Can you stop Metformin if you exercise?
/Metformin (also known as Glucophage) is the number 1 selling medication for treating Type II Diabetes.
Type II Diabetes is the most common type of diabetes worldwide, and it's growing at an alarming rate globally.
This type of Diabetes is often referred to as: "adult onset diabetes" or "lifestyle acquired diabetes".
Unlike Type I Diabetes, when your Pancreas is not capable of producing enough Insulin to keep your blood sugar under control, Type II Diabetes is caused by high levels of blood sugar from the diet and not enough exercise to use up all that sugar.
Eventually, your liver and muscles start to "ignore" the Insulin being produced, and you need to take medication (Metformin) to bring your blood sugar back down.
Of course Metformin has numerous side effects (just like all medication), including muscle loss.
The University of Copenhagen did this metastudy (review of multiple studies) relating to Metformin, and whether you "must" take it if you have high blood sugar.
They reviewed 20 studies involving almost 6800 patients with Type II Diabetes. These studies compared Metformin to diet & exercise interventions, as well as to other medication.
What they discovered is the following:
When compared to "standard" diet and exercise, Metformin significantly reduced the effects of Type II Diabetes
When compared to an "intensive diet-and-exercise program", Metformin did not "provide any added benefit in reducing or delaying development of diabetes".
"Combining Metformin with intensive diet and exercise (compared to intensive diet and exercise alone) showed neither an advantage nor disadvantage regarding the development of diabetes"
"There was neither an advantage or disadvantage when comparing metformin with acarbose (three studies) or a thiazolidinedione (three studies) with respect to the development of diabetes,".
You should note that previous studies had shown that Berberine (a natural supplement) performs just as well as Metformin, without the side effects. Resveratrol has similar benefits too.
In fact, I keep Berberine at home for the occasional time I binge on carbs. I do that because I have naturally high blood sugar and double the genetic predisposition for Type II diabetes compared to the average population.
Link to article about natural supplements for blood sugar control.
