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Paracetemol

EllsKBells

Well-Known Member
Messages
362
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
In the early hours of Saturday morning I woke up with a stinking headache, so bad that I couldn't get back to sleep, and I decided to take something for it. I'm visiting my parents at the moment, so that meant soluble paracetemol. I went to bed with sugars of 5.9, and I woke up at 18.3.

Does anyone else find that soluble paracetemol affects their blood sugars? I am aware that this could just be a side effect of the headache, or a dozen other things, but I'm trying to eliminate possible causes!
 
Have a look at the paper insert, it may have a list of excipients which could enlighten you.
Or else search 'paracetamol PIL' to get an insert.
 
I have just done a bit of Googling as I take paracetamol a lot for my arthritis and was interested to know. I don’t use the soluble ones and I think this may have been your problem. Some brands contain Sorbitol and some Lactose, some contain warnings to consult a dr if you are ‘intolerant of some sugars’.
 
I can't take paracetamol anymore, because I use a dexcom, and it does cause falsely elevated readings on the dexcom. But when I did take paracetamol I never noticed any impact on blood sugar. I reckon it's probably more related to being in pain than the pain killers. Although I don't think I've ever tried soluable paracetamol, I'd agree with @Struma and @Rachox that it's worth checking the ingredients, whatever makes it fizz and dissolve could be unexpectedly carby.
 
Because of all my intolerance, I was told to only take paracetamol as a pain killer but to avoid certain brands and all soluble tablets.
I've been warned to read all information on meds.

I use tablets that are enteric in nature. Avoiding especially those that contains lactose.
 
I haven't needed Paracetamol or indeed any other pain killers for many years ... until November that is when I had a very nasty virus that gave me awful headaches. I bought some ordinary Paracetamol tablets and took those, which numbed the pain very effectively. My blood sugars were slightly raised (noticeably so) but nothing like the figures you have reported @EllsKBells. It was the virus causing it in my case, not the Paracetamol, as it continued after I stopped taking them when I was feeling better.
 
@EllsKBells I haven't had this experience with paracetamol myself, but I shall look out for it. Another thought - might it be that the headache is a symptom of something else, like an infection or a cold or something? Perhaps that might be the cause of the high?
 
Thank you for all your responses

I do use a Dexcom, which is why those are fingerpricks! I normally avoid paracetemol, but I'm visiting my parents at the moment, so the options are rather more limited. I suspect it is something to do with the soluble form, as it's not a problem I've seen in the past with the non-soluble form.
 
Snapsy said:
Another thought - might it be that the headache is a symptom of something else, like an infection or a cold or something? Perhaps that might be the cause of the high?
Click to expand...

This is a very plausible explanation. If you've got a headache because of illness then that is a likely cause of high blood sugar.
 
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