Metformin can increase sodium excretion, never happened to me, but we are all different.
It normally causes loose stools and gas.
Now what I am wondering about is why as a T1DM you are on a T2DM drug. Are you using insulin as your honeymoon period has ended?
I’m puzzled by your low sodium and low renin as one of the causes of low renin is a high sodium diet. How’s your blood pressure, renin helps control blood pressure, so low renin goes hand in hand with hypertension.
I wish I could be more helpful, Quadgirl.
Here’s your post broken up a bit.
Sorry to sort of piggyback here, but a question emerges for me. I am a LADA t1d, but only had a brief 1 year or less honeymoon. So I have been on Metformin for the full five years since my diagnosis. Immediately, within the first year, I was in the emergency room with very low sodium, they said, within a point or two of dying, and I always know what that feeling is, and tried to mediate it myself, the first couple of years with Pedialyte, of all things.
I’m sure you know how much that added to the challenge of managing carbs! Anyway, last August I had a major crash and a terrible doctor that did not even try to do anything to help when I went twice without him even offering anything, and when I refuse to come back again after he ran a test from the same day, and probably was stunned by how low my sodium was because I had told him the previous number was supported by a lot of Pedialyte because I thought I would die before I got to my appointment.
Anyway, he then prescribed 1 mg of sodium for me to take twice a day, once with supper once with breakfast. So I’ve been taking these 2 mg of sodium for the last year and still have had some bad crashes. They finally did some other bloodwork and found my renin level is also low. And with a positive ANA sent me to a rheumatologist who is sending me back to the endocrinologist to deal with that and low energy beyond what I’ve ever ever experienced, yeah I’m hanging on to doing my exercise because I’ve been exercising the same for 40 years.
So while I wait now to get in to nephrology referral about this, I wonder if something with Metformin could be where I’m losing my sodium. I know it sounds like a longshot but it’s taking me all these years to get anyone to listen to me and to try to delve deeper. So I’m sorry this got very long and probably way too detailed, but does anybody have any idea if that could have anything to do with my sodium?
And sorry, if it grosses people out, it doesn’t gross me out one bit, but my poops ever since being diagnosed, and at the same time, put on Metformin, Have always been small little poop balls not very hydrated.
Lately because of some great articles, I’ve read by Dan Heller, I’ve tried to up my carb intake because they had me on 45 carbs per meal for three meals a day, and as my exercise gets harder and harder, I realize I need my glycogen stores to be filled.
I exercise for about a very fast 4.5 mile walk about 3-4 days a week and weight train two days a week. But this last year I’ve had a hard time maintaining the exercise because every walk day my fatigue is so much that I can’t even wash the dishes much less do anything else. So basically, I’m not living a very wonderful life but I love my exercise and I set up my exercise habits in my 20s so that I would live long and prosper.
Who knew I would get diagnosed with diabetes in my late 50s. Anyway, I am well hydrated and have always planned for my hydration for the last 40 years as well because I’ve always been interested in exercise physiology. Despite the hydration, that is how my poops have been, and I even asked the nurse practitioner when they were deciding if I had to have a colonoscopy, and I didn’t I got to mail it in, but she had a poster on the wall that looked like my poops and said that is dehydrated.
And I said well, I get probably 10 8 ounce glasses of water a day. So when I have changed my carbs and added mashed potatoes or Half a baked potato, or a whole apple with my lunch instead of a half, and lately, even adding oatmeal at breakfast, as I try to raise my carbs in a gentle way, my poop sometimes Is now more hydrated, but I would just call them fluffy large poop balls, rather than small, dehydrated ones.
If anyone wants to comment on any of this, I would be grateful. But I’m particularly wondering if Metformin could contribute to any of this, and if it would be worth me stopping for a bit.
And regarding the renin level above, that was the first time, I actually got to see a real endocrinologist, and I had to beg and insist on that appointment because of how bad I was feeling and my sodium was very low as well. So I will only be seeing him for the second time at the end of this month to try to get him to deal with the fatigue stuff as well, but I know I’ve got to get this sodium issue solved because it has been with me this whole time.
The problem was I thought diabetes was this hard to manage and that if I worked very hard on my diet and exercise and also my A1c that I would be healed. So believe it or not at the end of August, I had a 5.2 A1c. The best I’ve ever had but I’ve been under six for the last four years because I have been diligent on the diet. And then it occurred to me that it’s not diabetes.
That’s so hard. It’s being sick and tired from whatever else is going on. I feel like I can do diabetes but I am not living. So anyway, he put me on fludrocortisone At the end of our appointment in August and just half a tablet and said it would be very unlikely for my renin to also be low and I told him I would be the unicorn and I was. I was having a hard enough time with the half a pill because it hypes me up so much that I’m not myself and I’m not really feeling like I’m living I’m just real busy. But when he got the test results, he told me to take the whole pill once a day, which I believe was .1 g, but I can’t remember offhand. Anyway, I have slowly withdrawn and taken myself off of it and actually have thought it’s a better compromise to just be me right now because I don’t do well with some medication‘s.
So there’s all that commotion in my health and I haven’t reached out because I usually don’t feel well enough to write. Now I’ve written a book. But this just is something to consider I think because it’s one thing I have not even looked into. If you have any suggestions on anything, I would be appreciative!
They’re still working on getting me into nephrology, which I think will be the proper place for the sodium management but somehow it’s been like five weeks and I emailed the doctor about once a week through my chart and they’re still not successful. Alrighty sorry to everybody that this was long and I hope that the people that really resent it just quit reading it and left but if anyone has help, I am grateful! And I’m just grateful that this forum is here.