Hello Emily,
Thank you for your informative post in type I diabetes. This is an autoimmune condition in which the pancreas can no longer produce insulin to control your blood sugar naturally. Patients need to take insulin to manage blood sugar to remain healthy and avoid serious complications. The first and primary medication given to someone with type 1 diabetes is insulin. This has been our standard approach to treatment since the discovery and development of exogenous or synthetically produced insulin in humans for more than a century (Miller et al., 2015). A currently used derivative is metformin, one of the first drugs found to be useful in adjunctive therapy. Its effects are considered to be pleiotropic.
In clinical practice, it is mostly used as a medicament that decreases insulin resistance. Metformin is a long-known drug. The attempts of using its specimens in type 1 diabetes have quite a long history. In the case of insulin resistance in patients with type 1 diabetes, manifesting as high endogenous insulin requirement and difficulties in obtaining metabolic control, it is assumed that it may be beneficial to include the metformin formulation. A positive impact of metformin, as an addition to intensive insulin therapy with a decrease of insulin requirement and lowering the body mass, was confirmed (American Diabetes Association, 2018). Kidneys play a crucial role in glycemic regulation. The essential part of the excretion of glucose in the urine and consequently in maintaining the glucose homeostasis is the sodium-glucose co-transporters system
References
American Diabetes Association. (2018). Pharmacologic approaches to glycemic treatment: Standards of medical care in diabetes—2018. Diabetes Care, 41(Supplement 1), S73–S85. Retrieved from http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/41/supplement_1/s73.full-text.pdf
Miller, K. M., Foster, N. C., Beck, R. W., Bergenstal, R. M., DuBose, S. N., DiMeglio, L. A., … & Tamborlane, W. V. (2015). Current state of type 1 diabetes treatment in the US: updated data from the T1D Exchange clinic registry. Diabetes care, 38(6), 971-978.