Symbicort Blood Sugars

[Tengudreams]

Last week I had a particularly bad asthma day and went from my usual one puff a day to seven puffs. On that same day after taking all those puffs, I had my blood drawn and the glucose level was 7 and freaked me out as I had never had a problem with blood glucose. Last thing I want now is diabetes!!! Can higher dose of Symbicort right before a blood test increase my sugars? Cause Im in very good shape and eat well overall. Im on symbicort smart 200/6

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador]

If it wasn’t a fasting blood test than 7s a ‘normal’ result so nothing to worry about. In the short term steroid boosts are unlikely to turn into chronic conditions like diabetes, and even less so if it’s ICS inhalers rather than oral tablets .

Long term use of oral steroids can lead to diabetes a lot quicker than ICS as the inhaled steroids are ‘targeted’ at the lungs they take longer to develop into something more sinister.

So whilst ICS can increase blood sugars after long term use it is less likely something to be worried about in an ‘immediate response’ so to say.

Hope that answers your question

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador in reply to EmmaF91]

And to answer your question from another thread... you should produce your best PF whilst standing (it’s the ‘correct’ way to do it). And equally most asthmatics feel worse after a PF if they are struggling (because lungs are ‘twitchy’) it feel no different afterwards. Have you looked into BPD (breathing pattern disorder)? That can cause this sort of weird presentation pattern...

[Tengudreams in reply to EmmaF91]

I havent looked into BPD. My normal respiratory rate is 8-9 and I breathe from my diaphram properly. I dont know. Maybe I need to read more about it and see if something is there. Thanks for suggestions as always!! U rock!

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador in reply to Tengudreams]

If it helps a ‘normal’ resting rr is 12-20, so maybe you are hypoventilating or breath holding or something. my old BPD (picked it up after a really bad infection triggering massive asthma attack) was a mixture of out breath holding and hypoventilating I think... rr was 7/8, and as soon as asthma got mildly squiffy my sats dropped, i also had an unreliable spiro (ie i couldnt reproduce 3 similar scores in a row)... sorted out the BPD with physio and now my rr is 18 and sats don’t drop until my PF is ridiculously low and asthma really bad.

People who do endurance sports at a high performance level may have a lower rr (like they usually have slower HRs), but they have the trained their bodies to that point... always a good thing to look into and a Resp physio is often the best person to spot it. If it is that then it’s something that may be easy to fix (hardest thing is breaking the habit!)

[Tengudreams in reply to EmmaF91]

Interesting. Hypoventilating. Had never heard of it. I am a life long martial artist and a full time (prior to covid) martial arts instructor. Its possible I have a lower rr but maybe I am focused too much on my breathing and have messed it up. Ill see if I can find a resp physiotherapist. Good idea!!!!