After 60 Years, Diabetes Drug Found to Unexpectedly Impact the Brain
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MetforminDiabetes TreatmentPharmaceuticalsHealth
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Metformin
Diabetes Treatment
Pharmaceuticals
Health
A 60-year-old diabetes drug, Metformin, has been found to have an unexpected impact on the brain, sparking discussion about its effects, side effects, and the pharmaceutical industry's practices.
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They prescribe you a drug that does not cure mental illness, that you have to take your entire life, On top of that they make you obese, so you have to take another drug to help you lose weight.
Then the patient has to go through a long and arduous behavioural program to change their life style and eating habits, caused by the drugs in the first place,
The wonderful pharma industry.
High risk of weight gain anti-depressant drugs:
Amitriptyline, citalopram, clomipramine, fluvoxamine, mirtazapine, nortriptyline, paroxetine, phenelzine.
I have seen this over many years in secure psychiatric wards, with those who take antipsychotics.
Drugs do not "cure" mental illnesses. There is no chemical imbalance.
The drugs are either; chemical coshes or highly advertised and ineffective placebo.
The drugs are also effective in controlling some symptoms and enable people to go on with their life.
We had many centuries without those drugs, I don't think our ancestors had any better quality of life without those meds.
Psychiatric illness is complex and multiple techniques need to be employed to get some control over it.
If we are looking for a silver bullet, I agree there is none.
A few months in I started getting pain from my buttocks to my calves whenever I sit for more than 15 minutes. I was concerned that this was some new misery life had thrown at me, but when I looked up the symptoms I found that this is an uncommon side effect of metformin for some people.
This sensation greatly decreased after ceasing metformin, but has not completely subsided 2 months later.
I'm fortunate to have a standing desk at work, but the only way to temporarily mitigate this issue is to go for a long walk or otherwise exercise.
I'm not against it. It helps many people with lots of things, just putting this information out for people who might experience the same issue. Hopefully with this new understanding they will come up with alternatives with lesser issues or that work for people with my response to the medicine.