I was diagnosed with PMR in early January. I also did the Hemoglobin A1C test at about the same time. The test indicated that I have just crossed over into the pre-diabetic area. I am a 63 year old male and had just done the test course of Prednisone a couple of weeks before the A1C test. I don't know if the previous short stint on pred affected the A1C results or not, but it does have me concerned about steroid induced diabetes.
I'm curious about what others are experiencing being on Prednisone. How much is it messing with your blood sugar?
Written by
Mahnahvu
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
My blood sugar was creeping up, but since I went on a low carb no sugar diet when I started Pred and lost 25 pounds, it has actually come down. Ditto with blood pressure. Had to stop the blood pressure medicines.
I'm not as strict these days as I was at first, but my weight has stayed down and my blood pressure too. I did have to start a statin, Crestor, half the lowest dose. My Cholesterol did go up. Not a big surprise since going off carbs and sugars led me to substitute fats. Crestor has taken care of that.
Have been on Pred 6 years, and only in last 6 months has blood sugar crept up...doctor rang last week to say I am now pre diabetic, so no sugar...it is the dealing with carbs that I am finding tricky, but I`m sure if diet is watched it can be controlled.
I am thankful it was picked up, many people are unaware of being pre-diabetic till it`s full blown diabetes....have to look on the bright side somewhere!
Thank you, will look into that....think it`s supposed to help with other things as well.....so watch this space!
To my knowledge as someone with diabetes for 18 years (i am haopy to corrected)... The hba1c is a measure of @3months levels. It's like of video of the levels. Testing on a meter is like a snapshot of that moment. I could see a daily meter test being higher after 2weeks of pred but I would think that your hba1c was already prediabetic prior to pred. Do you know the numbers and was it a fasting blood test?
If you are prediabetic then there is every chance that by cutting carbs - sweets, puddings, anything made with flour and, for a while fruit, you can reduce it. pred spikes blood sugar and carbs spikes blood sugar too. If you manage control it will give you a roller coaster ride. It's better to catch it now. I managed for years with dietary changes and metformin added. I think I was undiagnosed for about 4 years so was waaay over into diabetic and felt very ill.hopefully you can take action before it effects you that way.
Hello, I don’t know what your weight is or what your diet contains but I swear by a no/low carb diet as do many on here. I started on 60mg last March and my weight hasn’t changed after a small loss and my HbA1c as been fine. I don’t eat pasta, potatoes, rice, corn or grain based products. I just eat lots of veg, fruit in moderation, protein and pulses and don’t worry too much about fats, though I don’t eat visible fat. I have two glasses of wine per week. Desert is dark chocolate, berries with non sweetened coconut yoghurt. As I’ve got down towards 10mg I’ve had the odd extra but that’ll be once per week if that. After a while things you wouldn’t consider sweet take on a sweetness and foods normally seen as treats lose their appeal. Low salt also stops fluid retention from the Pred retaining sodium. If I go out which isn’t often, I don’t worry too much, but a blowout just doesn’t feel good any more. It just feels normal now.
It sounds like you have been on the Pred for a short time only. It is possible that you were already going that way before the Pred as the HbA1c is the average of 12 weeks of blood sugar. Or it may have been a strong reaction and a fairly hefty rise in that short time, which would say to me that you need to be vigilant with your diet and sugar levels. If you have any other medical conditions, it would be worth discussing this diet with your doc too first.
Thanks SnazzyD. Your comment is helpful. I suppose it didn't help that the test happened just after getting through all the Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas goodies (I'm in the States). I'm definitely starting a low-carb diet!
My blood sugar goes up when on anything higher than 6 mg, so does my cholesterol. When my Prednisolone dose gets down to 4 mg and lower my blood sugar becomes normal and cholesterol drops dramatically after a few month on lower dose. Unfortunately I have had PMR for almost 10 years, and now in my 78th year it seems it will never go away. My adrenal glands are no longer functioning after years of flares or relapses, and the inevitable higher dose of Pred to control the inflammation. I expect the yo-yo of increased dose and lowering again will continue to raise and lower my blood sugar. My family has a history of diabetes so i am careful about diet.
Probably that we none of us really have PMR. But the top experts are coming round to the concept there are different sorts, short-term, medium-term and possibly for life. And that there is a big overlap between GCA and PMR, bigger than is thought simply because they rely on the symptoms a patient reports - and that depends on the questions they ask. I was never asked about scalp pain, jaw pain, cough. Just headache which I never had.
Maybe other drugs would help with them but trial and error is a poor way to find that out. I've said all along that at least half of patients take 5 years more or less to get off pred. This 2 year thing does seem to be an English-speaking concept - the standard German rheumatology textbook says 5 years on average. That was long before this most recent work that shows nearly 6 years as the median.
The short course of pred will not have significantly affected the Hba1c result - it is a relfection of the previous 3 months or so of blood sugar levels. So I'm afraid the signs are you were creeping up anyway.
Cutting carbs drastically is frequently recommended on the forums as a means of helping avoid weight gain when on pred - and also reducing the risk of developing pred-induced diabetes. And it works, one lady reduced her Hba1c from 47 (borderline diabetic) to 41(normal) just by cutting carbs.
Pred causes the liver to release random spikes of glucose into the blood - and they shove the basic level of the Hba1c up. It is carbs that lead to the problem - and they are not necessary for a healthy diet. Cut all the junk and stick to veggies, restricted fruit and wholegrain cereal if you must. NO ADDED SUGAR!!!!!
