Can conjunctivitis mess with sugar levels?

[Kaz261]

After yesterday's weird occurrences I woke up this morning with sore, red and slightly sticky eyes. I feel very tired and not at all right and think I may have a mild case of conjunctivitis. Can something like this makes your sugar levels less predictable/controllable?

 

[Brunneria]

This comes up regularly on in the rest of the forum.

People often find that infections affect their blood glucose, and that it makes things unpredictable.

 

[lindisfel]

Hi Brun and Kaz,
I had problems with my eyes a few years ago when I had a chalazion and I was also getting a lot of colds. Things got a lot better when I achieve more control of my blood sugar and also had a better diet.
It was just after this cold I was diagnosed with T2D.

Could it be a self reinforcing loop where one condition works into the other and vice versa?
regards
D.

 

[Jey]

Hi i had as well after waiking up sticky eyes and I looked like I was a sleep during the day. My eye lids where swollen. Do u get a pressure feeling on your eyes Kaz261? Does it get better during the day?

 

[Brunneria]

I have always found that a bad hypo, or series of hypos, knocks out my immune system.

It used to be like clockwork: I would hypo (the kind that leaves you dull, aching and fragile for 2-3 days) and then just as i was feeling better, a cold/tummy bug/sore throat would strike. I always assumed that my immunity dipped during the hypo and the virus percolated for those 2-3 days, then emerged.

Until i found this forum, and started reading here, i had no proper appreciation that high blood sugar was the cause of diabetic complications. All my experience had been with low bg, not high - and that was bad enough. I had a severe bout of despair when i realised that keeping bg UP wasn't enough. I had to keep it DOWN too. Soul destroying, really. Of course, now i know better. The control gives so many benefits i celebrate it.

Incidentally, i had a bad chest infection, around the time i think i slipped into T2. It was another good motivation to sort things out. Since i have kept my bg controlled (up and down), i have had fewer colds than my colleagues at work.

 

[Kaz261]

Hi i had as well after waiking up sticky eyes and I looked like I was a sleep during the day. My eye lids where swollen. Do u get a pressure feeling on your eyes Kaz261? Does it get better during the day?

Hi Jey, mine has only been for the last couple of days really. My eyes are sometimes a bit pink when I wake (a bit like I've had a late night and lots to drink ) but that soon wears off. I've never had swollen eyelids. What you're describing could be conjunctivitis, but I'm not sure. Have you been to see an Optician or mentioned it to your Doctor?

 

[Jey]

Hi but not sore? No darkness under your eyes? That's the first time you got that? Oh yeah, if I would go to the Doc every time I have something weard I would be bank robed!lol . Have seen a endo still waiting to get a appointment for a rheumatologist. Like u's all know it takes time . Did u ever have alopecia on your legs?! I have that now for a while! Not both legs are the same! Looks really weard! Hope you get better soon

 

[Kaz261]

Hi but not sore? No darkness under your eyes? That's the first time you got that? Oh yeah, if I would go to the Doc every time I have something weard I would be bank robed!lol . Have seen a endo still waiting to get a appointment for a rheumatologist. Like u's all know it takes time . Did u ever have alopecia on your legs?! I have that now for a while! Not both legs are the same! Looks really weard! Hope you get better soon

Thanks Jey. My eyes sometimes feel a little sore on waking but it's not something I get often. I don't know about alopecia on my legs as I wax them! My head hair has been falling out a bit but my Endo thinks it's s side effect of some medication I'm on. I hope you get some answers soon x

 

[Kaz261]

I have always found that a bad hypo, or series of hypos, knocks out my immune system.

It used to be like clockwork: I would hypo (the kind that leaves you dull, aching and fragile for 2-3 days) and then just as i was feeling better, a cold/tummy bug/sore throat would strike. I always assumed that my immunity dipped during the hypo and the virus percolated for those 2-3 days, then emerged.

Until i found this forum, and started reading here, i had no proper appreciation that high blood sugar was the cause of diabetic complications. All my experience had been with low bg, not high - and that was bad enough. I had a severe bout of despair when i realised that keeping bg UP wasn't enough. I had to keep it DOWN too. Soul destroying, really. Of course, now i know better. The control gives so many benefits i celebrate it.

Incidentally, i had a bad chest infection, around the time i think i slipped into T2. It was another good motivation to sort things out. Since i have kept my bg controlled (up and down), i have had fewer colds than my colleagues at work.

I get very few colds Brun. Over the last couple of months other members of the family have had some stinkers but I've avoided them so far (I'm now touching every bit of wood I can see! ). I can get through a whole year without one....I fear I may have jinxed myself now for saying that lol! I too preferred to keep my levels on the slightly higher side in the early days as this is where I thought I felt better. Of course I now know this isn't healthy in the long term. I don't feel when I'm hyper, I only feel the drop. I'm still not 100% convinced my Endo has got to the bottom of things. Do you mind if I give you a brief overview of how this started and giving me your thoughts please?

For several years I tended to suffer with UTI's. Sometimes I had symptoms with no infections I I keep the urine test strips at home to save frequent trips to the Docs. In Sept last year I had an instant where I had a trace of glucose in my urine. The nurse did a hba1c test which came back at 5.5. Knowing nothing, she told me it was ok and I went away happy. I wish now she had told me it was a little I the high side as I would have looked more closely at my diet.

