Medication's fishy smell may explain why many stop taking it, doctors say
Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comStinky diabetes drug turns off patients
Seeded on Tue Feb 16, 2010 9:35 AM EST (msnbc.com)
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Just take the pill you idiots. A few hyper-sensitive patients don't require billions of pill coatings.
A doughnut tastes better I guess.
Hey you hyper critics of those who don't want to take these smelly pills. I am diabetic and I take them and let me tell you a secret. They make your body smell too because it comes out thru your skin. I have smelled it on me and also other diabetics. Maybe you would like to snuggle up to this "idiot" after I have taken this medicine.
Not to fear. I understand with the new health care bill if you get the basic government option they will arrange for someone else to take your medicine for you if you don't like the smell.
How much easier can that be?
I take metformin, and I have NEVER noticed a smell. In fact, I just took a huge whiff from the BOTTLE - no smell. I'm just insulin resistant. Maybe people who are actually diabetic react differently to it? I just find it odd that I smell nothing at all from the pills.
I never noticed the smell until I took a whiff of it just now. It does smell a little fishy but it is not terribly strong. This is the best medication to be on as it will not hinder weight loss like some other diabetic medications. I have been on it for a year and never had a problem with it.
Not all metformin stinks. It depends on the manufacturer.
Shandi41: Same here. I took Metformin for a year and never noticed a smell at all. Maybe a bit of a "vitamin" type smell, but nothing repulsive. Insulin, on the other hand...that smells like the worst sort of bandaid. Ugh.
Actually, when the prescriptions are first filled, the odor is either not present or not noticable. I typically notice it about half-way into a monthly prescription. It seems to appear more quickly during the warmer months, and more slowly during the colder months. My guess is that the smell occurs only after the pills get banged around in the bottle--little bits wear off and become airborne when the bottles are opened. Since the smell seems to occur more quickly in warmer months, I've often wondered if humidity plays a role as well.
Although I've noticed the smell, I've not let it stop me from taking my pills. When I notice it, I try not to focus on it. If they can do something to seal the pills, I think it would be a great thing to do.
BTW--being insulin resistant is being diabetic. Insulin resistance is type II diabetes--the body produces insulin, but the muscles are not able to utilize it properly or fully. That's the type of diabetes I have. Type I diabetes (often called juvenile diabetes) differs in that the body (pancreas) cannot produce its own insulin. As such, metformin is only rarely used to treat type I diabetes (and its uses among type I diabetics is much debated in the medical profession), since it only improves the body's ability to use insulin.
Maybe its something in the plastic the bottle is made from. Plastic chemicals leaching into the meds. Nowadays you got to wonder if all these drugs the doctors feed us do any good. If they just stop making foods with refined flour and high fructose corn syrup many of us would have no problems (at least with diabetes)
I also take metformin and while it causes me to live with periods of diarrhea and flatulence, I’ve never noticed any particular odor.
The flatulence issue is particularly annoying. By increasing my fiber intake, and reducing my oil and sugar intake, I found it becomes far less of an issue.
I was told I was pre-diabetic last year and started taking 300 mg of Alpha Lipoic Acid and 500 mg of Evening Primrose Oil - per a book entitled "Lights Out". Six months later my blood glucose was 98. It worked for me.
One blood glucose test is not an indication that you are "cured" . You need an A1C test which is a 3 month average of your glucose levels.
Thanks! I did not know that.
Your welcome!
Just so long as you limit broccoli when you increase your fiber intake.
My husband is type 2 diabetic. This drug gave my husband horrible uncontrollable diarrhea. He could not go anywhere and he had to stay close to a bathroom at all times and lived on Imodium. He could taste this drug and his skin smelled like it was oozing out of his pores. He said everything tasted odd too. He is so much better off of this medication.
Arborgreen - Metformin, if left in the mouth before swallowing, also has a metallic taste which can be objectionable. Also, doctors must need to know if you are taking this medication if tests are given such as MRIs, etc. because of images picked up from this medication.
