When should you not take Metformin?
Just to avoid the undesirable effects under a metformin intake, the following contraindications should be noted. If your kidneys are not working properly, metformin should not be taken. Especially diabetics often have limited kidney function.
Your doctor will check your blood for a certain kidney value (creatinine) and thus be able to assess organ performance. If your creatinine level is above 1.2 mg/dl, your kidney function is too low to justify treatment with metformin. The risk of lactate acidosis would be too high.
However, for laboratory reasons, blood values always have a relative value. You should therefore trust the individual assessment by your treating physician. If pregnancy is desired and diabetes is present, the patient should not be treated with metformin.
Instead, it is advisable to adjust the blood glucose level with the help of insulin syringes, whereby the attending physician must check the values regularly. Treatment with metformin should also be avoided during pregnancy and therapy with insulin injections should be continued until the baby has been weaned. Only then is it possible to change the therapy to metformin without harming the child.
If dietary measures fail in overweight adult patients and diabetes mellitus type 2 is already present, metformin can help to reduce the risk of diabetes-related complications. Metformin is the treatment of choice in these cases. Taking metformin does not help lose weight in the classic sense, but interferes with the body’s sugar balance. In order to lose weight, a change in diet and regular exercise are essential, otherwise weight gain may occur even while taking metformin.
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCO)
The combination with other blood sugar-lowering drugs (antidiabetics) can promote hypoglycemia. Other drugs may in turn increase the effect of metformin itself and make a reduction in dose necessary. These include drugs for heartburn and drugs used to treat high blood pressure (ACE inhibitors: enalapril, verapamil, captopril, ramipril, lisinopril). If you regularly take pain or rheumatism medications (diclofenac, ibuprofen, indometacin, piroxicam), the effect of metformin is increased. A reduction in dose is absolutely necessary under medical supervision to avoid the risk of lactate acidosis!
