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Type 2 and Antibiotics - what's going on?!

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cakerack

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Hello everyone! I'm new here but just thought I would post my experiences of Type 2 diabetes and how it was (positively) affected by a recent course of antibiotics and see if anyone has any suggestions as to what has been going on.

I have been diabetic for about 15 years and on insulin for 2. I take 2 x 1000 Metformin a day, 14 units of Novorapid with every meal and 28 units of Lantus before bed. Before I went on insulin, my blood sugars were all over - average readings were between 15 and 20 with a HBA1C of 12.9 :-O

So typically, my blood sugars had been anything from 10 to 16 regularly - I had to pretty much starve myself to get them below 10. Then about 8 weeks ago I got Sepsis and was taken into hospital where they pumped me full of antibiotics to try and clear the blood poisoning. I was in hospital for 5 days, and since I came out, my bloods are between 5 and 7! And I haven't changed a thing! Almost like a reset button has been pressed. Is this normal? I am now into my 4th week of my bloods not once been above 10. Any insight into what has caused this would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Sean
 
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There are many things that affect our BG. Food is the obvious but also illness, stress, exercise and drugs.
It may have been that the sepsis was causing your BG to be high and sorting this out has helped bring your BG under control. Or it could be the stress of daily life feeling under the weather with high BG and your body trying to fight off the sespis (before you even knew about it) was raising your BG.
Or, it could be the antibiotics.
 
I believe it has been shown that certain antibiotics such as fluoroquinolones, can cause fluctuations in blood sugar levels both up and down and these swings can last for 30 days or more.

But hope that for you it, the lower levels that is, will last much longer.
 
Wow, it's been almost 4 weeks and your glucose levels are still greatly improved. That's amazing!

Perhaps you've been fighting an infection all these years as suggested here, or perhaps the antibiotic knocked down an overgrowth of a bad bacteria within your gut flora. Eating highly processed foods feed this type of bacteria. If you eat that type of food regularly, this might be the perfect moment to switch to a more of a healthy, whole foods diet.

What a gift. Congrats!

Please update us here periodically on how you're doing.
 
This might help http://www.allaboutdiabetes.net/safe-antibiotics-for-diabetics/
 
Thanks for all the feedback guys. I tend to eat decent stuff - the odd pint now and again but pretty balanced diet with lots of veg and salad so I'm hoping this low blood sugar continues. A year ago my HBA1C was 12.9 (in old money) and I got it down to 8.9 on my last assessment. I suspect this will be much lower on my next assessment - lets hope! The only downside I have had since going on insulin is my weight has increased massively. I have always been a big lad but over recent years had got down to 102Kg. Now at 119Kg :-( However my cholesterol is 2.4 so I'm well happy with that. The story continues...!
 
My partner's mother who has Type2 and regular readings above 15 was recently in hospital for four or five days due to a sudden drop in haemoglobin levels. Her BG level rocketed so they gave her various meds including antibiotics and a few days later her levels were down to around 10 - I don't know why type of Anti-b's she was given or even if there was a direct correlation but it's certainly coincidental. I agree with other commentators that you may have been fighting the infection/sepsis for a while without knowing it and your body was under stress. Here's hoping this drop is long lasting for you.
 
cakerack said:
However my cholesterol is 2.4 so I'm well happy with that.
Click to expand...

You might like to do some research into low cholesterol. Our GPs seem to be pushing to get it lower and lower, year by year. In 1997 my GP was happy with 7, then 6, then 5, then 4 and now they'd like it lower than 4. Our body makes cholesterol for a reason and if we don't eat it the body makes it. The British Heart Foundation found that the incidence of Cardio Vascular Events increased when peoples total cholesterol went above 5.4, problem being that it increased below 5.4 as well. There's much more to cholesterol than just getting the number as low as possible.
 
 
Metformin can cause sepsis. I was put in the Intensive Care Unit back in May with septic shock and very high lactic acid readings. Metformin was the culprit.
 

@cakerack, while you're here, take a look around. There's much you can learn here about which foods to eat (and which foods to greatly limit or avoid). Many of us use the low carb diet to manage our diabetes. The first gift was the lowering of your glucose levels thanks to the antibiotic. The second gift was finding your way to this forum. Lots of good support here. Hope you decide to stay.
 
Interesting. Like some have said here , I am thinking your body is not fighting the sepsis any more or way less so less stressed.
 
Hi and welcome!

What a fantastic result. Very pleased for you.

There has been quite a lot of work on the gut biome and its knock on effect on blood glucose and the development of T2. You may find it interesting, because antibiotics can kill off a lot of the biome.

Maybe taking probiotics will help maintain those good numbers?
 
The only downside I have had since going on insulin is my weight has increased massively. I have always been a big lad but over recent years had got down to 102Kg. Now at 119Kg :-( However my cholesterol is 2.4 so I'm well happy with that. The story continues...![/QUOTE]

I know that feeling, search You Tube for a video on Intermittent Fasting by Dr Jason Fung
You also might like to look at DietDoctor.com to find out all about low carb diet. My weight went from 76kg to 104kg in a year and I put that down to insulin! Dr Fung explains why.
Cheers
 
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