Diabetes Talking » Diabetes Type » glucotrol question
glucotrol question
Question:
Since being diagnosed a couple of months ago, I’ve read everything I can get my hands on. My doc has me on Glucotrol XL and Glucphage. I understand that glucotrol makes your pancreas crank out more insulin but the Glucophage has me a bit confused. My understanding is that it keeps your liver from producing glucose. My question, and maybe it’s kinda dumb is: if the liver doesn’t make glucose, where does the stuff go that the liver uses to make glucose? Does anyone understand me?..:) BTW, I had terrible problems w/ glucophage at first but after about 2 weeks my guts seem to have settled down. Also, it didn’t really seem to help with my bg levels until I got to 1500/day…
Response:
Since being diagnosed a couple of months ago, I’ve read everything I can get my hands on. My doc has me on Glucotrol XL and Glucphage. I understand that glucotrol makes your pancreas crank out more insulin but the Glucophage has me a bit confused. My understanding is that it keeps your liver from producing glucose. My question, and maybe it’s kinda dumb is: if the liver doesn’t make glucose, where does the stuff go that the liver uses to make glucose? Does anyone understand me?..:) BTW, I had terrible problems w/ glucophage at first but after about 2 weeks my guts seem to have settled down. Also, it didn’t really seem to help with my bg levels until I got to 1500/day…
Glucophage has two main effects: 1. It reduces Insulin Resistance. That helps you control bG and has other beneficial effects, i.e. anti-heart attack for instance. The endos at Baylor claim that it has more of an effect on Insulin Resistance than the other, more commonly discussed effect (see #2 below) 2. It suppresses glucose release by the liver. One of the big problems with Type 2 diabetes is release of glucose at inappropriate times. The Insulin Resistance-fouled up liver has problems interpreting signals from the Insulin Resistance-fouled up pancreas and one result is liver dumps at the wrong times. 3. The liver manufactures glucose from raw materials, fatty acids I think. Glucophage AFAIK does not interfere with that mechanism. It suppresses the release of glucose-previously-stored-in-the-liver as glycogen. 4. If you go roaming around the medical sites, you will sooner or later see remarks to the effect that the most common effective dose is about 1500 mg per day. Some folks get by with lesser doses (I know a lady who recently jumped to 1000 mg after several years of success with 500 mg). Many posters to the newsgroups have remarked on their need for 1500 mg to get best results. Regards Old Al