blood sugar

[Alliekat65]

I was on 25mg pred about to drop to 30 when vision became blurred put up to 30 after blood test showed I needed towas told to do blood sugar level and its 9.2 ..

8s it the pred..I'm trying to watch my food s but not sure wat else to do

[SnazzyD]

Hello, yes, the Pred does make your blood sugars go up so extra measures need to be taken beyond a ‘healthy’ diet. The possible good news is that in “trying” to watch your food you may be taking in more carbs than you think. Have you tried a food diary yet? It really is helpful to know when they creep in. We do tend to have to hit the low carb quite hard until much lower Pred doses.

[Alliekat65 in reply to SnazzyD]

hi yes trying cut down alot of cards. could rice etc but do struggle lol

[PMRpro Ambassador]

At this stage all you can do is be really strict about your carb intake - especially processed carbs, added sugar and some fruits. And as Snazzy says, it is amazing where carbs sneak in under the radar! The best way is to keep an honest diary and use google to work out how much carbohydrate is really there. Just recently I broke it to someone that there are 6g of carbs in a single Rich Tea biscuit! Snazzy and I had to get very low on carbs to lose weight and initially 20g carbs was what we were aiming for - 3 Rich Tea biccies!!!! Or a single banana took us over our limit.

dietdoctor.com/low-carb

is an excellent resource to learn the ropes. They have receipes and suggestions - and you don't have to pay anything unless you want to to be able to access a wider range of recipes. The Michael Mosely books are also very good but the forewords tend to be a bit repetitive so the cost mounts up for not a lot of gain if you buy several. But in general, there are many recipes and ideas all over the internet - FREE!

[Alliekat65 in reply to PMRpro]

thank you . I have slices of egg and ham for lunch.. no cards lol

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Alliekat65]

Well done!!!

Koalajane was already Type 2 diabetic I think, She found that eating during a particular time window after taking pred spiked her sugars badly so avoids eating in that period. She put her Type 2 into remission!!

Random blood sugar tests aren't very meaningful. The pred makes your liver release spikes of glucose from your liver and muscles and if you test then, or even worse when you have eaten AND there was a spike, it can look really depressing. The Hba1c is more helpful. it is about your average sugar levels. But you can do a lot yourself. If that doesn't work, the GP can prescribe meds that will help but it can be done without for lots of us.

[Koalajane]

I was diagnosed with steroid induced type 2 diabetes not long after my PMR diagnosis. I cut my carbs by a lot. 1 slice of sourdough wholemeal bread for breakfast(toasted with peanut butter on) then I don’t eat until about 6pm and it is usually a salad, tuna, chicken or egg. My diabetes went into remission and I lost over 3 stones. That was over 6 years ago. Now on 3.75mg of prednisolone and still in remission.

[Alliekat65 in reply to Koalajane]

that's brill !

[paulus65]

I was also diagnosed with steroid-induced diabetes while on highish level of pred. By the time I was diagnosed it was a bit late for low carb diet but prescribed metformin which did the trick. As I tapered pred my blood sugar improved so now no longer need the extra meds.

A side benefit (benefit??) of having been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes is that I now qualify for an annual "special" eye test, regardless of the fact that I no longer have it!