Author: Rekarb

I started taking Starlix a month ago to try and stop my spikes. Starlix works directly on the pancreas by getting it to release insulin before you eat.

A few days ago, I got the trots for a night and throughout the day I had a gurgling stomach, occasional mild nausea, gas and a dull ache in my stomach. This has continued in a lessened form since then. I’m use to stomach problems but none that last this long.

I actually started to feel slight stomach pains two weeks ago. This is also when I made a more concerted attempt at taking all three pills each day. I just assumed this was being too aggressive with my morning sit-up routine. I also was getting a sort of uncomfortable fullness feeling for a good while after I ate. This I guessed had more to do with my usual gluttony so I started taking it a little easy.

I looked up Starlix and found that pancreatitis could develop from it. I’ve stopped taking the Starlix, just in case.

This reminds me of an ulcer. I had one of those but the ache seems very different this time. I might be being an alarmist but I know some of you have had this so I wanted to get your opinions.

Mike

Anybody seen this paper?

Low-carb diets linked to atherosclerosis and impaired blood vessel growth

Low-carb diets linked to atherosclerosis and impaired blood vessel growth

Mike

I’ve started taking Starlix and I’m want to get others experiences with it. I’m also going to write about it while I try to dial in this medication.

I started taking Starlix because I was still spiking over 140 even though my fasting numbers were around 100 and I’m carbing below 40 a day.

I started by taking 60mg because I like to start light to see if I’m going to get any physical problems, I didn’t. I also wasn’t getting that much better than what my low carbing and exercise was getting done.

Today I went to 120 mg to try at get better results. I tried a different food for breakfast and spiked to 190. This gets me to believing that if you start taking Starlix in hopes of easing up on the carbs, I don’t think you’ll be happy.

It says that you should take Starlix and wait 30 mins to give it time to take hold. I did this and took readings at the 30 min mark and found a drop of around 15 and once it even rose.
(Don’t you wish we had meters with better accuracy?)

I decided to try something different this time. I took Starlix and took the reading at 30 mins. The drop was about 15. I then took it at 60 mins and was down about 30. I ate and took my spike about an hour later and found myself at 130. I’m going to keep doing this with the thought that Starlix doesn’t work very fast and that I need to get down before I eat.

Mike

Saw my endo today. The issues were edema from Actos and my continual spikes.

We didn’t have to talk about Actos very long. As soon as I told him of the edema, he said he was taking me off it, end of story.

He is a big fan of statins but since my Lipid numbers have dropped he didn’t bother to mention it.

The spike conversation surprised me. First, I’ve lost another 5 lbs. He didn’t want to see anymore weight loss so he was unhappy with that. "Dude", I said, "I got a six pack and a body that looks like a twenty year old. Screw the weight!" He felt, ok, maybe that five pounds isn’t so bad but no more. No byetta, no smylin – you’re going to vanish if you go on that stuff.

He once again returned to insulin. "That’s what you should have went on from the start." We then bounced around the fact that I was now below the point of taking a basal. I said let’s do a bolus. He thought about it while we looked at my numbers. I explained that all I wanted was to knock 20 to 30 off those numbers.

He thought that this was going to be too fine a hair to pull off because he believed I would be extremely sensitive to insulin and that he could see that my numbers still were trending down on my basal.

He suggested "Starlix" instead. He said this stuff is weak. It gets in blocks the spike, goes away quickly and works well with met.

I didn’t like the idea of a drug that stimulates beta cells. He got that but said this was very short term and that studies had shown that beta cells actually performed better after its use. He couldn’t say it was do to the lessening of glucose toxicity or some more direct action on the cells but it definitely was not implicated in burning out beta cells. So now I’m about to start 500 extended Met twice a day and Starlix as needed.

Here we go again.

Mike

Endo convinced me to try Starlix 120 mg with met. I would love to know about your experiences with it.

It says I should take it 30 mins before meal. How did that work for you? How did it effect your fasting rate? Was it easy to control? What type of drop off did you see in your spikes? Any bad side effects? What did you do about them and how long did that last?

Whatever you know will be helpful.

Mike