tx and blood sugar

[Upbeat]

Can any of you with diabetes tell me if your blood sugar numbers went up? Stayed the same ? Or went down during tx?  Some people have reported that by killing the virus their diabetes cleared up.  Any info would be appreciated.

                                                                                                                                                              Ron

[GoofyDad]

But it's not a three testicle situation. Two of them are fine - as fine as 50 year old testicles can be expected anyway. It's only the third that seems to have trouble. It's small, and it twitches whenever Love Shack plays on the radio. Suggestions?  

[FlGuy]

I'm affaid that I must refer you to the "Post Treatment Side Effects" threads.  Obviously, the three testicle situation relates to Interferon Hangover.  Although I've noticed those threads I don't read them thoroughly but I think I remember that someone suggested writing posts about their lingering side effect nuggets.

[GoofyDad]

Here's a question for you diabetes experts. I'm sure FLguy will have something to offer.

Can blood sugar levels affect the male anatomy? Like trouble with the testicles? I've notice that lately, one of mine is smaller than the other two. Do I have anything to worry about?  

[mikesimon]

FLGuy is absolutely correct.
Never rely on an A1C result while treating with ribavirin.
If the ribavirin is working and your hemoglobin is lower then your A1C will be artificially low.
The more significant the hemolytic anemia the lower the A1C.
Rely instead on your glucometer readings and test often. This is very important.

Mike

[FlGuy]

These are not scientific terms - just a lay explanation as told to me by the endo doc.

-----
There's a little more to it.  Consider the hemoglobin A1C test which tells you the average amount of glucose in your blood over time - about 3 months.

Normally, glucose attaches to blood cells over the life of a blood cells.  Like a tick on a dog.  When the A1C test is taken there are gobs of glucose on these cells.  The result is a high A1C result.

When you are on treatment the ribavirin kills the blood cells at an early age so that they don't mature and accumulate gobs of glucose.  As a result A1C test results may be artifically better during treatment even though you are eating everthing bad in sight.

Treatment ends and the riba stops doing its killing thing.  But you keep eating the smores, twinkies and dr. pepper with daily pasta.  Your blood cells again have a long life and the gobs of glucose finds a home on these longer lasting blood cells.  The result, sky high A1C.

That's the story I was told by a reasonable doc and I'm stickin to it.  Like glucose on a blood cell.

[Dee1956]

Hi I know this is an old post but thought I would respond anyway.  I was diagnosed with diabetes right before I started tx.  It was under control and when I started tx my blood sugar went down so far that I did not need to treat it or watch my food intake (or so I thought)
Once I relapsed the sugar level went back up and my diabetes is much worse now.
I wish I had known about the relationship between HCV and Diabetes

[CoWriter]

For diabetics it can go either way.  Treatment can cause the blood sugar to go up or down.  But if the diabetes is not under good control before starting treatment for Hep C, it lowers your chances of success.  Adverse events are also more common on diabetics.  

I have NEVER seen diabetes go away after treatment.  I have seen the blood sugar improve but diabetes disappear?  Never.

Co


Digestive Diseases and Sciences Jan 16, 2009

Diabetes Mellitus Is Associated with Impaired Response to Antiviral Therapy in Chronic Hepatitis C Infection.

Elgouhari HM, Zein CO, Hanouneh I, Feldstein AE, Zein NN.
Avera Center for Liver Disease, Transplant Institute, Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota, USA.  

Insulin resistance may promote hepatic fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C (HCV) and has emerged as a cofactor in failure to achieve sustained viral response (SVR). Aims (1) To assess the association of diabetes mellitus (DM) in HCV patients to the severity of hepatic fibrosis and to the response to antiviral treatment. (2) To assess the safety of pegylated interferon and ribavirin combination therapy (Peg IFN/RBV) in diabetic HCV patients. Methods HCV diabetics (n = 61) were identified. A 2:1 matching control group was used to identify independent factors of advanced fibrosis and treatment failure. Results Compared to HCV non-diabetics, HCV diabetics were more likely to have steatosis (P < 0.0001) and advanced fibrosis (P = 0.003). Patients' age, Caucasian ethnicity, obesity, and histologic activity index were independently associated with advanced fibrosis (P < 0.05). Only 23% of HCV diabetics achieved SVR compared to 46% of HCV non-diabetics (P = 0.003). DM, genotype 1, high baseline viral load, and African-American ethnicity were independently associated with less SVR (P < 0.05). Significant adverse events were more common in HCV diabetics compared to HCV non-diabetics (P = 0.001). Side effects did not increase in patients receiving PEG IFN/RBV and insulin sensitizers. Conclusion: Diabetes was associated with impaired virologic response to PEG IFN/RBV in HCV patients. Adverse events during therapy were more frequent in diabetic compared to non-diabetic HCV patients.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19148751?ordinalpos=10&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

[justme53]

I was considered pre-diabetic before tx and now 12 weeks in, my fasting BG runs slightly higher, usually 120-135, yet random BG run normal to low. I've been able to maintain a healthy diet and am just starting to walk more with the snow melting.

I'm going to start testing during the day and see if I can see any trends. I meet with the Dr. again on April 1st and will discuss this with her.