BG rising even though I haven't eaten

[mcdougall86]

When I woke up this morning at 8am my BG was 5.3. I then lay in bed for another couple of hours (lazy day!) and didn't eat or drink anything. I tested again two hours later and my BG was 8. Could this be a liver dump?

I took some medication in that time-frame, inc. 5mg of prednisolone which I know affects blood sugars but I didn't think it did it that quickly, I always thought it was more of a general effect rather than specifically spiking it after taking the steroids.

I'm working really hard on keeping my sugars under control so I'm a bit dismayed by why it would shoot to 8 like that.

 

[Brunneria]

You may well have two things going on.

The first may be a morning liver dump, because you haven't eaten. Where your body thinks you need some blood glucose to cope with daily energy demands. This happens to me. Basically my blood glucose will rise until I have something to eat. At that point my body thinks 'OK, food incoming, so I don't have to keep raiding my glucose stores' and my blood glucose settles down.

The second thing you may have, is the standard blood glucose hike after steroids. And yes, I am afraid many people have commented (on the forum) that it does peak after doses. Someone even posted to say that a steroid eye cream caused significant blood glucose rises.

You may also find it interesting to have a google on Dawn Phenomenon. That is another morning blood glucose effect, but it usually starts much earlier than 8am (often around 4am), so while it may be a factor, it doesn't look like it caused your increase this morning.

 

[mcdougall86]

Thank you for your reply

I am still figuring out a lot re. my blood sugars as I am recently diagnosed (steroid-induced) so it's all very new. I'm hoping that I'm one of the lucky ones whose hyperglycaemia goes away when I come off the steroids, as I wasn't diabetic before, but I'm doing my best to learn as much as I can so that I can control my BG in the best way possible. I was noticing much much higher readings when I was on higher doses of steroids (17 fasting and up to 30 post-prandial when I was on 90mg!). Now I'm in pretty much the normal ranges most of the time, but I'm testing regularly as I want to learn about the impact of different foods etc. So that's why I was quite surprised this morning when it rose despite not eating, but I think you're probably right and it may be a combination of liver dump and a steroid related hike.

 

[chalup]

My blood sugar does exactly the same thing as @Brunneria . It will keep rising until I eat something when I get up. Dawn phenomena does not wear a wristwatch however. I was a night shift worker for many years and my DP kicks in at about 10 am as I do not go to bed until around 4 am or so and usually wake around noon. It will happen a few hours before your normal waking time but that can be different for different people depending on the individual sleep cycle.

Having said that, night shift workers are more likely to develop diabetes and I do wonder if in part it is because circadian rhythms and often eating patterns are disrupted and changed.