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Medications

That is a good question for which I phoned the BYETTA hotline to confirm the correct answer.

As you know, the instructions state:

• You can inject twice a day, at any time within the 60 minutes before your morning and evening meals (or before the two main meals of the day), approximately 6 hours or more apart.
• Do not take BYETTA after your meal. If you miss a dose, skip that dose and take your next dose at the next prescribed time. Do not take an extra dose or increase the amount of your next dose to make up for the one you missed.

Why you should not take Byetta after your meal

There are two possible, and opposite, effects:

• Higher post-meal glucose levels: The blood glucose after your meal might be higher because you would have missed the desired effect from BYETTA – meaning that: When you inject BYETTA at the appropriate time, BYETTA normally tells your pancreas to make more insulin to handle your meal; it suppresses the liver from releasing too much glucose after the meal; it slows food digestion to lower your post-meal glucose.
• Possible mild hypoglycemia: The expert at the Customer Support Center reported that in clinical studies, when BYETTA was taken after the meal, there was a somewhat higher incidence of mild hypoglycemia (low blood glucose) in some people who were also taking a secretagogue (i.e. a pill that stimulates your pancreas to produce more insulin).

Note: You can view an interactive tutorial on the BYETTA website, and if you have further concerns, you can call the Amylin Lilly Customer Support Center at: 1-800-868-1190.

Be sure to discuss this with your healthcare team.