Until about 20 years ago Glyburide was probably the most popular oral diabetes medication on the market.

It works great but it can also be dangerous to take. Not that it has a pile of side effects - in that respect it is potentially safer then many of the new drugs.

But it is terrible for causing dangerously low blood sugar. It works so well that it can cause you to burn up way too much.

It really is a "user intensive" drug which is why newer ones were developed.

I have observed, first hand, almost a dozen close relatives that used Glyburide as their primary medication (including my Father).

Personally if I needed meds I would chose one in this class (Sulfonylurea's or SU's) ahead of the new drugs which haven't been around long enough to know what the long term effects are.

In comparison SU's have been around for over 80 years and their one downfall is they can kill you with low blood sugar if you aren't attentive to taking them.

You minimize (or totally negate) low blood sugar if you eat a similar number of carbs every meal and try to eat your meals at almost exactly the same time every day - so it is onerous. And I mean you drop whatever you are doing to eat lunch at 12:30 pm (or whatever your schedule is).

Skipping a meal (or delaying by an extra hour or two) will quickly give you first hand experience with very low blood sugar - this drug class is "not user friendly" in that respect.

However, I would still choose them and take them while wearing a CGM (like the Libre) which would allow more effective management.

But I would still keep a bottle of fast acting glucose tablets on hand "just in case".

So work just about better then anything out there, but they don't have a built in "stop button" like the newer drugs - these can kill you if you mismanage your doses.