Ask The Expert
Monitoring

Yes, cortisone (also called a steroid) is a known cause of temporary high glucose in people with diabetes. Generally, cortisone pills or injections can elevate blood glucose, while cortisone cream would not—and likewise, cortisone inhalers generally have a lesser effect or no effect on blood glucose.

Cortisone causes the liver to release extra glucose, so if you have diabetes, the effect of cortisone can sometimes require a corresponding temporary increase in your diabetes medication. This is very individual, because it depends on the level of your diabetes control, the amount of cortisone given, as well as the length of time you will be on cortisone. For example, sometimes the effect of cortisone will only raise the blood glucose for a few days, so depending on the level of your glucose, your doctor may decide not to adjust your diabetes medication. On the other hand, if the cortisone dose is relatively high, and/or you need to take cortisone for a while (and subsequently your glucose remains elevated), your doctor may need to increase your diabetes medication.

Chronic effects on blood glucose from cortisone: For the non-diabetic, there is a condition called steroid-induced diabetes-- meaning that if a person takes cortisone for an extended period of time, the chronic increase in blood glucose (from the effect of cortisone) can put too much strain on the pancreas, decreasing the pancreas’s ability to produce adequate insulin. It is still debatable whether cortisone itself causes diabetes, or rather that the person had pre-diabetes, and the cortisone simply brought the pre-diabetes condition to the forefront sooner than would have otherwise occurred. There are other chronic effects from cortisone which are not related to diabetes, so I will not elaborate here.

Intermittent cortisone treatment: There are also situations where certain people take cortisone intermittently (for some types of lung disease, chronic arthritis, autoimmune diseases, skin conditions, allergic reactions, or chemotherapy, among other conditions); in some instances, these people have to be treated intermittently with diabetes medication as well.

Checking your glucose meter: While your wife confirmed that your glucose was elevated when she tested you on her meter, it is always important to verify that your meter is working correctly. The easiest way to do this is with control solution, but also it is wise to periodically compare your meter to the laboratory.

Contact your doctor: Finally, and most importantly, be sure to contact your doctor right away to report your elevated blood glucose. It is also important that you ask your doctor for general guidelines regarding at what glucose level you should contact your diabetes team.