Prednisone and Blood Sugar

[mrtmeo]

Does anyone have high blood sugar on 10mg prednisone?
My mom's is always from 120-160.
I'm just wondering if this is due to the prednisone.

[BookNut]

I do not have a great deal of experience, but I have been on 7pred tapers in the last 10 months. In spite of eating a diabetic diet for a year, I am suddenly pre-diabetic. I assume they have your mom on a diabetic diet to help keep things low. When I was on a large dose (60mg iv push 5xper day) I definitely had high sugar levels. They went down as the dose was lowered, but have gone up again due to the intermittent pred tapers. It is frustrating. Have they considered meds to lower the sugar level?

[mrtmeo]

I do not have a great deal of experience, but I have been on 7pred tapers in the last 10 months. In spite of eating a diabetic diet for a year, I am suddenly pre-diabetic. I assume they have your mom on a diabetic diet to help keep things low. When I was on a large dose (60mg iv push 5xper day) I definitely had high sugar levels. They went down as the dose was lowered, but have gone up again due to the intermittent pred tapers. It is frustrating. Have they considered meds to lower the sugar level?

Hi Jacequie,
They have not prescribed anything for my mom's high blood sugar.
She has always had a slightly elevated bs due to being on inhalers, but since being on the prednisone, her bs is rarely below 120.
However, when they do the blood work, it is not a fasting blood sugar.

When she was on a higher dose of prednisone for a week last year, her bs was high and took a couple months to come back down to her normal.

[drz]

My endo says even my 5 mgs can make my blood glucose levels higher but then I have had diabetes for decades too.

[Bing505z]

It made mine high, and Doc was positive its the pred. Once off the pred, blood sugar, blood pressure, heart rate, and mood back to normal. The swelling in my legs, and soreness and stiffness all went away once of the pred. It does some good, but also a ton of bad.

[BarbW]

My glucose is ridiculous. ...365 tonight. My rheumy took me off steroids but my insulin has NOT
normalized. My appt isnt until Oct 13. I cut bread ...eat cottage cheese, salads,fish. I haven't had sugar except
for fruit. This really sucks.

[mrtmeo]

I have my mom on a ketogenic diet that provides minimum protein 45-50gm and 15-20gms of carbs per day.
This has lowered her blood sugar and bun levels.
Will have to wait and see if it comes down with lower prednisone.

[drz]

My glucose is ridiculous. ...365 tonight. My rheumy took me off steroids but my insulin has NOT
normalized. My appt isnt until Oct 13. I cut bread ...eat cottage cheese, salads,fish. I haven't had sugar except
for fruit. This really sucks.

Are you also getting insulin to help reduce it?

[mrtmeo]

Are you also getting insulin to help reduce it?

She is not on any meds for blood sugar.
Her blood sugar has never gone above 187 the whole time on prednisone, but was usually around 150.
Hers is definitely, steroid induced, otherwise, she would be diabetic for sure on the prednisone.
It is down to 119 right now.

[Sangye]

I had steroid-induced hyperglycemia when I was on high dose pred for a bit. It resolved itself once I got to lower doses. That's very common. See if she can increase her protein--especially raw proteins-- which will stabilize her blood sugar better. Snacking on things like nuts every few hours helps a lot.