Diabetes

How much is too much

09/15/2008 12:55PM

Question:

I HAVE DIABETES AND WANT TO KNOW HOW MUCH IS TO MUCH IM ON 40 UNITS AT BREAKFAST 40 UNITS AT LUNCH 40 UNITS AT DINNER AND 50 UNITS OF A MIXTURE AT BEDTIME ALONG WITH AVANDIA AND METORMAN I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO IM GETTING UPSET AT DOCTORS

Answer:

Your message conveys a mixture of fear and anger about where you stand with diabetes, presumably type 2 diabetes. The best recommendation I can make is to channel your energies into the most constructive avenues available to you to focus on taking care of this health problem. Sometimes large doses of medications are required to control type 2 diabetes. If you are concerned about the amounts of medications, one of the best things you can do is re-evaluate whether your efforts at managing life style - dietary intake and physical activity - are really directed towards the most effective options: a certified diabetes educator may be a tremendous help to you in sorting that out. With a program and best efforts at work, it then becomes important to evaluate each of the drugs individually to see that it really makes sense for you and is helpful. If you have been on each of these for quite some time, then options might include trials of adjustments of the individual drugs or possibly getting another opinion on your individual regimen. I don't have (and cannot have over the internet) enough clinical information to make a judgement; it needs to be made by a health care provider who can really evaluate the whole picture.

Now that you're mad, try to use that energy and those efforts constructively.

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Response by:

Robert M. Cohen, MD
Associate Professor
Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism
Department of Internal Medicine
College of Medicine
University of Cincinnati