Two weeks on Metformin to try and control the killing cravings for bread, pasta and all things chocolate - or faux chocolate, as in Kit Kat, Snickers, Twirl, Flake and the ridiculously priced hard chocolate caramels I can go through in a oner, and I can honestly say it is a life-changer.
The cravings have, quite simply, gone. I eat like a normal person as opposed to resembling a conveyor belt, can wait between meals without shaking or becoming Mrs Hyde, and eat normal portions - I can control the need to stuff and am beginning to break the habits that went along with my previous ravening eating, such as being unable to have a cup of tea without "something nice" - meaning a cake or three, a biscuit or ten or a loaf of bread and butter and marmalade, Nutella or even dog food! (No - kidding about the last one.) And to anyone who says things like, "you can control the cravings by adjusting your diet/cutting out carbs/ eating Paleo/ high protein low carbs/cut out sugar/just say no ... blah blah" - phooey. NOW I can - but before this Metfomin intervention, I simply could not control the cravings - they were unbelievable.
Had a bummer of a time with the first prescription - after 4 days ended up feeling really ill with nausea and food-poisoning like symptoms (which might have been, actually, but blamed the Metformin anyway) but since I switched to the slow release, it's like I can breathe again.
The rationale by the endo was that, if we can get the symptoms to subside - the cravings alongside the low, low mood and despair from it all, we can begin to tackle the thyroid issues head-on - and i reckon that, so far, so good. Along with the subsidence of the cravings the St John's Wort has finally kicked-in and I feel so much calmer. I can now recognise that I am really weak and tired outside of the hyper-hypoglycemic swings and that my pulse rate is more accurate since I'm not "shooting-up" on sugars. And my mind is calm enough to start tackling the knotty problem of where the heck to get my prescription for Nature-Throid.
My GP is excellent - she's onto the blood tests like a fly onto honey and insists on checking my liver function one month after starting - she watches my bloods like a hawk.
By the way, am I alone or do others find it really difficult to navigate this site? I had some fantastic replies embedded somewhere in my posts about the best-priced pharmacies to get my endo's prescription for Nature-Throid made up, but can I find it? Can I bumps! But at least I know it's not because I'm so foggy - that's clearing up a,long with the despair and anxiety and driven to eat-ness!
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Schenks
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The only bad thing I've heard about metformin is that is can cause low B12, so just watch your B12.
To navigate, I go to the community I want to see (under My Communities), then All posts, and keep going to the next page until I find something I haven't seen, then I read backwards to the beginning. It's diabolical on a mobile. But on a PC, if you always right a post and choose to open it in a new tab, you can just close that tab when you finished reading and get back to the list you were working through.
Thank you for this, will try to track the post. and I reckon you're right about the metformin - once I get some of this obeseness down I'll be in a much less insulin-resistant stae, I reckon, and will be able to come off it.
I wouldn't stay on it forever. It is tempting and some prediabetics use it but after reading a few articles about it decided maybe it wasn't all good. Well, nothing is, I guess but look up articles from people like Dr. Mercola.
Thanks, shaws. this has been some journey so far!!
I was prescribed it as a prediabetic and it gave me abnormal levels of B12 which I'm still dealing with 12 years after. Can you take sublingual B12 at a good dose say 5,000 MCG. I ended up with nerve damage in my lower legs and feet.
The carbs craving could be adrenal. I've gone through this myself, I always at least ate complex carbs but still bad for blood sugar insulin problems. I've solved this by eating more fats and protein.
I think it is very easy to crave carbs and chocolate you give a little lift when your energy is on the floor.
Personally unless I am overtly diabtetic I wouldn't take metformin again.
Thanks for this, Helcaster - I'm only on it for a month, but I'll speak to the GP about all of this and I'm pretty sure she'll listen. Now i know I won't be on it for long!
I've increased the protein and fat content of my diet anyway even before the Metformin, but NOTHING I did controlled the cravings and the urges - it was wild! I feel liberated from them and I have been abvle to adjust my diet accordingly, so losing weight without breaking sweat - unheard of (not that that was anything near the reason to agreeing to take the drug). But with luck and a fair wind, and with my bloods being monitored, I'm getting a handle on all this crap.
Hi Schenks, I was on metformin for 2 years. I didn't know the connection with low B12 until I researched it, my Gp at the time certainly didn't know.
I developed psoriasis in my armpits right out of the blue, and my dermatologist ran some blood tests and my B12 was very low. Instead of giving me injections, my gp gave me 50mg of cyanocobalamin. Which was not only the wrong B12 but the dose was ridiculously low. I didn't find that out until I came on to this forum.
My recent Gp started injections in 2013, but 12 years too late, I now inject myself twice a week with 1,000 mcg of methylcobalamin, unfortunately so far there has been little improvement in the nerve pain.
If you take methylcobalamin sublingually you only absorb about 10% so you need to keep those numbers high. The best way is through injections and the methylcobalamin goes into muscle where it's better absorbed. We tend to have low B12 when we're hypo anyway, I'm having real problems trying to get levels up, the same with iron and folate. You can't overdose with B12 as you just lose any excess in your urine.
Have a look at some adrenal fatigue symptoms, carb craving I've read is one of them.
Thanks Helcaster - I will be talking this through with the endo & GP. Had an adrenal function saliva test - seemed normal, but am going to repeat it now.
LEF have always been very keen on Metformin. In this article (a few years old) there is a useful callout about B12 and folate - you probably need to supplement both ... a lot:
Have printed this off, Angel, thanks. Funny, i was taking curcumin but with no effect -0 didn't understand fully what i was taking it for and so might have increased the dosage if I'd've been fully aware, but this gives me non-medical regimes to aim for once off it.
There are other side effects with Metformin, it can cause kidney failure and Vitamin B12 deficiency and needs to be taken with a low carbohydrate diet for it to be effective.
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