Metformin: Nearly 4 Weeks and Counting ...

[Schenks]

Ok, so nearly four weeks or so since starting Metformin and I feel peculiarly liberated from the terrible cravings and urges that were driving me both to the fridge and to despair. Bear with me whilst I explain what I mean by cravings and urges.

These were not urges to nosh that I could control with willpower and the recidivistic deviltries of slimming clubs that keep them permanently in profit. And I've done all of them ; SW, WW, SS and Auntie Tom's Cobbley and all ... lost from one to three stones each time, and returned on the elastic tether to attempt to lose the greater amount I have inevitably put on thereafter.

There was something else going on here. Such as buying a packet of KitKats ‘for the fridge’ (never asked it if it wanted them, mind) behind the whispered belief that they’d stay there until wanted for an occasional treat with a cuppa. Ha ha. When I found myself watching myself going back to the fridge again and again and finishing a whole packet bar the one my husband had managed to grab, and wondering why the hell I simply could not stop, or having bread and butter, for heaven’s sake, after a full meal – without being able to stop myself (as though under an Imperius curse), the sense of perplexity and hopelessness felt like I was falling slowly into a black hole. And one shaped like my mouth, at that.

And fat? Fat? My folds were developing folds. The chin beneath my chin began to look startlingly like I’d had one too many body lifts. The crease from chin to chest was beginning to look as though my vulva had been dragged up under there! (At least looked like it had had a Hollywood; small mercies, very small mercies.)

So when the endo, the petite, cat-like, science-orientated but intuitive Dr B, suggested Metformin, I agreed.

Spare me, any of you who would send dire warnings (with concern, perhaps, but without research references), about heart, kidney or liver failure that Metformin causes. It doesn’t unless there are underlying problems that are compounded by taking it. Lactic acidosis is also very rare and my GP is sufficiently sharp to be watching my currently monthly blood tests, so please, spare me the doom-laden prophecies.

Metformin was prescribed for what the endo saw as possibly being insulin resistance brought about by tiredness driving me to seek out sugars. And yes, there are tests for insulin resistance, but they are expensive and undertaken with reluctance by most surgeries if, like me, the patient doesn't really exhibit most of the symptoms for insulin resistance. I have a fat belly, yes, but that’s easy to put down to poor diet – which I do not have overall except for the terrible urges and cravings that saw me adding crap to my dietary intake. But for the most part doctors look at the diet and what symptoms it may cause as opposed to what symptoms might be driving the diet …

It took a leap of intuition, in my estimation, for Dr B to not only HEAR what I was trying to tell her, but to connect that with my potential for having insulin resistance – and to prescribe a low dose of Metformin. And lo and behold, for me, it’s working. This drug has transformed my life in a specific way. It has removed the craving and calmed the urges. As a result it has given me sufficient space to begin to bring under control the resultant habits formed and, more importantly, to unmask the real underlying cause, but one that could not be attended to unless the developing insulin resistance was controlled.

Chicken and egg scenario. What came first – the tiredness driving the urges which over time became a more perpetual hypoglycaemic state that drove the cravings? Or the cravings which caused hypoglycaemic swings and exacerbated the hypothyroid-induced tiredness? In the end it mattered little – I could not control either. And it seems Dr B was onto something. Because I am left feeling the kind of tiredness I can now identify as resulting from under-medication. And that we can address.

So, I write this for the information of anyone who might be able to identify with my experience. I am not suggesting Metformin as any kind of wonder drug, nor that tiredness that we thyroid patients suffer is caused by hypoglycaemia (although we all know that that can come into it). But I had a situation where the symptoms were so convoluted that the Catch 22 had to be broken somewhere. As it happens, this particular catch has been broken, it seems, by this drug. And once I manage to get much of this fat off me by and large the insulin resistance should have been resolved and I will be able to discard the Metformin.

God help me; I now have to try and persuade the feline Dr B to loosen her commitment to the TSH level neurosis (of course mine’s low – I’m on NDT). However, Metformin might help me here also; it causes low TSH!

[Clutter]

Schenks, I'm glad the Metformin is helping you and if it helps Dr. B get over her low TSH fixation that will be a bonus.

[Schenks in reply to Clutter]

Thanks, Clutter!

[Veggiequeen]

It is great that the meds are helping you. I also have a similar problem. It happens when my Thyroid is under medicated. It is not like a craving for a doughnut. I used to come home with many bags of sweeties and cakes. My husband notices the difference. I am on t3 so luckily for me easy enough to tweak when it happens. I am a cake and sweet person but not normally to this extent. I also read somewhere that blood sugar levels are similar to TSH. In that some people operate better at a higher level than a GP would recommend. I am not advocating that and I know that you can go hypo if it gets too high but I find that I feel better when my blood sugar is slightly above what is recommended. A low carb diet sorted out a lot of things for me. I would love to try the Newcastle diet. It is extreme but supposed to be effective.

Carrot