Antibiotics And Blood Sugar

[TheClockworkDodo]

Do antibiotics effect your blood sugar? - I don't mean in the sense of stopping an infection which was raising your overall blood sugar, I mean do the antibiotics themselves have any effect on you personally?

I had a wisdom tooth out because there were 2 abscesses under it, and the infection obviously hadn't cleared up a week later, so the dentist gave me a short course of antibiotics. All was fine while I was taking them, and my blood sugar was slightly more in target/lower overall, which is sort of what I would expect, if the infection was going. I was really pleased to see Libre graphs which were all in range, for a change.

But since I stopped taking the antibiotics my blood sugar has been all over the place. I had some really long spikes which I couldn't shake without correction doses - in one case it took 3 correction doses and half the night to get my blood sugar down to a healthy level (normally I have short sharp spikes, usually followed by hypos, and hardly ever need even one correction dose). And it's not that the weather has changed so I need to put my insulin doses up, because I've also had an unusually high number of hypos, even for me.

I haven't changed anything in the way of food or exercise or anything else of that sort, so there's no other obvious cause.

It could be co-incidence, or it could be to do with my ME (some people with ME are helped by antibiotics, though of course others can't tolerate them), but I wondered whether anyone else has had anything like this? My body just seemed to be really happy on antibiotics and really annoyed about it when I stopped taking them!

 

[Bronco Billy]

It sounds like you've been having fun. I hope this article will give some of the information you need.

https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=172680

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

Thank you - unfortunately I don't seem to be able to see that without first having to read & agree to their privacy policy, which is more than I can understand/cope with today (I have severe brain fog). I might be able to try another day. But I see the title is "certain antibiotics tied to blood sugar swings in diabetics". My experience was the opposite (unless it says there is a delayed reaction?): while on the antibiotics my blood sugar behaved perfectly, it was after I stopped taking them that it started going mad. I thought having the antibiotics really agreed with me!

 

[mikeyB]

Don’t forget you have a disordered immune system, Juliet. When you were taking antibiotics your immune system was taking a back seat just clearing up dead bacteria. I suspect you are experiencing an immune system overrun, with its associated increase in natural steroids and bacterial toxins that is bouncing your BG up and down. A dental infection is quite a heavy bacterial load, so I expect as soon as your system decides it has done enough cleaning and tidying it will all settle down. In a more normal person, this all happens during the illness.

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

Thank you, Mike - that's interesting. ME does cause delayed reactions to things, but I hadn't thought that the normal clearing up infection process might still be happening at such a delayed rate weeks after the event. My immune system is normally very overactive (usually in the wrong directions!), so maybe the antibiotics just calmed it down a bit too.