Would be helpful to know what dose of Acarbose folks are taking?
Thanks for your time.
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100 mg tablets. should try to decrease the dose and see if they have the same effect
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Started at 25 for a meal with carbs, now I take 100 with a meal that has carbs.
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I typically take 50mg or 100mg, depending on dosing of starches I plan to eat.
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0 mg. The toxic gas I was emitting was banned by the Geneva Convention.
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100 mg., carbs neutralized per the dose. Lower dose, less of an effect, but feel free to experiment. I have taken 300 mg in a day, spread out, 100 mg doses. No side effects except gas, which can easily be controlled with Beano.
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50mg after every meals, that’s 50mg*2 a day, no side effect, no gas, no diarrhea. But If my GI tract doesn’t work well that day, I stop acarbose that day.
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Thank you all for you responses. Do you take your dose right before a meal?
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Yes, the instructions on the package insert are “with the first bite of the meal”
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I just did a little experiment today with acarbose. I was going to have breakfast with pancakes, butter, and syrup, which I rarely do, followed by some dark chocolate truffles.
I took 2, 50mg acarbose tablets about 5 minutes before. Then I measured my blood sugar levels every 1/2 hour for 2 hrs. I was very surprised that my blood sugar actually dropped to 92mg/dL after 1 hr and peaked at 102mg/dL at 2 hrs. (times are approximate).
I am really sold on acarbose, Jardience not so much. l am never excessively gassy except if I eat a meal that would make me gassy without the acarbose. For example, acarbose with chili and beans is an absolute no-no for me. I use Beano, but it can only do so much.
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Do no take acarbose with beano. I suggest you take a look what enzyme beano is. Spoiler alert beano is a-galactosidase. So it make no sense it take beano and acarbose with the same meal since acarbose is an a-galactosidase inhibitor. The gas is how you know its working.
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Dang, that is a spoiler alert. As I said I normally only get much gassiness with meals that would cause gassiness without acarbose.
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Does it completely neutralize spikes from corn, oatmeal, rice noodles, all noodles, all breads, ramen, mashed potatoes, and all rices?
I just ate like 400-500 calories of raw black rice over a few hrs and acarbose only increased my BG to 100. The is different from complete neutralization which I see in beans
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I experimented with Acarbose 100mg before meals and also gave it to my husband who have borderline diabetes. I checked fasting blood sugar with almost daily finger sticks for 2-3 weeks.Our FBS levels increased compare to baseline. Off note: I take sirolimius 3- 4 mg and he doesn’t take it. We both take Metformin.
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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6424963_Low-dose_acarbose_does_not_delay_digestion_of_starch_but_reduces_its_bioavailability uses 12.5mg. 50.3g dry weight corn pasta is VERY tiny though…
That still increases BG… but the comparison tables show that it’s not a HUGE increase from 50.3g https://www.joslin.org/patient-care/diabetes-education/diabetes-learning-center/conversion-table-blood-glucose-monitoring
IT’S SO INTERESTING HOW THE INCREASE IN INSULIN IS LOWER…
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Based on the combined data of six placebo-controlled trials in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus using acarbose as monotherapy, researchers noted the following changes from baseline glycosylated hemoglobin (hemoglobin A1c) by dose:
Acarbose, 25 mg three times daily, decreased by 0.44 Acarbose, 50 mg three times daily, decreased by 0.77 Acarbose, 100 mg three times daily, decreased by 0.74 Acarbose, 200 mg three times daily, decreased by 0.86 Acarbose, 300 mg three times daily, decreased by 1.00Although the acarbose 300 mg three times daily regimen is superior to lower doses at lowering hemoglobin A1c, the approved maximum daily dose of acarbose is 100 mg three times daily. There is no statistically significant difference in hemoglobin A1c lowering between the 50 mg three times daily regimen, 100 mg three times daily regimen, and the 200 mg three times daily regimen.
The effect of acarbose on weight loss has also been a target of research. In an analysis of post-marketing data of 67,682 patients, the data revealed acarbose to decrease body weight significantly, independent of baseline body weight. It also was found to significantly reduce fasting plasma glucose, postprandial glucose, hemoglobin A1c, and postprandial glucose concentrations.[4]
Even taking into account that normal meals contain more carbohydrates (e.g. two bread rolls contain 100 g carbohydrates) than our test meal, the acarbose to carbohydrate ratio in our experiment (1 : 3.7) was considerably lower than that normally achieved at the start of the acarbose treatment (1 : 2). Higher doses of acarbose than that used in our study can thus be expected to induce starch maldigestion to a much greater extent than observed in this study
wow, a 1 : 2 ratio is, like, 100mg acarbose for 200g carbohydrates (or 800 calorie equivalent)
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100 mg with the first bite of a meal, BUT, I CHEW IT UP… And I have had very little gas issues with chewing it. I then tried it without chewing and seemed to have more gas issues. I thought I read somewhere it was suggested to chew it, but my bottle label doesn’t indicate this.
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Anything we could eat to make the gas less offensive? 
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Haha! But seriously this is a good question, perhaps it has more to do with our gut biome than food. Maybe taking certain probiotics might be of some help. This one I have been taking for about a month and coincidently or not, I have much less very smelly gas than when I started taking Acarbose. N=1, so I don’t really know for sure why I am having better results from Acarbose. I am always searching for the perfect probiotic.
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I will give this a try. Since my acarbose arrives in a day, I want my wife to stay in the bedroom at night and not be driven out. I should have thought of this!
Thanks
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