Do I really need to take 2000 mg of Metformin?

About 4 years ago, I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes.  I was not enthusiastic about embracing this diagnosis to the point of refusing to say I had diabetes but rather saying, "I am working to control my blood sugar."  At the same time I was diagnosed, so was my brother.  His response: accept it and try to deal with it.  He took the meds but used exercise and diet to try to control it.  Not a bad idea, but I'm not the exercise enthusiast so I took drugs and drastically cut back on my carbs.

But what happened was not what I expected.  My blood sugar (via A1C) when up from 6.1 to 6.3.  Examine the chart for the results of the spiraling up of my blood sugar readings

Medication	A1C	Doctor’s recommendation
None	6.1	Go on Metformin and reduce carbohydrate intake
500 mg per day	6.3	Increase Metformin dosage
1000 mg per day	6.5	Increase Metformin dosage
2000 mg per day	6.9	Change to Janumet
100 mg Sitagliptin 2000 mg Metformin	6.3	Stay on meds
Off Medication	Waiting to see	We’ll see what they say

As you can see is seems that my blood sugar was spiraling up.  My brother's sugar was doing similar things, so I was initially inclined to believe the doctors and take the medications as directed.  But I noticed something odd in my blood sugar.  The longer I fasted (beyond 8 hours) the higher by blood sugar went.  In fact while I was hospitalized for my faux heart attack, they were surprised how my blood sugar went up in the morning, such that the Air Force medic asked me if I had eaten, which I hadn't.

Then recently I had to undergo a medical examination that required me to fast.  Since my stomach wasn't doing well on the Janumet, I decided to skip most of my meds and just deal with the consequences.  But when the surgery nurse took my morning blood sugar it was 117, after being off of my meds for about 36 hours.  That's not normal blood sugar for non-diabetic people but is much lower than I expected.  

Another abnormality the bugged me was that morning following an evening where I had a scoop of ice cream, my blood sugar would often be lower in the morning than when I didn't eat a bunch of carbs before bed.  And when I asked about these peculiarities, I never got an answer that satisfied me.  

So then this idea dropped into my heart/mind.  To do a vegetable juice fast and monitor my blood sugar while going completely off my medications for blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol.  I started my fast on 1 April of this year and the results were dramatic from the point of my personal measurements of my blood sugar and my blood pressure.  My blood sugar dropped down to 115 ± for most of my testing.  I stayed on low salt V-8 vegetable juice for 3 days.  Then I added cooked vegetables for the next two days.  For days 6 & 7 I started eating cheese and meat.  Finally on the 8th day, I started eating carbs in the form of bread and fruit.  From what I have been able to tell, both my blood sugar and blood pressure have been behaving themselves.  I have pretty much gone back to my normal diet and testing my blood sugar just once or twice a day.

Today, I am suffering a sugar Jones and keep eating sweets.  Not the best choice, but we will see how things are looking after dinner.

What gets me about this whole process is none of my doctors were really listening to me.  They were sticking to the protocol.  I remember when they told be about possible causes for Type II Diabetes.  There were three.  One, my body wasn't producing enough insulin, 2 my cells had developed a resistance to insulin (this is what metformin is primarily intended to treat and what they suspect most type II diabetes sufferers. The third reason involved my liver putting out too much sugar.  I suspect that is what is happening with me.  Regardless though, they treat all three causes the same. In fact they never try to discern the cause, they just treat the symptoms.  

This new protocol applies to anyone who is "prediabetic", meaning a blood sugar of 6.1 or a morning sugar level of 125.  Once you cross this threshold, they want to get you on the medication as soon as possible, hoping to prevent any damage to one's body from excess sugar in the blood.  But I am left wondering if it is not just an excuse to get us on their medication as soon as possible so as to earn as much money as they can as soon as they can.  Now this is just my opinion, but I cannot but wonder how the criteria for treatment involves lower and lower thresholds.  I know this much, now that I am off the meds - my blood sugar looks to be almost low as it was 4 years ago and I feel a whole lot better now that I am off of the Janumet.

I also question the reasoning that caused no one to make the correlation between increased metformin and increased blood sugar levels.  I am not medically trained.  In fact I dropped out of biology in college, but I have been blessed with the ability to ask good questions.  But no one would answer me.  I would have like to have been referred to a endocrinologist but that isn't the "protocol".  They don't refer you to and endocrinologist until you need insulin injections.

There is part of me wondering if this protocol led to my brother needing insulin,  We look a lot alike and I cannot but wonder if we have some of the same things going on.  We both have issues with our EKG, we both have issues with blood sugar.  We have been treated by the same thinking, but I have chosen to take a new path.

I cannot but wonder if this "protocol" ends up creating new problems for some of us.

So what medicines are you taking that may be causing you problems?  Which medicines do you need to take.  How do you determine the answer without putting your health at risk.  Even with headaches.  you don't have one because of a lack of pain medicine, maybe it's tension, maybe it's dehydration.  

I hope my journey is helping you to question some of the solutions that have been shoved at you, so that you can see if you really need what you are taking.  I would never encourage you to just stop taking a medication without some way of verifying how the changes you are making will affect you.  

Keep seeking, keep questioning and keep trying to live a life that is both healthy and enjoyable. Don't live in fear.