Question:

My husband is 51 years old. About one year ago he had a blood sugar starting around 130. He took a medicine (avendement pills). Around one month later the blood sugar is high to 150 to 200, of course with diet. It`s risk what the next step I can do. I usualy ask his doctor.

Answer:

Different things can affect blood sugar levels in diabetes: diet, physical activity, stress, illness, how long a person has had diabetes, the type of diabetes, degree of insulin resistance, to name a few. Avandamet is a medication that helps lower high blood sugar levels; it is a combination of two medications, Avandia and metformin. The Avandia portion of the medication targets insulin resistance and can take 4 wks or more to lower blood sugars. If blood sugars do not begin to go down, your doctor may look at the dosage. Metformin is a medicine that is a slight insulin sensitizer and also decrease glucose that can “leak” from a patient’s liver. Other moral medications are now available and depending on the glucoses, may enhance the control in combination.

Keeping careful records of daily blood sugar levels, what was eaten and how much (specifically carbohydrate foods), and physical activity can give you and your doctor clues as to what may be causing the increase in blood sugars. Often, the elevation in blood glucose occurs over many years unbeknownst to the patient. It also is a progressive disease meaning glucose control often becomes more difficult the longer a patient has diabetes.

If your doctor evaluates the diet, together with medication compliance and optimum dosage and determines that the blood glucose is still too high on oral medications, it may imply that your husband’s pancreas has all but quit producing his own insulin. At that point, he may require insulin as part of the overall strategy.

It would be a good idea to call your doctor with your blood sugar results and see what he/she advises. Hopefully, he/she will refer you to diabetes education and medical nutrition therapy to help optimize the care of the diabetes.

For more information:

Go to the Quality Health Care and You – Diabetes health topic.