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COVID jab and blood sugar levels

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parusmajor

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Relationship to Diabetes
Carer/Partner
Hi everyone,
my partner has Type 2 diabetes after surviving a heart attack a few years ago, and has been trying to get his blood sugar and weight under control for the past 2.5 months. He trains twice a day and the only sugar he ingests comes from milk in his coffee, vegetables, and a very rare fruit. His sugar level decreased from above 7 to below 5 over the first two months. However after the Pfizer jab it went up again and is now hovering around 6 again. He got the first jab around 3 weeks ago and thinks this is what's causing the sugar level to rise back up.
He's had no other side effects whatsoever but the increasing blood sugar is making him fatigued.
I was wondering if anybody in this group can report similar effects? If yes, when do they finally go away?
Thanks!
 
There are many things which can affect our blood sugars from food to exercise to stress to illness to drugs and more.
When we have a vaccine, our bodies rebel against it and start to build up antibodies. This reaction can cause our levers to release more glucose to provide the additional energy needed for this antibody creation.
As a result, it is common to see a change in blood sugar levels after a vaccine such as flu or covid.
 
I haven’t seen any difference after the first 24 hours - nothing persisting at all.

Mind you, there’s nothing to panic about with BG levels running around 6, it won’t cause any harm.
 
Anitram said:
I've had higher levels since my AZ jab. Pre-jab mostly 5s with occasional 6s, now mostly 6s with occasional 7s. Jab was 4 weeks ago.
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Similar here, average was 5 in the 2-3 weeks before the jab (4.8 to 5.2), steadily increased after the jab to consistently 6-6.2. He can feel the rise - fatigue and dizziness, etc.
 
mikeyB said:
I haven’t seen any difference after the first 24 hours - nothing persisting at all.

Mind you, there’s nothing to panic about with BG levels running around 6, it won’t cause any harm.
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Thanks. It may not be life or death but it's affecting focus, alertness, general wellbeing. It would be nice to know how long the effect is likely to last.
 
How much higher is his BG running?

Is it high enough to need an increase to his medication for his diabetes?
 
parusmajor said:
It would be nice to know how long the effect is likely to last.
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I don't think anyone knows. My best guess would be it might last up to 3 or 4 weeks. (Just guessing based on what people say about the immune response, which is that that develops over 3 or 4 weeks.) I also wouldn't be surprised if it didn't last a week.
 
Sorry to hear about the recent hike in your partner’s levels.

It sounds like a fairly modest rise, so probably isn’t too concerning in the long-term, but I can understand why it’s something you would like to tackle.

Have you considered slightly reducing the amount of carbs in his menu to help bring his levels down. It sounds like you are very careful with sugars, but all carbs, including ‘healthy whole grains’ will apply upward pressure in BG levels that the body has to cope with. And it currently sounds like the body has lots on its plate with the immune response. A modest reduction in carb portions might help?
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Sorry to hear about the recent hike in your partner’s levels.

It sounds like a fairly modest rise, so probably isn’t too concerning in the long-term, but I can understand why it’s something you would like to tackle.

Have you considered slightly reducing the amount of carbs in his menu to help bring his levels down. It sounds like you are very careful with sugars, but all carbs, including ‘healthy whole grains’ will apply upward pressure in BG levels that the body has to cope with. And it currently sounds like the body has lots on its plate with the immune response. A modest reduction in carb portions might help?
Click to expand...
Thanks for this suggestion, definitely worth a try!
 
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