Does sugar go up when sick?

[Shelley]

I have been sick with a cold or flu the last couple days and felt more burning etc. Someone mentioned that your sugar goes up when you are sick.

True?

[Curious]

answer from apria http://www.apria.com/home/


I am a Nurse Clinical Manager at Apria Healthcare and wanted to explain a little bit about your blood sugar. When a diabetic person is sick, their body systems react differently than normal. This can cause either a higher blood sugar or a lower blood sugar. Infections usually cause a low blood sugar because the body uses more sugar to fight the infection. Other illnesses can cause the blood sugar to be high because the body releases different hormones due to the illness. These hormones can interfere with insulin use, and thus cause the blood sugar to be higher. Contact your physician any time you have higher or lower blood sugars so that insulin use can be adjusted while you are sick. Happy New Year!

[Shelley]

Thanks Monkey!

Well I talked to the doc (endo) and she said that the burning is definitely an indication that the sugar and insulin are not under control.

She said yes sugar can go up when you are sick or go down which is similar to what you found.

Funny I wonder if a cold or flu is considered an infection because what you have says it would go down.

I also updated her onthe frozen shoulder and she said that the cortizone shot could be the culprit and that will take my sugar high for a couple of weeks.

So I am taking my metformin up a smidge and upping the cinimmon althought she did not know what the upper limit on cinnamon should be...I bet Mrsd knows.