My mother had been previously taking one Amaryl (2 mg) at breakfast, one Actos (30 mg) at lunch and
one Metformin HCl (850 mg) for dinner. She also is on heart medication, high blood pressure
medication and cholesterol lowering medication. When she monitors her blood sugar throughout the
day, she on average is in the 130's since the beginning of 2001. Her endocrinologist retired and she
just went last week to a new one. The new doctor told her to stop taking the Amaryl and Metformin
and start taking two Glucovance (2.5 mg/ 500mg) at breakfast and one at dinner. All of a sudden her
blood sugar in the morning was 73-83 and between 137-174 before dinner. The problem is that she was
feeling light headed (low blood sugar?), saw "circles in front of her eyes", slight stomach ache and
she started belching. When her sugar in the morning was at this level she would eat a little more to
try and raise it.
Over the last week after talking to the doctor, she has been reduced to one Glucovance at dinner and
one in the morning to none in the morning. Her blood sugar in the morning during that time is
between 78 - 97, but still high at dinner 184 - 244. She felt OK this morning but after eating lunch
she felt a little light headed and saw "circles". Unfortunately this doctor is unlike her previous
one who you could talk to.
I spoke to our family doctor, who is an internist; he said that her test results taken last month
for Hemoglobin A1C was about 8 which means that her medication is not maintaining here sugar levels
properly. He said that the light headedness could be due to the fact that she normally did not have
blood sugar levels in the 80 range and the upset stomach could be due to an imbalance in her
chemistry. He gave her some medication for the stomach which she is to take for 7 days.
Is it possible that even though the glyburide in the Glucovance is in the same medication class of
compounds as Amaryl that she might have a side effect to it? Has anyone had similar problems with
the Glucovance? How does Glucovance, Amaryl and Actos work? Are they short and/or long acting, etc?
Sorry to go on for so long but I am looking to get educated.
Thanks ahead of time for any information that you can provide.
Peter