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Radio Therapy - Impact on Blood Glucose?

miahara

miahara

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,019
Location
Tayside
Type of diabetes
Type 3c
Treatment type
Insulin
Is there anyone who can comment about the impact of radio therapy on blood glucose? I commenced RT on my prostate a week ago and have found that my BG has risen beyond what I would normally expect. Any ideas as to how I should manage this would be mosr welcome.
 
miahara said:
Is there anyone who can comment about the impact of radio therapy on blood glucose? I commenced RT on my prostate a week ago and have found that my BG has risen beyond what I would normally expect. Any ideas as to how I should manage this would be mosr welcome.
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Hi miahara,
I am a TOFI too, though I am controlling my BG with just dietary changes. While I have no experience of RT, it is almost certain that your body and probably your mind are under stress.
Stress is one of the factors that tend to raise BG along with infection, lack of sleep etc.

I feel it is only to be expected that your BG will be higher until you start to recover.
How high is your BG ? - If it is worryingly high then you need to talk to your GP about adjusting your meds.
So then just focus on getting well and try not to stress yourself about the BG .
 
By eating a low carb diet? However, that wasn't easy for me when I was having RT on one breast - I felt so low that I justified many "treats" which escalated into at least a weekly carb binge for months. I decided that cancer was a more important foe to battle than diabetes at that stage, so just lived with (slightly) elevated BG readings. They reduced back to normal within a week or two after finishing RT, bar the carb-binge effects. How much have your BG values increased, and what do you eat?
BTW, I've had an unusually bad time with RT side-effects; a friend who had RT on the prostate had no issues whatsoever!
 
Thanks for the replies, and hugs, folks.
I'm T2 but have been on insulin since May this year. I no longer need to eat low carb as I can balance carbs with insulin and in fact need to maintain a decent carb intake (diabetes dietician say I need 200g carbs per day) to maintain my BMI which was horribly low when I was diagnosed in 2015.
Thanks to the insulin I've managed to keep my blood glucose within my target range of 4 to 10 mmol pretty well over the last couple of months, though have experienced to odd close to a hypo episode and occasional post-prandial peaks but not many and I usually know what caused them.
Since I commenced radio therapy I've been experiencing regular peaks of up to 14 mmol and I think I probably need to increase my insulin to bring these down.
I wear a Libre FGM which helps me keep an accurate record of carbs, insulin and BG and am able to upload the data so my DSN can review it. So this evening I have emailed her asking for her advice about how to proceed.

BTW @ianf0ster , what is TOFI? I've not come across that before.
 
miahara said:
BTW @ianf0ster , what is TOFI? I've not come across that before.
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TOFI is Thin Outside, Fat Inside.
It denotes about 10% (perhaps more undiagnosed) Type 2 Diabetics who are of normal weight, but have visceral fat around their internal organs such as Liver and Pancreas. It is fat around and inside the Liver which is believed to be what an LCHF diet or Fasting quickly reverse, leading to lower BG readings and normalising the HbA1C results.
 
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