Medical Encyclopedia

Some of the side-effects of Glucophage including nausea, upset stomach and diarrhea normally occur within the first weeks of the therapy. The onset of your Glucophage therapy may also be accompanied by a loss of appetite, weight loss, a specific metallic taste in your mouth. About one third of the patients complain of these problems after they embark on taking Glucophage. You should know that these side-effects are temporary and will most likely disappear after you have taken Glucophage for some time and your body has adjusted to it. In this situation endocrinologists advise to take Glucophage with meals as it can reduce these side-effects. But in case the mentioned side-effects do not subside with time, you need talk to your doctor about them because it can be a result of too high a dose or incompatibility of this medicine with your course of medical treatment. Then, you need a dose adjustment or special tests to determine whether you can safely take Glucophage.

Glucophage has a number of serious restrictions on its use. You may not use Glucophage if you have any of the conditions which usually accompany diabetes and which we will look at further.

So, you may not take Glucophage if you have developed such diabetic complications as any sort of kidney disease bringing about the reduced kidney function (which may have even preceded the onset of diabetes), or if you happen to be liable to the state of ketoacidosis which should be treated with insulin.

Glucophage is used to treat diabetes type II, or insulin-independent diabetes. Diabetes type II is essentially different from diabetes type I in the fact that the medical problem is usually not connected with the production of insulin by the pancreas, though sometimes it may be, but with the response of the cells to the insulin the body produces. In this context Glucophage is worked out as a medicine aimed at stimulating the body to react adequately to the insulin it produces. Basically, there are two types of Glucophage: Glucophage (metformin hydrochloride tablets) and Glucophage XR (metformin hydrochloride extended release tablets). Both types have the same purpose to lower the amount of glucose in the blood by limiting its absorption and to stimulate your body to respond well to its own insulin without increasing the level of insulin production. In this respect the specific feature of Glucophage XR is that it works longer in the body.

The interaction of Glucophage with other medications can exert an impact on both the way other medications work in your body and the way Glucophage functions. That is why it is of vital importance to check it up with your diabetes specialist when combining Glucophage with any other medications, especially any of the following:

- medicines to treat asthma,
- medicines to treat colds,
- medicines to treat allergies,
- hormones and birth control pills,
- steroids such as prednisone,
- major tranquilizers such as chlorpromazine,
- thyroid medicines,
- anti-tuberculosis medicines such as isoniazid,
- water pills (diuretics) such as hydrochlorothiazide,
- heart medications such as nifedipine and verapamil and some other medications.