I also got lactic acidosis from metformin, and it almost killed me, I am type two diabetes and have had hep c for almost 30 yr I am In week twelve of the triple treatment with Incivek, and have tested und for hep c since week four.
But to get back on topic, I was diagnosed with diabetes about 6 yr ago, and was able to control it with metformin, but then one day I started to get really sick, went to Dr. did blood test, called me back and said to stop taking Immediatly and wanted me to go to the E.R. . now to the future, since being on this tx. as the hep c got worse so did the diabetes, It got real bad, so bad that I had to inj. large amounts of insulin several times a day. Ok lets skip forward about eight weeks in to triple tx I could not keep my blood sugar up and kept crashing, started to lower dosage of insulin, right now I have not had to use insulin in about a month, nor do I take any pills for diabetes, it seems as if my liver healing and getting rid of the hep c has also gotten rid of the diabetes, some say the meds can cause this but my Dr. seems to believe curing the hep c did it. It has been recorded that in some cases autoimmune disorders can cause the body to become insulin resistant, fix the disease fix the diabetes.
This is my story, everyone is different, so do a little research, talk to your Dr. best of luck Trolleater
Is your husband insulin resistant? I recklessly tried Metformin the first time I treated without really even reading how it was supposed to be a helpful adjunct and it caused lactic acidosis. My Glucose is usually between 70 & 80. Then I was too afraid to tell anyone since I knew I had done something impulsive. It only happened once but trust me I learned from that mistake!!
There is a member named Co Writer who invested a lot of time & energy about this.
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/Metformin-Increased-SVR-in-Genotype-1/show/632937
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/Pretreating-with-Metformin-Lowers-Viral-Load--Increases-SVR/show/688068
Bajo Woman has a post where she shows "the formula to see whether you're insulin resistant (is called HOMA)"
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/Help-/show/755498
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These thread are dated 2008 so a lot may have changed since than. Plus you did not really mention any details about your husband's condition so...
He can use the anti-diabetic drug Metformin to control his blood sugar and it will not adversely effect him or the HCV but if he does not have Type 2 diabetes it could lower his blood sugar to dangerous levels. I think there were some studies done with Metformin to find out if it can prevent the hepatitis C virus from replicating in the body, don't know what dosage was used and don't know the outcome or if they're still in progress, however, I do know it does not cure HCV.