Dearest Readers, do not use this as an excuse not to take your medicines. Please….

First of all, ALL medications can have side effects natural medicines, too, remember. Many foods themselves have what you can call “side effects”. Grapefruit for example, is a healthy fruit, everyone can generally agree. Did you know that grapefruit is a natural diuretic meaning that it can make you urinate? You can call that a side effect. I am sure if your doctor gave you a pill for something else and then said, by the way this can make you urinate, you would call it a side effect then, right? So let’s just be honest and admit that when it comes to pills, we are generally more critical and suspicious. And that is okay healthy skepticism will probably keep us all out of some trouble from time to time! The main goal for you and your doctor is to find a medication that gives you the desired effects/benefits with minimal undesired bad effects. As they say, sometimes you have to take the good with the bad.

That being said, I am perfectly comfortable saying, yes, many diabetes medications do have possible side effects. Not everyone has problems and many people do not have ANY problems with the medicines. Some people do, and those are the ones you hear about. Upset stomach is a common side effect, as well as blood sugars going too low, but this often has to do with the dose you are taking. You will hear about possible liver disease with some of the medications, and this is true, but it happens uncommonly. If you are at risk for some particular side effects, which your doctor should know ahead of time, he/she will monitor you more carefully with blood tests or will simply chose a different medication. For example, if you have certain liver problems, there are several medications you should not take, and your doctor will know to avoid them. We thankfully have several options for treating diabetes, so the vast majority of individuals will be able to find a regimen that works for them without undue harm. There are many factors to consider and, for each individual, the weight that each factor holds may be different from someone else.

Remember that these medications are to HELP YOU live longer and healthier, so if your chances of a serious side effect are very small, but the medicine lowers your chance of a heart attack, think carefully before you ignore those pills. If your risk of a serious side effect is higher for some reason, work carefully with your doctor to find another way of treating your diabetes without harm to yourself. We have options, let’s exercise the right to examine them!

Until next time, stay safe and healthy everyone

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 11:24 am and is filed under SugarStats Status.
Tags: Diabetes Medication, Diabetes side effects, medication side effects in diabetics.
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