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Colds / Manflu

mountaintom

Well-Known Member
Messages
574
Location
Lauragh, Kerry
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi all,

First cold since diagnosis.
How do they affect your bg’s??? Mine seem higher than usual. Or am I secretly eating more??!
 
Hey @mountaintom Yes colds/illness will push your BG levels up, just keep hydrated and correct where necessary, also watch the cold flu remedies, most of them contain sugar and do nothing at all to help, better taking paracetamol.
 
I can confirm from personal experience that cold push up BG levels as your body/liver release extra glucose to fight the lurgy.
Unfortunately, I find illness pushes up BG and high BG exaggerates any illness so it becomes a double-edged sword.
If you can take corrective bolus doses to keep your BG down, this should help ... and reduce your sickness time.
I usually increase my basal to compensate but, if you do this, take care not to over compensate.

Thankfully, I am not able to suffer from anything as bad as manflu.
I hope you get better soon.
 
It sure does. Had this in January and couldn’t believe the constant battle to keep sugar levels down. Thanks to the Libre I was brave enough to keep injecting. Tripled my basal amounts over a 5 day period. On the plus side you know you are at the end when normality resumes.
 
Thanks guys. I thought I’d read some of you mention an increase in bg’s during colds. It’s not massive but I’m in my low teens instead of 7’s/8’s.
I was only diagnosed in Jan so not confident enough for too many correctioninjections yet. My dsn recommended I don’t do it too often (obvs she doesn’t want me OD’ing!).
Yes I rarely take cold/flu remedies so that’s fine.
I’m going to go for a walk and try pull those numbers down.
Thanks for the well wishes everyone have a good weekend.
 
you should have had a sickday sheet leaflet.f ollow its advice. ps MAN FLU IS REAL
 
yup my bg has douabled like as if the insulin not working,day ,passing up loads of flem,feeling very weak,
 
I've had flu in November and a cold for the last few weeks. My BG levels in November were sky high, 20+ and despite doubling my Humalog doses I had to take a few days off work, three sick and one rest day. Luckily I was able to swap a rest day around so didn't lose out financially and going back to work helped my levels as I have a physical job.
 
I've had a cold twice since being diagnosed (one was at the time of diagnosis). My blood sugars always get high when that happens. If you get 13+, check for ketones. Check your blood sugar more regularly than you otherwise would. Try to eat as close to your usual diet as possible. Drink plenty!!! (both for the highs and for recovering from illness). And rest up, make sure you get some sleep.
 
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