Corticosteroids and the liver

Medicines Insulin
, ,
1

I hope to be off of prednisone soon. It turns out that I developed a very rare autoimmune disease from the immunotherapy, Bullous pemphigoid.

A week ago Friday I started bimonthly SQ injections of Dupixent. I’ve done one dose and the rash is diminished and no blisters, YEA!

Anyway, I was thinking that prednisone increases insulin resistance, and it does. But I got to wondering if it was reducing the effectiveness of insulin, actually breaking it down. I have to bolus about twice my carb g:units and do postprandial corrections ( that’s with an s).

What I’ve found is that corticosteroids make the liver insulin resistant. Normally insulin is a signal to the liver to slow or stop releasing glucose.

If I understand this correctly this is probably the cause of the postprandial spikes.

Good news, I will finish tapering off prednisone in 3 weeks.

I really hope none of my brothers and sisters here will ever have to take more than a short course of prednisone.

10 Likes
2

Down to 10mg prednisone on a taper. Will be off in 3 weeks.

I’ve gained unwanted weight, I’ve been eating 2 meals per day for 3 days.

When I was on higher doses it was hard to deny my increased appetite. I ate food I haven’t eaten in 34 years.

7 Likes
3

The taper is interesting. From what I’ve heard, if you don’t taper it and instead you drop it suddenly, your body may not make it’s own.

The taper apparently signals your body that it needs to start making its own again.

3 Likes
4

That’s true, the adrenal glands basically shut off as there’s an excess of corticosteroids in the bloodstream. The taper slowly lowers so the adrenal glands will start up.

6 Likes
5

I hope I’m not boring anyone, but I’ve got to share how pleased I am with prednisone down to 10mg and not eating lunch. I get a bump after dinner because I tend to eat a bit too much. The one last night was 214mg/dl.

IMG_2208
IMG_22082556×1179 133 KB

6 Likes
6

@CarlosLuis Not boring! Great job!

2 Likes
7

It’s not boring, I think it’s interesting how it works.

2 Likes
8

@Marie & @Eric Thanks for the affirmation. 2 more days at 10mmg and then 5mg. My TDD is coming down. My last cartridge fill lasted 4 days instead of the usual 3. So I reduced the fill. I hope to get back to the amount I was filling before these months of steroid use. Also I need to lose about 8 pounds.

4 Likes