Glucophage for a non-diabetic?

Haven't posted in a long time -- I've just been reading!  Here's a question for those of you much more informed than I am.  One of my co-worker's young adult children was recently put on glucophage.  The mother said the child was not diabetic, but that they were just trying to get the blood sugar down.  This did not make sense to me.  I thought perhaps she was confusing being diabetic with requiring insulin.  Do people without diabetes ever take glucophage?  Thanks for your help!

I am on Glucophage ( Metformin) I have prediabeties and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. If this child is a girl and menstrating she may have PCOS. One of the symptoms of PCOS is your body does not use insulin in the correct way. The cell of sugar usually has a hole for the insulin to go into. Prediabetics and PCOS don't let the insulin in, so the body produces more. If this continues it can lead to Type 2 diabeties. Glucophage can balance this out along with life style changes in eating and exercise.

Peter I think you were talking of me.

Hope this clears things up.

Post Edited By Moderator (Admin) : 10/10/2006 12:47:27 PM (GMT-6)

Hi,

I wanted to mention for most of the people here that for PCOS people, Glucophage (metformin) is a "firstline" treatment drug.  It is given to PCOS patients not so much to treat their "prediabetes" as to alleviate their PCOS symptoms.  Heres how it works.

One of the major biochemical features of polycystic ovary syndrome is insulin resistance accompanied by compensatory hyperinsulinemia (elevated fasting blood insulin levels). Please note this is NOT elevated blood glucose levels (diabetes or prediabetes) but as Flute mentioned, a condition that if untreated could lead to the disease. There is increasing data that hyperinsulinemia produces the hyperandrogenism of polycystic ovary syndrome by increasing ovarian androgen production, particularly testosterone and by decreasing the serum sex hormone binding globulin concentration. What this means is that as your insulin level becomes elavated, you start releasing hormones (mostly male hormones) associated with PCOS. As the nasty hormones reach high levels they can lead to anovulation, amenorrhea, recurrent pregnancy loss, and infertility.

As we know Metformin is a bit of a miracle drug as it decreases the amount of sugar produced by the liver, it also increases the amount of sugar absorbed by muscle cells and decreases the body's resistance to insulin and VOILA. . .

Lower blood sugar leads to a lesser need for insulin. The body then makes less insulin. Lower insulin leads to lower androgen ("male" hormone) production and thus we have a simple effective treatment for PCOS.

I hope this helps understand why Glucophage (Metformin) is routinely prescribed to PCOS patients.

  Warren

Post Edited By Moderator (Admin) : 10/10/2006 12:47:00 PM (GMT-6)