High Blood sugars and infections

[Pauliegreg]

I have been type 2 diabetic for the past 3 years and since then I have become insulin dependent. In the last 2 years I have also been diagnosed with a condition called Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS). This is a skin condition where you get abscesses and open sores around your groin, buttocks, under arms, anywhere really, and also become prone to infections.

It only dawned on me the other night when I was watching GP’s Behind Closed Doors that having high blood sugar can also cause infections. To be totally honest my diabetes had taken a back seat whilst I try and cope with my HS. I only realised that if my sugars are high then that could be another reason that I’ve been getting infections, near enough one every 2 weeks.

Therefore, I have realised that I need to take my blood sugars more seriously and monitor them more frequently.
Hopefully my managed blood sugars will stop me fro getting HS infections as often and make the healing time for abcesses and open wounds much faster.

 

[EllieM]

Hopefully my managed blood sugars will stop me fro getting HS infections as often and make the healing time for abcesses and open wounds much faster.

Infections also cause high blood sugars, so you've got a vicious circle there. Though I'm a little surprised that as a T2 you've moved onto insulin so early (possibly a misdiagnosed T1/LADA?) your skin condition will have pushed your levels up and possibly necessitated the use of insulin.

As a T1 I have access to sick day rules for increasing insulin so as to cover high levels caused by illness, have your clinic told you how to adjust your insulin for illness?

Edited to add: are you on steroids for your skin condition? Those are renowned for raising levels....

 

[Pauliegreg]

Infections also cause high blood sugars, so you've got a vicious circle there. Though I'm a little surprised that as a T2 you've moved onto insulin so early (possibly a misdiagnosed T1/LADA?) your skin condition will have pushed your levels up and possibly necessitated the use of insulin.

As a T1 I have access to sick day rules for increasing insulin so as to cover high levels caused by illness, have your clinic told you how to adjust your insulin for illness?

Edited to add: are you on steroids for your skin condition? Those are renowned for raising levels....

Thanks for your reply.
To be honest the clinic haven't really explained anything about insulin. I have been told to use 6 units of fast acting insulin after my main meal and then 34 units of slow release at night. I've learned to tweak these depending on my blood results. My gp and clinic haven't been helpful at all since the beginning.

I'm not on steroids, that would just complicate things even more!

 

[TeddyTottie]

I have been type 2 diabetic for the past 3 years and since then I have become insulin dependent. In the last 2 years I have also been diagnosed with a condition called Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS). This is a skin condition where you get abscesses and open sores around your groin, buttocks, under arms, anywhere really, and also become prone to infections.

It only dawned on me the other night when I was watching GP’s Behind Closed Doors that having high blood sugar can also cause infections. To be totally honest my diabetes had taken a back seat whilst I try and cope with my HS. I only realised that if my sugars are high then that could be another reason that I’ve been getting infections, near enough one every 2 weeks.

Therefore, I have realised that I need to take my blood sugars more seriously and monitor them more frequently.
Hopefully my managed blood sugars will stop me fro getting HS infections as often and make the healing time for abcesses and open wounds much faster.

I have Hidradenitis too, had it for over 30 years, since I was in my early 20s. I believe it’s generally regarded as an autoimmune disease so although the body produces enormous, excruciatingly painful boils and copious amounts of pus and goo it’s not actually an infection, but the body attacking in itself. Of course, once you have active lesions you can easily get secondary infections although I managed to avoid that. I found a couple of drops of tea tree oil on a dampened cotton wool swab, wiped over the area as frequently as I could manage, really helped with controlling secondary infection.

However, despite the fact that it was pretty much always active in the few years leading up to my T2 diagnosis, I have not had a bad flare up since I went low carb. My pet theory is that the carbs fuel the inflammatory response and maintaining low blood glucose removes the trigger. No idea if this is correct, but there I no doubt that for me at least, it is very much improved since I changed my diet and got my blood sugar down to normal levels. Hopefully you will see the same improvement too.

 

[VashtiB]

Hello and welcome,

It is disappointing that you have been given so little guidance .

I also suspect going lower arb may help other conditions- for me I have lost my lifetime asthma (in my 50s) and that was a side effect I didn't expect.

Having said that- I am only on metformin so no danger of having hypos from too few carbs to the insulin. If you lower you carbs it will need to be very gradual with constant testing. There are those on here who have successfully done that but you should discuss it with your doctor first. Be very careful and get expert advice so you know what to look out for.

Good luck and let us know how you get on. There is also a section on the forum for type 2s on insulin- have a read. This site is an awesome resource so use it.

Welcome.

 

[EllieM]

My gp and clinic haven't been helpful at all since the beginning.

That's very disappointing. Maybe I have unrealistic expectations, but I find it very remiss that you have had so little instruction about your insulin dosing, given that it is a potentially deadly drug that needs to be dosed correctly. Hopefully they've at least discussed hypos with you?

In your position I would definitely try reducing my carb intake to see if it helps either of your conditions (some T2s come off insulin altogether when they reduce their carb intake) but you do need to be careful about hypos....
If you're interested, you could describe a typical day's diet and we could both tell you how much carbs you are eating (roughly) and suggest some changes that will reduce the quantity....

And given your relatively fast progression to insulin, I would ask the GP for cpeptide and GAD tests to determine whether you are T2 or LADA (slow onset T1). If the latter you might actually get better medical care and access to devices such as freestyle libre....

 

[Resurgam]

I was bitten by some flying insects when out at dusk - it must have been on the 8th of this month. One was badly infected to start with, and there were half a dozen others, so I was really glad to see that they first of all were hot and red, that the infected one emptied and then they all cooled down and went paler so now they are really obviously in the final stages of healing.
I eat low carb, no more than 40 gm of carb a day, to stay at the top end of normal for Hba1c. I could possibly try harder with more regular exercise etc. but as long as I am seeing nothing concerning going on, I will stick to what I am doing. I can totally recommend the low carb option for treating the type two diabetes, particularly if the boring sort such as I seem to be, as infections do seem to look rather sad when faced with the results of low blood sugars.

 

[NicoleC1971]

I have been type 2 diabetic for the past 3 years and since then I have become insulin dependent. In the last 2 years I have also been diagnosed with a condition called Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS). This is a skin condition where you get abscesses and open sores around your groin, buttocks, under arms, anywhere really, and also become prone to infections.

It only dawned on me the other night when I was watching GP’s Behind Closed Doors that having high blood sugar can also cause infections. To be totally honest my diabetes had taken a back seat whilst I try and cope with my HS. I only realised that if my sugars are high then that could be another reason that I’ve been getting infections, near enough one every 2 weeks.

Therefore, I have realised that I need to take my blood sugars more seriously and monitor them more frequently.
Hopefully my managed blood sugars will stop me fro getting HS infections as often and make the healing time for abcesses and open wounds much faster.

Hello and I hope your efforts help with your condition.
Your diabetes is caused by insulin resistance (this is the root cause of type 2) and unfortunately you are now being treated with insulin which may cause further resistance if you only focus on getting blood sugars low and not on getting the insulin resistance down too.
You might find that reducing your body's demand for insulin by changing to a lower carb diet will help this process of reducing insulin resistance and system inflammation.
A quick google showed my hunch has some merit. So it isn't just the higher sugars causing you issues but the insulin resistance too.
Patients with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) have a significantly higher incidence of insulin resistance (IR) than those without the disorder, suggesting that HS is both a cutaneous disease and a chronic systemic inflammatory condition linked with an increased cardiovascular risk, according to the results of a cross- ...22 Mar 2018

Hidradenitis Suppurativa Associated With Insulin Resistance ...
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