November 24, 2002
Pills for Diabetes
Question from London, United Kingdom:
I am a 57 year old retired male, diagnosed with type 2 diabetes a year ago, treated with metformin and Prandin (repaglinide), and I take an ACE inhibitor for high blood pressure. My problem is I experience stomach cramping and foul smelling gas, but having discussed this with my doctor, I was sure this was not connected with the medication. However, my 80 year old father, has just been diagnosed with type 2 also, has been prescribed metformin, and called me to complain of copious foul smelling gas. This cannot be a coincidence, but I can find no reference on the web. Can you help please with this (increasingly) major problem?
Answer:
Metformin is well known to have gastrointestinal side effects. They are more pronounced with initiation of the drug and tend to become less of an issue over time.
Very often, when patients run into this problem, we have to start the drug off slowly by administering a rather low dose and work up to the desired effect. In your case, you are on a very large dose of metformin. You may want to speak with physician about decreasing the metformin dose to avoid the side effects.
JTL
