As in any other drug treatment, finding the adequate dosage and individual treatment regimen depends on your personal decision as a healthcare professional. However, additional advice may be benefitial for the overall treatment success and may contribute to an adequate patient compliance.

Start low, go slow
The following titration schedule may be applied, depending on tolerability in individual patients.

1.Initiating therapy

	Acarbose is taken orally at the start of meals, with the first mouthful of food.
	Therapy should be initiated on a "start low, go slow" basis. The recommended starting dose is 50 mg once daily.
	Some patients may benefit from a more gradual dose titration to minimize possible gastro-intestinal effects. This may be achieved by initiating therapy at 50 mg once daily and gradually increasing the frequency to 50 mg three times daily.

2. Maintenance therapy

	Once the dose of 50 mg three times daily has been achieved, the dose should be adjusted at 4 - 8 week intervals, based on postchallenge glucose and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels.
	Recommended maintenance doses are between 50 mg and 100 mg, three times daily.
	However, the maximum dose of acarbose in individuals weighing less than 60 kg should be 50 mg three times daily.

You may download this PDF-document with important treatment recommendations here.

Avoiding gastro-intestinal effects

As a matter of fact, unwanted gastro-intestinal effects (flatulence, etc.) may occur in patients who take Glucobay® without adequate changes in their diet*. As a first-line treatment for type 2 diabetes, the concomitant recommendation of an appropriate diet is critical for the disease progression.

Therefore, adequate diet changes are benefitial for both

• to minimize unwanted gastro-instestinal effects of Glucobay®, and
• to contribute to an overall benefitial disease progression.

*Please note that unwanted gastro-intestinal effects of Glucobay® may even occur in patients with an adequate diet.