When I was newly diagnosed with Diabetes I took metoformin (Glucaphage) I constantly complained to my Edno doctor that I would take the metoforim in the morning and by 10:00 a.m. the pill had not been digested and the pill would come
out whole in the bathroom. Oh he said you are getting some medicine from it. I don't
know how I was when it came out whole. The smell didn't bother me it was the lack of compassion from my doctor and now 10 years later I am on Insulin.
I haven't noticed an odor and I also take fish oil capsules. I have however noticed some bowel issues and nausea. My doc asked me to try and "work through the nausea and bowel issues" because it is the best medication for me". I trust my doc 100 %. My A1-C levels have improved on the medication and I feel better. I gauge how I feel and how my blood work comes back, not on how my medicine smells.
I have the power to work through the rest.
I know 10 people who take it, including myself, and have never heard of it. For those of you who have bowel issues, increase your fiber intake and get off processed foods.
Then start using Kefir every other day, you will be in perfect bowel health in a week.
Now the drug company Bristol-Myers Squibb may produce a coated version using a different coat than the original. Thus if they are lucky (and we are unlucky) they can get a patent on a new version and raise the price very high. Next send out the sales vultures to promote it to doctors. It is similar to what the drug companies do when they bring out XR (extended release) versions of drugs that work perfectly well as a standard release versions.
At least you will never be constipated in your old age!
I am neither diabetic nor insulin resistant, but my OB/GYN recently put me on Metformin to help regulate my ovulation due to suspected PCOS. While I never noticed an offensive odor, I did have stomach troubles for weeks and they never went away.
My fiber intake is fine and I cook almost completely fat-free and don't eat a ton of processed foods, but I never could get past the stomach upset. I also gained weight, even though my food intake never increased and my activity level didn't decrease.
Finally, I gave up. I'd rather adopt than have to use this to make my body ovulate.
My doctor put me on it a couple of years ago. The pain in my stomach was unbearable. I told her no way was I going to continue. It was like it was burning a hole in my stomach. I guess everyone has a different tolerance for this drug.
When I first started taking it, I received no instructions regarding when (other than twice per day). My current doctor was shocked and indicated it should only be taken immediatley before eating. My guess is that taking it on an empty stomach is more likely to cause problems.
It also stinks because of numerous side effects.
There is no diabetes "epidemic", it was just somehow decided a few years ago to reduce the blood sugar levels considered safe, so that truly safe labels are now considered suspect. People didn't change, the rules did, and unnecessarily.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3151161.stm
When the powers that be could not find a real epidemic, they invented one.
Nonprofits should not receive major support from drug makers they should be critiquing rather than praising.
I have taken metformin for years and never have smelled an odor. Yes, the first few days I took it, it did nasty things to my digestive system. But now, there are no side effects.
I guess the morons who won't take metformin because "it smells bad" don't take antibiotics either since most of them smell far worse than metformin.
How hard is it to down a pill with a quick drink?! Come on now, these people are simply just compulsive complainers and the idiot that wrote the article obviously had nothing better to write about. Metformin smells bad, Who the frack cares...!!!
OBTW, I've be taking metformin for years and not once has the smell ever been an issue...
One thing to remember is that different people have different reactions to different smells, and that some people have a more acute sense of smell than do others. In some cases, the same substance can even smell different to different people.
There was a recent study regarding the smell of male perspiration. Those in the study were asked to categorize the smell, and the researchers discovered that participants overwhelmingly categorized the smell into one of three categories [I don't remember all three, but believe one was "like ammonia" and one was described as "something sweet"].
My mother actually liked the smell of skunk, but I can't stand it.
Donuts do Taste Better! Metformin does indeed Smell and Stinks something Terrible! I have tried it and let me tell you I will never take it again! I also agree that the smell also comes out through your skin!
Thank you for helping me solve a problem, that if the stinking metformin. I can not say when I first noticed it. But I had become worse in the pass year. As has the stomach and bowel disorders. I well be seeing my Dr. soon and we shall have a nice long talk. Have a good thanks one and all