Are you here to find out whether Metformin can lead to Vitamin B12 deficiency.
Well, it does! At the end of the video I'll show you four tips on
how to prevent B12 deficiency if you're on Metformin. Coming up!
Firstly, let's find out how Metformin works and what it does. Insulin is a hormone produced by
your pancreas and it moves the sugar from your blood like after a meal into cells
where they can be used as energy. You can think of insulin as a key helping glucose into
various cells. ow what happens in diabetes is your body fat cells, liver cells
and muscle cells do not respond well to Insulin. This is called insulin
resistance. Your pancreas ends up producing more insulin to try to push sugar into your cells,
but it reaches a point when it can't keep up and there's too much sugar in your bloodstream.
Metformin reduces insulin resistance, thus helping sugar move into the cells. That's why you want
to take Metformin with your meals. This also reduces side effects from Metformin. Metformin
also reduces the amount of sugar produced by the liver. Did you know that the liver produces sugar?
The problem is if you're a diabetic the liver ends up producing more sugar than you need because of
insulin resistance. If you take Metformin the production of glucose is reduced in your liver
resulting in lower sugar levels in your blood. The third way metformin helps is it decreases
intestinal absorption of glucose. If you eat a meal food passes through your digestive system to
your intestines, therefore, after meal your blood sugar level rises. Metformin delays the absorption
of glucose during digestion. And if you're finding value in this video don't forget to like,
comment and share and click on that notification bell and hit the subscribe button as well . For
the most part Metformin is fairly well tolerated, however, it does have some side effects especially
when you're starting off with the drug. And if you want to learn more about the
side effects of Metformin and how to avoid them click on this link above.
Now what can happen if you have been on Metformin for many months or years.
Metformin can cause Vitamin B1212 deficiency. Low levels of Vitamin B12 have been seen as early
as three to four months after starting metformin and in other cases they have been seen after five
to ten years of treatment. In a cross-sectional study looking at this up to one-third of patients
on Metformin were B12 deficient. What are the symptoms of b12 deficiency? If you do have B12
deficiency it can affect your blood count and in most severe cases it can affect your brain
as well as your nerve cells. A low blood count can affect different blood cells. If your red
blood count is affected you become anemic. Your Doctor might say your hemoglobin is low. This can
also cause different symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath or feeling lightheaded.
If your white cell count is affected and decreased you're at an increased risk of
an infection. Lastly, if your platelets are affected you are at an increased risk for bleeding
and bruising. What are the symptoms if your brain and nerve cells are affected.
If you become B12 deficient the protective covering called myelin around your nerve fibers
are damaged resulting in different symptoms such as numbness and tingling of your feet or
hands. This is called neuropathy. You might even have trouble walking, your mood can be affected
presenting as irritability or depression, memory can be affected presenting with forgetfulness,
slowing off your cognition and in some cases even as Dementia. That is why B12 levels are always
checked if you're being worked up for dementia. If you're interested to see if there's a link between
Metformin and Dementia click on the link above. Here are four tips to prevent B12 deficiency. Tip
number one: make sure you're getting it from your diet.Some good resources are in animal products
including fish, meat, poultry, eggs, milk and milk products. Vitamin B12 is generally not present
in plant foods, but a good resource are fortified breakfast cereals. Tip number two:
Calcium supplementations seems to reduce this effect of Metformin. The study which you're
seeing right here in Diabetes Care showed that increased intake of calcium reversed
Vitamin B12 malabsorption of Metformin. The dose they used was 1.2 grams of calcium given daily.
Tip number three: If B12 deficiency is severe and I'm talking about severe nerve damage
caused by Metformin then discontinue Metformin and talk to your Doctor about an alternative
way of managing your diabetes. Progression of nerve damage can be stopped with an adequate
B12 supplementation, however, the nerve damage for the most part cannot be reversed.
Neurological and psychiatric symptoms can improve over several months. Tip number four: in milder to
moderate cases B12 can be replaced with thousand to two thousand micrograms of Cyanocobalamin.This
is given daily and your doctor can follow up by checking your blood level for B12.In severe cases
your Doctor might opt to replace the Vitamin B12 in the form of an injection. Some Doctors might
start off with the injectable form of Vitamin B12 and later on switch to oral supplementation.
Here's a link to a video discussing when you should not take Vitamin um where you should
not take Metformin. Question of the Day? If you're on Metformin, did your Doctor check your B12 level
and if you're interested in a video looking at B12 deficiency in more detail type YES in the comments
below. And if you're interested in more videos click right here or click right here click right
here or click here right here Think your Health and have a good day! Not good try again try again
it's cold think your health think your health think your health
ah my hand is always hurting why is my hand hurting it's so cold
think you health and have a good day