To manage your diabetes properly, you must be extremely careful about which foods you eat and medications and dietary supplements you take. Diabetes is a serious medical condition causing high levels of glucose, a sugar, to circulate in your bloodstream. With diabetes, glucose cannot get into your cells to be used for energy. Treatment of type 2 diabetes, formerly called non-insulin dependent diabetes, relies on oral diabetic medications, such as metformin, to lower blood glucose levels. Licorice is a popular herbal supplement used by herbalists and naturopathic physicians for a variety of medical conditions, including diabetes. However, licorice can cause side effects which affect your diabetes medications, so take it only under direct supervision of your physician.
Metformin is an oral medication used to control blood sugar levels by decreasing the amount of glucose manufactured by your liver and obtained from the foods in your diet. Although it may be used in combination with insulin for type 2 diabetics, it is never used to treat type 1 diabetes. Metformin is used along with diet and exercise to reduce your blood glucose levels. It is also used in combination with other diabetes medications,


