Jardiance side effects: what to watch for

In this video, I explain Jardiance (empagliflozin) from a pharmacist's perspective: how it works, why it causes glucose to leave through the urine, its potential heart and kidney benefits, common side effects, and the important warnings patients should understand.

In this video:

• How Jardiance and SGLT2 inhibitors work
• Why Jardiance causes glucose to leave through urine
• Why you may urinate more while taking Jardiance
• How Jardiance lowers blood sugar
• Jardiance and heart failure
• Jardiance and chronic kidney disease
• Jardiance side effects
• Dehydration and genital/urinary infections
• Jardiance and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA)
• What euglycemic DKA means
• Jardiance before surgery or prolonged fasting
• Important symptoms patients shouldn't ignore
• Practical tips for patients taking Jardiance

Jardiance belongs to a medication class called SGLT2 inhibitors. These medications work differently from many traditional diabetes medications because they act in the kidneys and allow more glucose to remain in the urine instead of being reabsorbed into the bloodstream.

But Jardiance is no longer simply a blood-sugar medication. Depending on the patient and indication, empagliflozin may also be used as part of the treatment of heart failure and chronic kidney disease.

Understanding the mechanism makes many of Jardiance's benefits, side effects, and precautions much easier to understand.

Have a medication you'd like me to explain next? Leave it in the comments.