My mum’s recently been put onto this diabetic drug, and she’s been told that she must not eat for 1 hour before or after her injection.

Whereas her paperwork with the medicine itself says she must not eat before but MUST eat within an hour of taking it.

Her diabetic nurse has been shown the paperwork and is still sticking to the nothing within an hour either side story.

Trouble is that’s she suffering really bad nausea and wonders if it’s because she’s ‘misusing’ or is it just an early side effect of the drug (as maybe the case acc. to the leaflet)

She doesn’t want to ignore the diabetic nurse, but could she be just wrong? Or is there some kind of NICE guideline that’s different from the leaflet instructions.

Have a look on the net for Byetta; you will find a number of sources including that of the manufacturer which will hopefully make things clearer

(I am not any sort of specalist in diabetes)

It’s taken before a main meal because it augments the “natural” reaction to eating and using afterward loses much of the benefit and might destabilise things (that said, there is a once weekly slow release version

manufacturer says you can take it any time within the hour before the meal and there are trial data to back that up

It starts to exert its effect on insulin (& glucagon) release pretty soon after each dose (and I suspect the slowing of gut motility is at least as quick) but levels of the drug can take an hour or more to peak after an injection (no major difference in effect on blood sugars though). There is more effect on the amount people ate if they took it 60 min before meals rather than 30, I think – I wonder if this is what the nurse is getting at.

Of course, there may be something special about your mum’s case that’s leading the nurse to suggest this but I dunno what that might be

http://www.medicines.org.uk/EMC/medicine/19257/SPC/Byetta+5+micrograms+solution+for+injection%2c+prefilled+pen.++Byetta+10+micrograms+solution+for+injection%2c+prefilled+pen./#POSOLOGY

Section 4.2

Long term treatment of diabetes is not my field and your mother should keep with what the Nurse is telling her unless another professional who has seen your mother’s notes tells her. However, this is taken straight from the manufacturer’s website.

If you still have concerns then she could ask to referred to a clinic.

morning meal? what’s that?

thankfully I’m not on any meds for my diabetes but I’d hate to have to eat in the morning – that would mean I’d have to get up at 6am! my breakfast consists of a cup of tea between getting up & leaving for work, then a banana & a cup of coffee or three when I get there