20/03/2026
Those who listened to my interview on Monday evening at 6:30pm Alfred Nzo Community Radio News will remember this is exactly what I spoke about. Please read up, ask me where you don’t understand- make plans to see me;
METFORMIN, VITAMIN B1, B12 DEFICIENCY
This drug you are seeing above is called Metformin.
It is a drug from the class called Biguanides. Biguanides are a type of oral antidiabetic drug that work by:
1. Decreasing glucose production in the liver
2. Increasing insulin sensitivity in the body
3. Delaying gastric emptying and reducing glucose absorption
Through these mechanism of actions, it help control blood sugar . It a good thing right? Yeah but not entirely. If you swallow this for few weeks it helps and the you are back to normal .
But unfortunately in a case where the root cause is still the same, the drug is ineffective. Not only is it ineffective but comes with other side effects which is the reason for this post.
Remember my favourite quote by Hippocrates that say "He who take medicine must recover twice, once from the disease and once from the side effects of the medicine 💊?
METFORMIN and BITAMIN B12.
Metformin depletes vitamin B12, and vitamin B1. Deficiency of vitamin B12 can result in tingling of the hand and numbness of the feet.
So for diabetics, sometimes the neuropathy is the complication of the disease or the side effect of the medication, in this case metformin.
Risk factors to metformin’s effect on Vitamin B12 and B1 includes:
- Taking higher doses
- Taking the medication for longer duration (more than 2months)
- One who is already predisposed to vitamin B12 and/or B1 deficiency by virtue of diet or lifestyle eg vegan diet.
Once you’re taking metformin and you start noticing tingling sensation in your hands and feet, there’s a chance your vitamin B12 and B1 stores are low and it’s bad. Very bad.
Let me tell you why it’s bad:
First, let me officially introduce you to vitamin B12 and the role it plays in the body. Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, is an essential water-soluble vitamin that plays a crucial role in various bodily functions.
It is a member of the B-vitamin family and is required for the production of red blood cells, DNA synthesis, and the proper functioning of the nervous system. Vitamin B12 plays a major role in providing cofactors that are required to form myelin sheath which covers the brain. Lets visit the land of myelin. In the body, there’s something known as the “myelin sheath”.
Myelin is an insulating layer, or sheath that forms around nerves, including those in the brain and spinal cord. It is made up of protein and fatty substances. This myelin sheath allows electrical impulses to transmit quickly and efficiently along the nerve cells.
Once there’s problems with the myelin sheets (eg the myelin sheath is damaged), nerves do not conduct electrical impulses normally. Meaning, there can be numbness, vision loss, loss of memory if it's in the brain etc., as the electrical impulses which are like the messages cannot be transmitted anymore due to damage to the myelin sheet.
(Now that you know what myelin sheet is, we can move ahead, this information has a role to play in what we would later learn.)
The signs and symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency as learnt above includes:
Loss of skin sensation, loss of awareness and balance (proprioception), abnormal reflexes, diminished vibratory sensation, loss of vision, etc. These all can be easily mistaken for those of diabetic neuropathy.
So due to this deficiency in Vitamin B12, complicated by Metformin it causes dementia. Dementia is a progressive conditions that affect memory. In terms of numbers there is more than 60% chance of having dementia if you have diabetes
There is 10-20% chance of developing dementia if you have Vitamin B12 deficiency .I am sure you can do the remaining maths.
Take home message : Fix your diet. Drugs will not fix your health. Chronic disease like diabetes is fixed in the kitchen not in the pharmacy. Drugs put your on a path of self destruction.
