Brand Names:

Glucotrol, Glucotrol XL, Metaglip(combination)

What is it?

Glipizide stimulates the pancrease to secrete more insulin. This helps lower blood sugar in Type 2 Diabetes

What’s In It For Me?

Lowering blood sugar with glipizide will help prevent all the bad things you have heard that diabetes does to you.

The Good

Glipizide and drugs like it are the most effective oral medications for lowering blood sugar.

The Bad

Glipizide can cause low blood sugars. It also can cause weight gain, like most other diabetes treatments. Some people develop an allergic rash with glipizide.

The Controversial

It seems logical that stimulating the pancrease to secrete more insulin might cause it to “burn out” quicker. This has never been studied. You have to balance this theoretical risk with the effectiveness of the drug. However, we do recommend metformin as the first line drug for this reason

Fact Box – Oral Diabetes Drugs

For The Cynic

People with diabetes will often end up on 3 oral medications and still have poor blood sugar control because they want to stay off insulin. It is better to simply stop all of these drugs and start insulin when this happens.

For The Cost

Glipizide is very inexpensive. Generic glipizide is on the $4 list at many pharmacies. It often must be take twice a day. Glucotrol XL is a once a day medicine that is moderately priced around $30/month

The Bottom Line

Glipizide is a very effective oral agent. Metformin is still preferred as a first line drug in patients with good kidney function.