BICIPHAGE-500 Metformin HCL 500mgｘ20tabs
What is metformin?
Metformin is an oral diabetes medicine that helps control blood sugar levels.
Metformin is used together with diet and exercise to improve blood sugar control in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Metformin is sometimes used together with insulin or other medications, but it is not for treating type 1 diabetes.
Important Information
You should not use metformin if you have severe kidney disease, metabolic acidosis, or diabetic ketoacidosis (call your doctor for treatment).
If you need to have any type of x-ray or CT scan using a dye that is injected into your veins, you will need to temporarily stop taking metformin.
Though extremely rare, you may develop lactic acidosis, a dangerous build-up of lactic acid in your blood. Call your doctor or get emergency medical help if you have unusual muscle pain, trouble breathing, stomach pain, dizziness, feeling cold, or feeling very weak or tired.
Before taking this medicine
You should not use metformin if you are allergic to it, or if you have:
• severe kidney disease; or
• metabolic acidosis or diabetic ketoacidosis (call your doctor for treatment).
If you need to have surgery or any type of x-ray or CT scan using a dye that is injected into your veins, you will need to temporarily stop taking metformin. Be sure your caregivers know ahead of time that you are using this medication.
Tell your doctor if you have ever had:
• kidney disease (your kidney function may need to be checked before you take this medicine);
• high ketone levels in your blood or urine;
• heart disease, congestive heart failure;
• liver disease; or
• if you also use insulin, or other oral diabetes medications.
You may develop lactic acidosis, a dangerous build-up of lactic acid in your blood. This may be more likely if you have other medical conditions, a severe infection, chronic alcoholism, or if you are 65 or older. Ask your doctor about your risk.
Follow your doctor’s instructions about using this medicine if you are pregnant. Blood sugar control is very important during pregnancy, and your dose needs may be different during each trimester of pregnancy. Tell your doctor if you become pregnant while taking metformin.
Metformin may stimulate ovulation in a premenopausal woman and may increase the risk of unintended pregnancy. Talk to your doctor about your risk.
You should not breast-feed while using this medicine.
Metformin should not be given to a child younger than 10 years old. Some forms of metformin are not approved for use by anyone younger than 18 years old.
How should I take metformin?
Take metformin exactly as prescribed by your doctor. Follow all directions on your prescription label and read all medication guides or instruction sheets. Your doctor may occasionally change your dose. Use the medicine exactly as directed.
Take metformin with a meal, unless your doctor tells you otherwise. Some forms of metformin are taken only once daily with the evening meal. Follow your doctor’s instructions.
Do not crush, chew, or break an extended-release tablet. Swallow it whole.
Measure liquid medicine carefully. Use the dosing syringe provided, or use a medicine dose-measuring device (not a kitchen spoon).
Some tablets are made with a shell that is not absorbed or melted in the body. Part of this shell may appear in your stool. This is normal and will not make the medicine less effective.
Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) can happen to everyone who has diabetes. Symptoms include headache, hunger, sweating, irritability, dizziness, nausea, fast heart rate, and feeling anxious or shaky. To quickly treat low blood sugar, always keep a fast-acting source of sugar with you such as fruit juice, hard candy, crackers, raisins, or non-diet soda.
Your doctor can prescribe a glucagon emergency injection kit to use in case you have severe hypoglycemia and cannot eat or drink. Be sure your family and close friends know how to give you this injection in an emergency.
Blood sugar levels can be affected by stress, illness, surgery, exercise, alcohol use, or skipping meals. Ask your doctor before changing your dose or medication schedule.
Metformin is only part of a complete treatment program that may also include diet, exercise, weight control, regular blood sugar testing, and special medical care. Follow your doctor’s instructions very closely.
Your doctor may have you take extra vitamin B12 while you are taking this medicine. Take only the amount of vitamin B12 that your doctor has prescribed.
Usual Adult Dose for Diabetes Type 2
Immediate-release:
Initial dose: 500 mg orally twice a day or 850 mg orally once a day
Dose titration: Increase in 500 mg weekly increments or 850 mg every 2
weeks as tolerated
Maintenance dose: 2000 mg daily in divided doses
Maximum dose: 2550 mg/day
Extended-release:
Initial dose: 500 to 1000 mg orally once a day
Dose titration: Increase in 500 mg weekly increments as tolerated
Maximum dose: 2000 mg
Switching to Extended-Release:
-Patients receiving immediate-release may switch to extended-release once a day at same total daily dose (up to 2000 mg/day)
Comments:
-Metformin, if not contraindicated, should be considered first line-therapy for the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
-Immediate-release: Take in divided doses 2 to 3 times a day with meals;
titrate slowly to minimize gastrointestinal side effects. In general, significant responses are not observed with doses less than 1500 mg/day and doses above 2000 mg are generally associated with little additional efficacy and poorer tolerability.
-Extended-release : Take with the evening meal; if glycemic control is not achieved with ER 2000 mg once a day, may consider splitting daily dose to ER 1000 mg twice a day; if glycemic control is still not achieve, consider switch to immediate-release product.
Use: To improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus as an adjunct to diet and exercise.
Metformin May Promote Anti-Aging
Metformin, a drug that has been widely used to treat diabetes, is being tested on humans for it’s anti-aging properties.
Researchers believe that Metformin, a drug that already has been widely used to treat diabetes for about 60 years, may have a large number of additional health benefits. It is now being tested on humans for its anti-aging properties. Nir Barzilai, MD, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, is currently engaged in a clinical study and assessment of metformin for endurance, to analyze how it may impact metabolic and cellular processes correlated with the development of age-related conditions. These conditions include inflammation, oxidative, diminished autophagy, cell senescence and apoptosis. Experts are reviewing whether metrformin use can possibly improve gene expression profile in older adults with damaged glucose tolerance to that of younger individuals.
“We want to change the habit of treating very accumulating diseases with accumulating therapy for the elderly.” Barzilia told Medical Economics. “We would rather prevent aging and by that prevent the onset of multiple diseases,” she added. According to lead researcher, Craig Currey of Cardiff University, metformin has already been demonstrated to offer benefits against cancer and cardiovascular disease . A 2014 research study has already divulged that patients cured with metroformin, rather than sulphonylureas, had longer lifespans, and recommended that metroformin may also be an aid to patients without diabetes.
Metformin increases the number of oxygen molecules released into a cell, which appears to boost robustness and longevity. It works by suppressing glucose production in the liver and increasing insulin sensitivity, therefore benefitting patients with type 2 diabetes.
To analyze the advantage outside treatment of diabetes, the Food and Drug Administration has green-lighted a clinical trial in the U.S. for what has become known as the Targeting Aging with Metformin (TAME) study. The researchers will give Metformin to about 3,000 elderly people, who either suffer from or have a high risk of developing diseases like cancer, heart disease, or cognitive problems. They’ll then track them over six years to see if the drug prevents aging-related diseases that were not pre-exsisting. They’ll also be looking to see if it prevents diabetes and lengthens their life spans. It will be a double-blind, placebo-controlled study
Metformin has already been demonstrated to slow the aging process in certain microbes and mammals. Barzilai expects that it will prove useful in stemming aging and disease breakthrough or advancement, and that the FDA will approve it for that indication and even better treatments can be discovered
