat to meter for a month or so and then u will know which food item is ur friend so u can carve ur own meal plan, it sounds intimidating but it’s our life and you are too young and have decades in front of you but once u get the hang of it you will have a good active life
Choose some form of exercise and do it daily
Try to reduce your weight. We r all in the same boat so we r all together
Hello Singh, thank you very much for the kind words and advice. Surely I will work to reduce my weight. I am a vegetarian and also hate the smell of eggs. Any suggestions on how can I overcome and eat eggs?
Weight gain in case of diabetics after start of medication is a known phenomenon and happens because of good sugar control. This is an indication of drop in HbA1c results. However fasting and PP on the higher sides despite lower HbA1c is a contradictory indicator and points to insulin resistance after food intake...so try to walk for 30 minutes after lunch and dinner. This will flatten the sugar spike also possibly reduce your medication dose.
Dont worry much about weight, most people are misguided about the weight in diabetes, try to increase muscle mass and reduce fat within the same wieght rane. You can adopt strength training in the morning. As for food simply avoid high sugar and starch... thats it. Dont bother much about carbs, fat etc... at 26 the metabolism is quite strong, only when it starts dewinidling down in mid 50s go for lean diet. Laugh always and enjoy your life, dont overthink.
I have been T1D for last 24 years and enjoying life, learning everyday, joyous in all situations, exercising and trust the Almighty
You may like to search the web as well. When a diabetic patient loses weight due to high sugar and is put on medication, the insulin levels in the body rise again increasing the fat capacity storage of the cells and leading to weight gain. This continues till the threshold dosage for insulin production and the insulin required to metabolize daily calories is balanced. The patient is also suffering from hypo occasionally and is likely to consume more calories in order to avoid low sugar. This will cause weight gain. The effect is temporary and the weight gain flattens out after equilibrium is reached
Weight loss due to poor glucose control and weight gain due to better control are known effects with diabetes
Fasting insulin testing is not available under NHS. Only basic type 2 medication available for me and I do not qualify foe advanced type 2 medication.
I can do most of the tests in my blood privately at a cost!!, medication on NHS to control the blood numbers??
What do you know about the latest score, Hopkins score is given to each person is a GP Practice? When I asked for explanation, one answer it is computer generated score, no more.
Walk, Walk, Walk! Start with 35 minutes once a day then slowly switch to twice a day. You will loose weight and diabetes will be under control. I was 40 years with 111 Kgs weight and have almost come to pre-diabetic level of HbA1C at 5.4 and weight at 82 kgs.
Obviously, you should contact your Doctor and let him/her know about the symptoms clearly, as mentioned by the members here.
I share my experience, here. but before that, i will mention here that "Amarly M1" is a combination of Two drugs Glimperide and Metformin. Note this point, I will write about it below:
Now coming to my experience, when I was first diagnosed with DM2, the doctors (in India) gave me some tablets (don't remember the tablet name). but contains the same combination as mentioned above (Glimperide and Metformin). Surprisingly, when the DM2 was not diagnosed, i did not have any basic symptoms related to DM2, except I get some irritation soon if things not going well, but it is and was my nature, so not much attention given to that. But DM2 identified in a routine blood test simply based on FBS, and then done HbA1c etc etc. is the story, not important in this context. I started taking the medicine exactly as prescribed, (I am the biggest hater of taking any medicine except natural remedies) but I started developing side effects, of itching, numbness in my legs (very much affected), and such things. I was FEELING much better before DM2 was identified. Later I contacted another Doctor (in Australia) with these additional symptoms. He saw the medicine I was using and said the Glimperide was the culprit for these all side effects. And said Metformin itself is more than enough in this case of results. So, he changed to only Metformin and all side effects vanished. He also, told me he knew many Indian DM2 people, and most of them were given this combination of Glimperide and Metformin, and don't know why some doctors (in India) suggested strong medicine at the start of the DM2 identified. All said and done, we EXACTLY DONT KNOW, what factors behind these prescriptions differently by different doctors. So, this is the story I wish to share which can give you some idea, that the combination could be the culprit. Talk to a doctor and get a new prescription, or change the doctor and see if the opinion differs.
NB: the numbness was also due to B12 deficiency, also a side effect of medicine.
Copied below is the Google information from nih.gov :
Metformin improves insulin resistance, and is recommended as the first choice medication for newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients by most guidelines. Glimepiride is a third-generation sulfonylurea that stimulates insulin secretion.
Being 26, you have to take more responsibility for your own health. There are many lifestyle changes you can make to control your didhetes. Check your insulin fasting levels. If it is above 10, then it means you have insulin resistance but your pancreas are able to produce insulin. Reducing your insulin resistance is very healthy - for this you have to make many lifestyle changes and lose at least 10kgs body weight. Then the insulin in your own body will work well. Read the work of Dr. Roy Taylor.
1) Hard to remember names (sometimes even my friends) and numbers such as the floor on which I parked my car or important dates.
2) Weight gain without overeating
3) Occasional mood swings
I am 70 years old and diabetic for the last 35+ years and am Type2 Insulin dependent (for the last 15 years)- which means the worst thing that can happen in case of prolonged mismanagement with drugs and more drugs. Remember Diabetes cannot be cured. Not even controlled for long, when you must shift to higher dose or stronger drug. Anyway, there will be definitely side effects.
In my case, I had changed my regular diet to LCHF diet 7 years back and stopped all the medicines except Insulin which can never be stopped in my case. HbA1C is now 5.5
So, it should be an easy task for you to get back to normal with no medicines by shifting to LCHF diet. Of course, there are precautions that one need to follow especially when you are taking medicines as lower carbs with medicines will result in hypo that could blur vision and thoughts (Quite possible that it is happening now in your case, your points 1 & 3 - especially in the initial days of drugs introduction).
LCHF and good exercise regime will take care of the BGL levels.
Please note that this is not custom medical advice but some suggestion from my experience.
Please talk to LCHF (Low Carbs High Fat) expert doctors and nutritionists first if you decide to try the same.
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