Take the bad into consideration, but also take the good. I've been taking MET for years and I have only noted a slight drop in B12 (and related iron deficiency) on MET and BERB. Metformin not only reduces inflammation reducing cardiac events but is cardio protective, reduces kidney strain, and has neuroprotective effects that reduce cognitive decline, etc. It also is beneficial in regards to insulin resistance due to the traditional BBer high caloric intake - taking stress off beta cells and improved pancreatic function. It's important that we not look at MET as a PED.
I'm going to copy part of this well-referenced article here.
I highly recommend reading the full article:
Link:
"Metformin: A Novel Weapon Against Inflammation"
"Beyond its consolidated role in T2D management, the pleiotropic actions of metformin have been extensively documented. Metformin can treat cardiovascular diseases by mechanisms distinct from its metabolic activities (
Soraya et al., 2014;
Liu et al., 2017;
Dziubak et al., 2018). Metformin exerts nephroprotective effects in diabetic patients (
Kawanami et al., 2020) and interferes with key immunopathological molecules involved in tumor progression (
Ma et al., 2020). These findings, together with one particular breakthrough in metformin-induced longevity in microbes and mice (
Cabreiro et al., 2013;
Martin-Montalvo et al., 2013;
Chen et al., 2017), provide the possibility of boosting its therapeutic potential in treating aging and age-related diseases (
Storelli et al., 2013). Of note, emerging
in vitro and
in vivo evidence suggests that metformin can exert potent inflammation-inhibitory effects, irrespective of its capability of glucose control (
Saisho, 2015;
Bharath et al., 2020). Most recently, it is of great interest to find that metformin is able to dampen cytokine storms in patients who are infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The use of metformin is significantly associated with reduced circulating levels of inflammatory markers (
Cheng et al., 2020) and decreased in-hospital mortality (
Hariyanto and Kurniawan, 2020;
Kow and Hasan, 2020;
Luo et al., 2020). It has become widely accepted that inflammation is a driving force behind various chronic diseases, including heart failure, atherosclerosis, diabetes, obesity, neurodegenerative disease, cancer, etc. The reduction in lifetime exposure to inflammation has contributed to the historical decline in old-age mortality (
Finch and Crimmins, 2004;
Couzin-Frankel, 2010)."