Steroids & Diabetes

Snowfish3112 said:

Hi All New to this so bear with me.
I have been recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and was started on Metformin but have today been put on Glicizide following last set of blood tests.
Also given an Accu check and told to check 3 -4 times daily.
I have chronic asthma and have been on 30mg of Prednisolone steroid for the last 7 years - I struggle with weight and due to exassapation of asthma last week had increased steroids - my blood sugars are somewhere between 14 and 21.7 at mo.
Does anyone else have similar treatment/ illness and how do you manage your diabetes with relation to steroids increasing blood sugar levels??

Thanks :wave:

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Hi Snowfish and welcome to the forum.

There are others here on steroid treatments and I hope that they will be able to help you. The forum is usually quieter at weekends. I have to take them occasionally for a six week period and my blood sugars are always unpredictable during this time.

Have you read the information for newly diagnosed? This may help you get your blood sugars down to a more reasonable level.

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=26870

I will pm a chap who had this problem at the start of his diagnosis to see if he can help you out and give you some advice. (You have to make 5 posts before you can use the pm system).

Take care.

CC.

Hi Snowfish, I was diagnosed after three years on pred following a bad exacerbation which ended in me being admitted to intensive care and intubated for six days whilst treated with huge doses of antibiotics and prednisolone. As well as Asthma I was diagnosed with COPD and Bronchiectasis all at the same time!!!

On diagnosis of diabetes after about two and a half years on 40mg of pred a day I was put straight on insulin well after about three days on metformin actually as I was admitted to hospital with an SVT (fast erratic heart beat) and I was rather glad I was put on insulin as it enabled me in combination with a very strict diet to get my diabetes under control very quickly, over the next year I managed to lose over four stone in weight and also managed to be weaned off prednisolone over a six month period coming down very slowly from 40mg a day to 1/2mg a day (half a 1mg tablet)

Loosing weight was probably the hardest but best thing I did, but I was so scared by my diabetes diagnosis, the fear of it gave me the motivation to be strict with my diet. I reduced the amount of food I was eating considerably, I'm not sure by how much but I would guess it was well over 50%, pred is renowned for giving you a giant appetite and I'm sure I was eating too much before that anyway, I also was lucky enough to have been prescribed a bg meter and testing strips due to my insulin regime which allowed me to test my blood glucose (BG) before every meal and two hours after every meal, this showed me how food (carbohydrates) pushed up my blood sugar.

By multiple testing pre and post meals I managed to find out exactly how much carbohydrate I could eat with each meal, by reducing the carb portion by 50% every time I ate a particular meal until my post meal level was within 2 mmol/L of my pre meal level. As a result of focusing on the gap between my pre and post meal levels the overall level came down accordingly and within three months my HbA1c showed a reduction from 12.9% to somewhere in the 5% range where I have managed to keep it ever since, I suspect though that if I were to have to take prendisolone again I would no doubt see a large increase in my levels again and may even need to go back on insulin to keep them down to this level.

You may find that you will end up being prescribed insulin to help you control your diabetes especially if there is no prospect of you withdrawing the prednisolne, but keeping to a very strict diet and reducing the carbohydrate content of your meals will help enormously.

Steroid induced diabetes is now a recognised type of diabetes and if you can get a referral from your GP to a specialist diabetes unit, they are usually attached to your local hospital and run under the supervision of an endocrinologist diabetes specialist, you will do yourself a big big favour as their knowledge of diabetes is so much better than that of a local GP.

If you do get a referral to a specialist unit and they do prescribe you insulin treatment, dont be alarmed, for me it was a god send which definitely helped me get my diabetes under tight control, and I soon got used to the routine of checking my levels before meals and only injecting the minimum amount of insulin for a particular meal and that is the key to being able to reduce your weight which in turn is key to reducing the insulin resistance which will be a big factor in causing your high blood glucose levels.

Good luck and do ask for that referral :thumbup:

Do you know what, I wonder just how many of us there are out there that have been on steroids for a long time and who have now developed diabetes? I never made the link before and it was never suggested that I might have problems later. :think:

Snowfish, I am another wheezer who has now been sucessfully off Prednisolone for a while after taking it for more years than I care to remember.
I would echo Sid's advice, although we approach it in slightly different ways, he controls his diabetes with portion control, I tend to go for the low-ER carb approach.

The one thing that has helped me more than any other is getting a meter to check what different foods do to my glucose levels, often quite small changes can produce some impressive results and it is invaluable to have instant feedback on whether you are doing the right thing or not.

It is very easy to get downhearted, particularly when you have breathing problems and of course carrying extra weight makes you feel worse. The asthma makes it harder to breathe when you move around so less movement-more depression-more eating..it is a hard cycle to break but take it small steps at a time and see what a difference you can make.

For the time being you can't do anything about the steroids but you can have some control over your diet, cuttiing back on bread, rice and spuds by half and replacing it with meat, fish or veggies..especially the veggies. You don't need to go hungry.

Try not to feel guilty about the weight etc (the professionals often do that for us!) and congratulate yourself in being positive in trying to find a solution. One step at a time

thought i would have a quick look at this thread. after just being diagnosed with RRMS and expecting a lupus diagnosis within the next month or so i havent really had a choice but to accept that steroids will be part of my life at some point. can see i will be purchasing a lot more baby tomatoes in the future too!

Hi Snowfish and welcome to the forum! You might find the following link useful: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-medi ... betes.html

Hope you find what you're looking for here :wave: