Type 2 T2 diagnosed consequent upon prescribed medications

[Tombo1206]

I was diagnosed with Giant Cell Arteritis in November 2019 and immediately prescribed 60mg Prednisolone daily. In January 2020 I was diagnosed as T2 and my consultant and diabetes nurses have said it was because of the Prednisolone. I am currently taking 12mg Prednisolone daily.
I was initially prescribed Metformin which I continue to take, 4x500mg daily.
I am interested to know if anyone has had a similar experience and if so how it has affected their management of T2 and the causal medication.
Thank you for reading.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

I was diagnosed with Giant Cell Arteritis in November 2019 and immediately prescribed 60mg Prednisolone daily. In January 2020 I was diagnosed as T2 and my consultant and diabetes nurses have said it was because of the Prednisolone. I am currently taking 12mg Prednisolone daily.
I was initially prescribed Metformin which I continue to take, 4x500mg daily.
I am interested to know if anyone has had a similar experience and if so how it has affected their management of T2 and the causal medication.
Thank you for reading.

Quite a few people have to take medication that raises blood sugars or causes T2... There's a bunch of things that can raise blood sugars though, and if you can't control one (because the medication isn't particularly optional!), it would be wise to get tight control of another, like diet. A T2 cannot process carbs well, so... Cut the carbs, and your blood sugars will drop, hopefully to acceptable levels. Personally, I think it's a good thing to try that route first, rather than throwing more medication -and possible side effects- in the mix. Get yourself a blood glucose meter and you'll be able to see in no time at all whether it is working. Also, carbs are inflammatory by nature, so it could possibly help to cut those, in the arthritis area, as well. Can't guarantee it though. (Sjögrens rheumatism here, cutting out carbs and most cow dairy got that sorted, rather than the advised low dose of Prednisolon. Can't say the same would happen for you, but who knows... Right now though, just getting blood sugars down would be a big win!) https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-nutritional-thingy.2330/ can help get your diet sorted, and your blood sugars done and dusted. I hope it'll be enough. From what I can tell your dosage isn't that high, just continuous, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

 

[JohnEGreen]

I have Myasthenia Gravis the treatment for that includes Prednisolone which I have been taking daily for about twenty years for much of that time at 80mg per day I now have been able to reduce that to 15mg per day and yes like you my diabetes is prednisolone induced.

I have brought my blood sugars into the normal range and maintained that for some time now by keeping a tight control of my carbohydrates and also losing the several stone in weight gain that preds had contributed to, if like me you are going to be taking preds indefinately then I'm afraid it's a long term thing I have been told if you come off preds then your diabetes may just dissapear but this is not always the case and diabetes can be permanent.. But if you can't come off them it's something you just have to live with.

There are prednisolone sparing medications that I was prescribed by my neurologist but they did me more harm than good so had to dicontinue them so I am stuck with preds. You however may do better with them and it might be something to discuss with your specialist.

I would like to add that I from a recent eye test at the optitions have been diagnosed with cataracts and that I have had them for at least 5 years diabetes makes us more prone to them but reading up I have found out that they can be a side afeect of long term prednisolone use so I would advise you to make sure you have regular eye tests apart from your normal yearly diabetic screening.

Good luck
John