Acarbose should be taken with meals, starting with a low dose, for example 50 mg/day, and slowly titrating up over several weeks. monitoring of glycaemic control,particularly postprandially, may be helpful. the postprandially action of these agent would not be expected to induce hypoglycemia, at least when they are used as monotherapy. the maximum dosage of alpha-glucosidase inhibitors mas be limited by gastrointestinal symptoms; this is certainly our experience with acarbose (see section 2.5). Intuitively, patients experiencing gastrointestinal adverse effects with metformin may not be the best candidates in whom to add an alpha-glucosidase inhibitor.