High blood sugars since starting bisoprolol

xirles said:

Hi all,

I posted a few days ago that my husbands bg had shot up 5 days ago and stayed high despite very low carb meals. Well, this all coincides with starting 2.5mgs bisoprolol daily. BG 12.5 to 13.5 on waking, shooting up to around 19 around 2- 3 hours later.After taking the bisoprolol with breakfast.
Rang pharmacy as blood pressure and pulse have become too much on low side since starting this medication.
Now waiting for a call from GP to discuss as this was a " trial" of betablocker after an exercise tolerance test for renewing C1 licence picked up " possible ischaemia heart disease" after blood pressure took a while to come down after 9 minutes on treadmill ( he is over 70! I could not have even done 9 minutes as I am not as physically fit).
I still believe he may be LADA , really worried as he feels unwell for last few days and suspect the beta blocker is causing the hyperglycaemia.
Anyone have any similar experience?

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I haven't, but Dr. Google came up with this, under the medical professionals header. No mention of any of this under for users header, of course. ( https://www.drugs.com/sfx/bisoprolol-side-effects.html )
Side effects:

Metabolic
Uric acid, serum potassium, glucose, and phosphorus increases associated with use of this drug were not of clinical importance and rarely resulted in discontinuation.

Common (1% to 10%): Purine metabolism disorder, carbohydrate metabolism disturbed, weight changes, cholesterol changes, potassium levels altered, blood lipid changes

Rare (0.01% to 0.1%): Increased triglycerides

Frequency not reported: Gout

Postmarketing reports: Increased uric acid and glucose

I was going to say he might want to try propranolol, but that has a massive list of side effects including hypo's. https://www.drugs.com/sfx/propranolol-side-effects.html also mentions the following: "Beta-blockers, such as propranolol, are used with caution in patients with diabetes due to masking of the catecholamine response to hypoglycemia." Basically meaning you can't tell if you're hypo, when the medication makes you go hypo. Wonderful. It may be time to contact your pharmacy and discuss all of this with them, maybe they know of an alternative that wouldn't wreak havoc on your husband's blood sugars. (They often know more which meds would be right than a doc would. I really would get in touch.)

I cannot help here. I was put on Bisoprolol after my operation, but the bgl rise that followed was due to hospital food hangover, combined with the fact that the team also removed most of my diabetic meds, My rise has settled down to be about 1 mmol/l higher than pre-op, and is commensurate with the change to diabetic meds.

I have suffered raised potassium and serum urea since the change, which could be the Bisoptolol but equally could be due to the change in BP meds. I am on a new BP med Entresto which is hyperkalemic and hyponatremic, both of which I am experiencing. But my bgl rises were much less than your OH is seeing even on bad days The possibility of LADA needs to be checked out IMHO.