In January this year, my youngest had a 3 night stay in hospital (as did I of course). It was the worst 3 days ever and very stressful. This seems to have been the trigger for things. In March this year, we were out and about and grabbed a quick, easy lunch from Gregs - baguette and egg custard tart. I noticed a couple of hours afterwards I felt awful. Really thirsty, nauseous and tired. The second time this happened I checked my urine and had ketones. Very unusual, as you would only get this if you're not eating enough carbs, or your sugar levels are very high (there was no trace of glucose). Another hba1c showed a result of 5.3. Even so, I continued to get ketones after eating carbs, so I changed my diet to one that was more diabetic friendly or so I thought!

Finally I was referred to the Endo who did an OGTT and the rest you know. Strangely though, I didn't start getting RH symptoms until after my initial diabetic diagnosis. None of the health professionals I've seen understand the ketones! May be my early symptoms were a result of a fast spike and hypo after two hours. Can a hypo cause ketones? This is partly why the very low carb diet didn't suit me. I got a similar level of ketones and the same symptoms, which was pretty awful.

Anyway, that's me done. Sorry if I've waffled and have a great weekend!

 

[Jey]

Hi Thank u. I can't go too low in carb, when I have that low bs I stay under 4. With very little carb it doesn't go back up at all. But it changes all the time! It's really difficult to keep track. At the momant my bs are not that low so I try to do low carb. Hope we all start well in the new year

 

[Kaz261]

Me too Jey! If I low carb and bs doesn't raise I feel low all the time. Whereas if I have a small amount of carbs with each meal I seem to feel better. As you say, it doesn't always work! Our bodies like to keep us guessing hey!

 

[Brunneria]

What levels were your ketones?

Without firm numbers, I am afraid that it means nothing. Many people dip in and out of ketosis on a daily basis, so unless the ketones are at certain levels, I would just congratulate you on having reached nutritional ketosis and congratulate you again for starting the process of ketoadaptation.

A great many medical professionals have no clue about this process and interpret the existence of any ketones as a dire warning sign. It all depends on the level of the ketones.

Do you have the numbers?

 

[Kaz261]

On the stick test they were ++. This was after the high carb lunch back in March and also ++ after my few days of low carbing. For me personally, I know when ketones are present even without testing and at these levels they make me feel very unwell.

 

[Brunneria]

Is that a urine test? I am only familiar with readings in a numerical value.

I gave up on urine ketone tests ages ago when i discovered how notoriously inaccurate they are. Well known for false positives, and then inaccurately low readings after ketoadaptation.

This is my favourite chart (from the dcuk website).

 

[Kaz261]

It was a urine test Brun. They aren't the most accurate and the level in urine does not necessarily represent the level in the blood apparently. According to my Endo, patients with ketoacidosis can still have relatively high levels of ketones in their urine for days after the level in the blood has dropped.

 

[Brunneria]

It was a urine test Brun. They aren't the most accurate and the level in urine does not necessarily represent the level in the blood apparently. According to my Endo, patients with ketoacidosis can still have relatively high levels of ketones in their urine for days after the level in the blood has dropped.

People with ketoacidosis also have very low levels of insulin and high levels of blood glucose at the same time.

I think a simultaneous diagnosis of ketoacidosis and reactive hypoglycaemia is verging on the impossible. Actually, i will stick my neck out and say that it IS impossible. You would need bg in the teens (usually higher) for some time, and insufficient insulin to lower it - making a hypo impossible without medication to lower bg - such as injected insulin.

 

[Kaz261]

I agree. I would also think it impossible. This is why, given my diagnosis of RH it makes no sense that I would have ketones and symptoms after a high carb meal. It is possible that I would have been spiking into the teens given the types of food I was eating, but there was no glucose in my urine at that time. Just ketones. The docs are baffled by it, so I don't stand a chance understanding how or why!

 

[Brunneria]

But you just said that ketones can exist in the blood for days. It is his assumption (without tests or confirmation) that this was due to ketoacidosis.
So you could have entered nutritional ketosis, got ketones in the blood, then eaten carbs, come out of ketosis, with some ketones still floating about.

And the nature of RH is that all bg spikes are comparatively short.
Ketoacidosis develops after sustained high ketones and sustained high blood glucose.

I have recommended Voleck and Phinney's Art and Science of Low Carb Living before, but i really do urge you to get it. It lays all these keto myths and confusions to rest in a very accessible way. The authors are medical doctors, lecturers and researchers who have been studying this subject for decades. They have vast experience of the subject.

The reason your doctors are baffled is because they do not understand it, not because it was in any way dangerous, or harmful - especially for a person who produces enough insulin to have RH. Perhaps you could give your doctors copies of the Voleck and Phinney book. They could clearly learn from it. Hopefully it would prevent them from frightening and mystifying their patients, in future.

If you read the wider forum you will find thread after thread of people questioning exactly your symptoms as they start low carbing. They are classic carb flu symptoms, and they pass. At which point people start to feel much better than before they started low carbing. And these are people with T2, so they are more likely to have problems with raised ketones than an RHer would, because T2s have insufficient insulin for the carbs they eat.

 

[Kaz261]

I'll have a read Brun thanks. The initial ketones were only after a high carb load, my diet wasn't in anyway low carb at that time. This is the confusing bit! Unless of course I was eating enough carbs, regularly enough to make my bg consistently high? Although if that was true there would undoubtably have been glucose in my urine too. The symptoms and ketones cleared within an hour of their first detection (and drinking lots of water). May be i'll never get to the bottom of it. I know that by reducing my carbs to around 100g a day I don't get those symptoms anymore. Just need to work more on eliminating the RH symptoms now

 

[Cathn61may]

You should go to your optician they are very good with Type 1 Diabetics. I have dry sensitive eyes. The Optician prescribed what was required and my GP wrote the prescription. I now get all my insulin etc on repeat. I order online which is great. I then collect 3 days later.