The doctor just put my mom on Glucophage XR (500 mg) per my request. She is also on Glyburide (2.5 mg), which we plan to ween her off of.

She has been on Glucophage XR for about 4 days, and we have seen no change in her blood sugar. Does it take awhile before Glucophage XR "kicks" in?

Or maybe her dose is not enough for us to see results? The doctor gave us no direction pertaining to this medication. She didn't even tell us when she should take it. What time of day do most of you take Glucophage XR?

It will take about 2 weeks. If I were her, I would take it with dinner. I am not a doctor....you really should call and talk to the person who prescribed this drug and ask these questions.

If you Mom low carbs, she should see great results! HTH

My mom has been LC-ing it, and the doctor has been surprised. 3 months ago my mom's HA1C was 12+ (when she was diagnosed), and I put her on LC immediately. Last check-up she was at 6.2. The doctor was shocked at my mom's excellent results.

When diagnosed, the doctor put my mom on Glyburide, and at last check-up, I asked the doctor to switch my mom to Glucophage XR. The doctor agreed, and I am hoping it will work, at least, as well as the Glyburide.

Have others found that it takes awhile before Glucophage kicks in?

Thanks,
Concerned Daughter

It does seem to take a week or two to see the full benefit of the medication, although it will start to work with the first dose.
When I was taking Glucophage XR, my doctor advised me to take it with dinner, most likely to help alleviate the dawn phenomenon (higher blood sugars fasting in the morning than at bedtime). 500 mg. is a fairly low dose, though, so if her blood sugars are still elevated in two weeks you might consider a call to the doctor to see if a higher doseage might be in order.
Walking after meals or at least for 20-30 minutes once a day is also a good additional way to help bring blood sugars down farther.

It took a couple of months and an increase in my glucophage (Metformin) to normalize my HA1C. It's now 6.0. I slowly increased the amount and have settled at 1500 mg. As I lose weight and get back to a more strict low carb plan, I hope to decrease the metformin.

Gracie -

Keep in mind the Glyburide and Metformin do two completely different things.

The Glyburide makes your pancreas produce more insulin -- which clobbers the beta cells.

Metformin increases your body's ability to utilize the insulin.

By the way, both of these doses are very minimal.

If your Mom's H1Ac is 6.2 it means her blood sugars are in the 120-130 range. When is it the highest -- how often do you check?

Usually, the first reading in the morning is the worst.

This information will help us give you advice.

-louis

We now check her blood sugar levels in the morning per doctor's instruction. Her evening blood sugars were below 140 on a regular basis, so the doctor told us we didn't have to check those any longer. (My mom is not the best patient when it comes to taking her readings, and this helped a lot.)

We've worked hard to get the sugars low in the morning. If my mom doesn't eat after 7pm, her sugars in the morning are usually pretty good - 90s to low 100s.

We are moving her off the glyburide for the reason you stated. She started the glucophage 1.5 weeks ago, and it seems to have started working. The doctor wasn't too hip on switching my mom to glucophage, but I insisted. I am hoping it will work as well as the glyburide.

My mom was diagnosed in June. I think she has made fairly good progress. We started L-Carbing it immediately. That seems to have made the largest impact on her control.

Thanks.