I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about 2 months after diagnosis with PMR. My hba1c was 99. I notice that my sugar levels go up to 8 or 9 in the afternoon. My last hba1c 6 months later was 37 and I am off medication for this. My diabetic nurse says it is due to the change of diet to LCHF and exercise and loss of weight. My dose of prednisolone is now 7.5 mg.
I think I must have been prediabetic before starting prednisolone and had a sedentary lifestyle whilst awaiting diagnosis of PMR and too many carbs and sugary things to eat.
There`s hope for us all then....I`m being dim here, is LCHF low carb high fat? it`s contrary to all diets when younger, it was always low fat! Thank you...
Like the fallacy about eating eggs and cholesterol, eating saturated fats is now OK in moderation, which is true of everything I suppose. I am not sure about drinking as this week it seems to cause dementia, while last week it was good for us!
New thoughts - not influenced by the food manufacturing industry for whom Ancel Keys' low fat theory was a gift. Expensive fat was to be removed - and replaced by other things. Which turned out to be high fructose corn sugar and its like - which were basically waste products that could be used to replace the fat and maintain "taste" and texture while coincidentally extending shelf-life to months, even years. Win-win for the food industry. So when others picked up the flaws in the low fat story (and there were many) and tried to reveal the problems with sugar they were silenced by the threat of losing funding. The sugar lobby was massive. And the result has been a steady rise in obesity and Type 2 diabetes rates.
I'm not entirely a supporter of high fat - moderate fat is better very often. But for some people high fat has a lot of benefits.
I read an interesting book (I thought anyway) called Salt Sugar Fat, explaining how the sugar industry and Ancel Keys set up the con about fats purely for marketing the sugar.
Thank you for that....I am obviously cutting out sugar now diagnosed pre-diabetic, but am also cutting carbs quite drastically, but keep getting told by those who think they know...that I need some for energy, so how much do you eat in a day roughly if you don`t mind me asking, I don`t want to make myself more drained than I am.
Hope you are over your virus and it hasn`t pulled you down too much!....
You do NOT need carbs for energy - the body is really quite clever and if there isn't enough carb/glucose around it changes the form of metabolism to use the fat deposits in your body to produce glucose. Which, if what you are aiming for is to lose weight, is exactly what you need...
I eat very little in the way of carbs - a big bowl of salad at lunchtime and another load of salad or large plate of above ground veggies (and carrots occasionally) for dinner plus cheese, meat, fish. eggs for protein. Very rarely bread or potatoes, no rice or pasta (maybe once in a couple of months). If I want a dessert or icecream when we are out I have one - but that is maybe once a month, if that. No cakes, biscuits, snacks - I eat a handful of nuts a day probably. Very little fruit either.
OK, thanks for that, I seem to be doing it right so far, have been having almonds for snack or maybe a clementine..I can get bored with salad, so will have to make sure I vary it every day....meeting a friend for coffee is dire....only carbs!😕...thanks again..
Do you go for coffee everyday?!! I don't say "NO carbs", if I want a cake I have it. When it is at home I cut the slice in 2 or even 3 pieces and savour it. And cut the unnecessary carbs elsewhere. I don't get bored with salad and if you have a root around on the internet you will find all sorts of ideas to pep up a salad - of course I am lucky here because we have so many different sorts of salad leaves. Have you ever tried grilled Little Gem hearts? I grill radicchio too...
Coffee everyday...no way....I have one if I`m well enough to go out about once a week, but if I was out more often what I meant was it`s a very poor choice....
yes, will look to pep up a salad/radicchio, and hopefully doing this I might "pep" myself up with a bit of luck....My sister would be more than happy to share a cake with me...she has RA and watches her weight too....Thank You
It will send your blood sugar skyrocketing. If you are diabetic, you need to monitor it closely. I have had to increase my afternoon insulin dose by 50%
I have been on Pred now for three years trying to control PMRGCA. I am a little overweight and fighting to lose some is difficult. I am pre-diabetic now and will be trying to stick with a low carb diet. I take Diltiazem for Raynauds disease, Atenolol for A-fib also. I have to force myself to keep moving because I feel tired and sore most of the time. But at 61 everyone keeps telling me “well you are older now and that is to be expected” and that isn’t good enough because I think I should feel better than this.
It seems to be an UK thing this idea that at 61 one should feel less good. None of that nonsense here - my 67 year old neighbour still regularly walks all day at altitude (1700m and above) with her friends. Summer and winter...
I reversed Type 2 diabetes with low carb - 150g carbs a day max - and the carbs I ate were the slow release kind - not processed ‘white’ carbs or sugar. Also walking daily. I now take an 80:20 approach - not too rigid - which is more sustainable for me. ‘Reverse Your Diabetes’ by David Cavan is an excellent resource, very informative and encouraging. Worked like a miracle for me!
I was on prednisone a few years ago and had my A1C test and it was over 400. The doctor paniced and wanted me to go on insulin. I told him about the prednisone and he waited 3 months. My A1C test was fine then.
Of course, now years later, I have GCA and have been on prednisone for over two years and I am on two types of insulin to control my sugar.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
blood sugar
Steroids and blood-sugar...
experience with bophosphonate infusions
Blood sugar
Is there a blood test~~pred withdrawal
