Sandgrounder wrote: Spent some time recently watching a lot of videos on YouTube with regard diabetes from several doctors that have their own channel. Not only can diabetes itself affect you vitamin levels, but so can the medication you may be on to control it. I'll wait until my next appointment with the nurse later this year and probably discuss it with them .

It is always sensible to take notice of your medical team who know your full medical history than to take notice of doctors on a YouTube Chanel that have no knowledge of you or your medical history.

Sandgrounder wrote: Spent some time recently watching a lot of videos on YouTube with regard diabetes from several doctors that have their own channel. Not only can diabetes itself affect you vitamin levels, but so can the medication you may be on to control it. I'll wait until my next appointment with the nurse later this year and probably discuss it with them .

Well said. The NHS have never, ever tested me and my vitamin levels, ever, so make sure they do one for you. Such a simple thing to do a vitamin test, too! I had to get a private blood test done with a specialist thyroid clinic in the UK, to see if any of the family-related thyroid troubles were affecting me. The truly amazing doctor suggested I should also have vitamin levels and hormone levels checked for good measure at my age. Boy, am I glad she made that suggestion! What a difference it has led to in my life.

Elias Mooseblaster wrote:

Sandgrounder wrote: Spent some time recently watching a lot of videos on YouTube with regard diabetes from several doctors that have their own channel. Not only can diabetes itself affect you vitamin levels, but so can the medication you may be on to control it. I'll wait until my next appointment with the nurse later this year and probably discuss it with them .

Well said. The NHS have never, ever tested me and my vitamin levels, ever, so make sure they do one for you. Such a simple thing to do a vitamin test, too! I had to get a private blood test done with a specialist thyroid clinic in the UK, to see if any of the family-related thyroid troubles were affecting me. The truly amazing doctor suggested I should also have vitamin levels and hormone levels checked for good measure at my age. Boy, am I glad she made that suggestion! What a difference it has led to in my life.

It is well known that diabetic medication like any other medication can cause side effects.
Taking metformin for example can cause vitamin B12 deficiency if taken for a long time.
This can make you feel very tired, faint and breathless.
If you report these symptoms to your doctor, the doctor should check the vitamin B12 level in your blood, as all side affects to any prescribed medication should be reported.

If your vitamin B12 levels become too low, vitamin B12 supplements can help.

I have been struggling! In spite of eating right and taking meds my resting glucose is high. My latest A1c was 7.9. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and she has decided to change the way I take my meds. Instead of one pill in the morning I will take 2 lower doses 12 hours apart. Today is day one! I am hoping for good results.

Good luck with it Bjean.

yes, sometimes you can do everything right and still need increased medication.

Pats wrote: ...If you report these symptoms to your doctor, the doctor should check the vitamin B12 level in your blood, as all side affects to any prescribed medication should be reported.

I reported these symptoms many times and no doctor at my surgery even paid me much attention, engrossed as they were in their computer screen. I'm looking forward to Monday morning when I get to see my GP and telling her that I had to pay privately for blood tests and a consultation with a specialist in order to confirm what I have repeatedly told her in the past. Honestly, my local GP surgery gets more of a joke every year. I'd change surgeries but when I ask friends for recommendations they all, without exception, are unhappy with their GP's surgery too.

A few years ago it took me months to get the doctors I saw at my local GP's surgery to understand I had a severe reaction to Metformin and that I wanted an alternative to it. After over a year of the debilitating side effect I finally met ONE competent locum doctor who straight away said the side effects I had to Metformin were well known, and thank the gods she prescribed an alternative.

I have no real faith in my local doctors any more. Even now, when things are "normal" again after Covid it's hard to get a face-to-face appointment, and frankly I was amazed when I was phoned up and told the doctor would like to see me in the surgery! That has NEVER happened before.

Elias Mooseblaster wrote:

Pats wrote: ...If you report these symptoms to your doctor, the doctor should check the vitamin B12 level in your blood, as all side affects to any prescribed medication should be reported.

I have no real faith in my local doctors any more. Even now, when things are "normal" again after Covid it's hard to get a face-to-face appointment, and frankly I was amazed when I was phoned up and told the doctor would like to see me in the surgery! That has NEVER happened before.

Well that’s a good thing isn’t it?.

Pats wrote:

Elias Mooseblaster wrote:

Pats wrote: ...If you report these symptoms to your doctor, the doctor should check the vitamin B12 level in your blood, as all side affects to any prescribed medication should be reported.

I have no real faith in my local doctors any more. Even now, when things are "normal" again after Covid it's hard to get a face-to-face appointment, and frankly I was amazed when I was phoned up and told the doctor would like to see me in the surgery! That has NEVER happened before.

Well that’s a good thing isn’t it?.

I've lived where I am for 19 years without it ever happening before and it'll probably be another 19 years before it happens again.

It's not a struggle these days but it is repetitive taking the medication each day, along with all the other things I need to do to get through life .

Spent today visiting Harewood house, had two hours walking around the house with no problem, then went for a walk around the parkland at the back of the house after that. Was fine till I got half way round, and I think my sugar levels took a dive, and before I knew what happened,ended up on the ground/ Cut a long story short , the Harewood staff wher summoned and got me back to the courtyard and gave me a bar of chocolate a nd a Coke to get my sugar levels back up. Safter a while I was fine, so came back to my accommodation.