About 17 million American’s have diabetes and approximately one third of them don’t even know it. Diabetes is a disease that is a result of your body’s inability to utilize glucose efficiently or possibly not able to utilize it at all. The results of leaving your diabetes untreated can be devastating. Blindness, heart attacks, strokes, amputations are all possible consequences of diabetes and especially leaving it untreated. One of the most popular medications for the treatment of patients with diabetes is Glucophage (Metformin). This medication also now comes in combination with other products such as sulfonylureas (Glucovance, Metaglip) and the glitazones (Avandamet, Actos plus Met).

Metformin has been used for many years around the world and is a very effective medication for diabetes. Some of the more common side effects include nausea, vomiting, bloating, diarrhea, and loss of appetite. These symptoms generally occur in one out of three patients. But one of the lesser known and yet very important side effects of Metformin is how it depletes some of your essential nutrients and increases your odds of having side effects due to nutrient depletion. The nutrients of most concern are Vitamin B-12, folic acid, and Coenzyme Q-10.

If you happen to be taking one of the products that has Metformin as well as a sulfonylurea included (Glucovance, Metaglip), you should increase your risk of reducing your coenzyme Q-10 levels even further, because the sulfonylurea class of drugs is known to interfere with the metabolism of Coenzyme Q-10.

To learn more about what symptoms you may experience as a result of defeciencies in folic acid, Vitamin B-12 and Coenzyme Q-10 please go to: http://www.essential-nutrients.net/vitamins_minerals.htm

You can have your physician monitor your essential nutrient status or you can simply take a supplement that can replenish your body’s supply of these nutrients. To learn more about your options please go to: http://www.essential-nutrients.net/diabetesessentialnutrients.htm

To learn more about diabetes and the importance of controlling your blood sugar please go to: http://www.essential-nutrients.net/diabetes.htm

Dr. Ford has practiced general internal medicine for the past 22 years. He is a native Texan and trained at Baylor University, the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, and Scott and White in Temple. He is a Clinical Assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine. In addition to general Internal Medicine, his practice includes travel medicine, vascular disease prevention, and Integrative Medicine with nutrients.