Glyburide Warnings

Glyburide Warnings
Here are some additional precautions you should be aware of before taking glyburide.

* Tell your doctor if you have ever had unusual or allergic reactions to medications, especially to glyburide or to any sulfa medication, including sulfonamide antibiotics, diuretics (water pills), or other oral antidiabetics.

* Tell your doctor if you now have or ever had kidney disease, liver disease, thyroid disease, or a severe infection.

* Follow the special dietary instructions that your doctor gave you. This is an important part of controlling your blood sugar levels and is necessary for this medicine to work properly.

* Avoid drinking alcoholic beverages while taking this medication (unless otherwise directed by your doctor). Some patients who take this medicine experience nausea, vomiting, dizziness, stomach pain, pounding headache, sweating, and redness of the face and skin when they drink alcohol, and large amounts of alcohol can lower blood sugar to dangerously low levels.

* Be sure to tell your doctor or dentist that you are taking this medication before having any kind of surgery or other medical or dental treatment.

* Test for sugar in your urine as directed by your doctor. It is a convenient way to determine whether or not your diabetes is being controlled by this medicine.

* Eat or drink something containing sugar right away if you experience any symptoms of low blood sugar (such as anxiety, chills, cold sweats, cool or pale skin, drowsiness, excessive hunger, headache, nausea, nervousness, rapid heartbeat, shakiness, or unusual tiredness or weakness). It is also important that your family and friends recognize the symptoms of low blood sugar and know what to do if they observe any of these symptoms in you. Also, check with your doctor as soon as possible -- even if these symptoms are corrected by the sugar. The blood-sugar-lowering effects of this medicine can last for hours, and the symptoms may return during this period. Good sources of sugar are orange juice, corn syrup, honey, sugar cubes, and table sugar. You are at greatest risk of developing low blood sugar if you skip or delay meals, exercise more than usual, cannot eat because of nausea or vomiting, or drink large amounts of alcohol.

* Be sure to tell your doctor if you are pregnant. Studies of this drug taken in human pregnancy have not yet been completed, but studies in animals have shown it can cause birth defects. Consult your doctor if you are nursing an infant.