Your DNA is the best place to start to answer the question, “Is Metformin Bad For You?” You might ask, how come? Well, how you respond to medication is determined by your DNA. Your response to medication is written in your genes.
How You Respond to Medication Is Determined by Your Genes!
I will cut straight to the chase and as I mentioned above, your DNA determines how you process the medications you take. This means that two random individuals treated with the same medication for the same condition can process and react to that same drug in different ways. All this is mainly due to their DNA. This works metformin as well.
This difference in how we react to medications is due to the genetic mutations we carry. These genetic mutations are in genes that encode enzymes that process medications we take, and, therefore, genetic mutations affect the functionality of enzymes in different ways, leading to variations in how we respond to medications.
For example, some individuals might have less or more effective enzymes requiring an adjustment in dosage of the given medication, some medications might have different toxicity levels, causing different types of adverse effects.
There is a whole field focused on this called pharmacogenomics, and if you want to learn more about that, check the blog post I wrote about it.
What Is Metformin and For What Metformin Is Used?
But, let’s first shortly introduce metformin as a drug. Metformin is an antidiabetic medication that is primarily used to treat type 2 diabetes. Its mode of action involves three main mechanisms:
It lowers blood glucose levels by decreasing hepatic glucose production, known as gluconeogenesis.
It reduces glucose absorption from the intestines.
It increases insulin sensitivity, which enhances peripheral glucose uptake and utilization.
It is essential to underline that metformin is effective only in the presence of insulin and if there are some residual functioning pancreatic islet cells. It is usually prescribed in combination with diet and exercise to improve blood sugar control in adults with type 2 diabetes.
What are Other Uses of Metformin?
In addition to its use in type 2 diabetes, metformin has been researched for its benefits in reducing cardiovascular events, as an antiobesity agent, and potentially in neurodegenerative diseases, polycystic ovary syndrome, aging, cancer, and COVID-19.
What are the side effects of metformin?
However, metformin can also cause a range of side effects. Common side effects include abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, muscle pain, and sleepiness. Less common ones may involve anxiety, blurred vision, chest discomfort, and dizziness. There are also rare side effects like behavioral changes or difficulty with concentrating. Some side effects are less severe and may go away as the body adjusts to the medication, such as a sour stomach, belching, and indigestion.
Learning How Will You Respond To Metformin Using 23andMe and Ancestry DNA Data?
OK, if you are already taking metformin, you are pretty much familiar with the side effects of it or if it’s sufficiently efficient for you.
However, if you are not in this group and have done the 23andMe or Ancestry DNA test, you can quickly determine how you might react to metformin. I prepared a list of SNPs associated with different reactions to metformin. You can check those in Table 1 below.
By the way, you can quickly recover over 1500 gene-drug interactions from 23andMe and AncestryDNA data without additional genetic testing, but just processing that raw genotype data you can obtain from 23andMe and Ancestry DNA.
If you are interested, let me know (check the contact form on this website) and I will help you for free if you want to generate the full pharmacogenomics report from 23andMe and Ancestry DNA data.