Should I be checking my blood sugar?

Question

My doctor says my I am insulin resistant. He puts me on Avandamet twice daily but says nothing about checking my sugar levels. Is this normal?

Answer 1

Insulin resistance (metabolic syndrome) is NOT caused by a drug deficiency. You may want to find a 'real' doctor that will work with you to change your diet/lifestyle, which are the underlying issues that cause insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance is not diabetes (although it can lead to diabetes), so you do not need to regularly check your blood sugar levels. However, you should regularly assess your diet, your nutritional status (your current doctor probably has no idea how to do that!), your exercise habits, etc.).

Best wishes and good luck (if your stay with this drug-pushing doc you will need it!).

Answer 2

I'm not sure exactly what led your doctor to tell you that you have insulin resistance, that's not really a diagnosis, it's a mechanism of diabetes, you may have glucose intolerance (elevated sugar levels after you eat but normal fasting levels) but that phrase by itself doesn't tell me anything.
In early diabetes it is common to monitor it with hemoglobin A1c levels every three months rather than daily fingersticks, and that may be what your doctor is doing (this is a test that will give a good idea of how your blood sugar has been for the past 6-8 weeks, though it's more heavily weighted towards the recent past due to the nature of the test) but there should be some sort of monitoring.
It's hard to second-guess treatment without knowing anything about your history, but if you have mild diabetes or a prediabetic state, you may be able to control your diet even off of the meds by loosing weight and watching your diet, if you can manage that, next time you see your doctor ask him what he thinks about trying that.

Answer 3

you physician probably saw some blood test (a HgbA1c or fasting glucose) that would indicate you are at a prediabetic or mildly diabetic state.

the 2 medications in Avandamet are metformin and rosiglitazone. Both of these medications work on insulin sensitivity and cause no additional release of insulin from your pancreas than normal. Therefore you are not at much risk for developing low blood sugar from these medications.

While monitoring blood sugar may not be a bad idea, your physician may just be seeing how you react to the medication and will do the same test in a few weeks to see if there is any progress. This type of therapy is not unusual and aggressive therapy is the best when treating type 2 diabetes.

Good Luck!