Hay fever - BG's gone high

Hi,

I dont know if anyone else is suffering from hayfever at the moment? Unfortunately my hay fever kicked from the Friday before last - have been prescribed with Loratadine 10mg tablets which contain lactose. I've been taking these tablets since last Tuesday and initially my BG's were fine but since Friday my BG's keep going high - I've been correcting and the correcting unfortunately isn't working.
I've increased my BI last night so am hoping that'll over the next few days my BG will calm down.

My question is - would the Loratadine affect my BG's - due to the lactose in the tablet? Am asking as its putting me off taking the tablets.

Any thoughts/help would be really welcome.

I would definetly try and find out whats in these tablets, amounts if possible, even though they may be small, there may be a cumulitive effect if your taking them regularly..........

i dont actually know the active process of antihistimine medication but it may also be effecting the livers normal production of energy............

I think the word 'lactose' is derived from 2 Latin (I think) words meaning 'milk' and 'sugar', so it looks as if it's bound to have some effect. I wouldn't have thought there would be much in 10mg tablets. Your GP should have spotted this.

Thanks to both of you to replying to this. I did wonder if the tiny amount of lactose would have an effect or not. It seems to have taken 4 days of taking these tablets for an effect to occur.

I decided to stop taking the tablets this morning and already my BG's have gone back to normal but that may have coincided with me upping my BI insulin.

I've looked at the various antihistimine medication and all of them seem to contain lactose. so it makes it pretty difficult for GP's to sort out us diabetics on this issue by the looks of things.

Thanks again. I'll check on the lactose content in the Loratadine.

Im glad your sugars have came down...................

It may just be a case of upping your BI dose whenever symptoms occur and your on medication, just the same as fighting virus or infection only you are providing the ingredients/fuel orally instead of automatically by the body........

Me too - although I think I spoke too soon as my BG's have been rubbish all day today :-( My BG was a bit low before bedtime yesterday - was 5.0 so I had a 1CP snack and this morning my BG was 11.7 - was disappointed - I think it would have been better to have not had the snack and lunchtime's was 10.1 even though I corrected at breakfast. I'm thinking maybe the Loratadine is still in my system so will need a few days to calm down. Plus am back to work today so that's added to the stress.

I looked up Loratadine on the internet yesterday evening and it basically said that in Type 1 diabetics it causes insulin resistance/blood glucose intolerance so thats answered the issue. As said each time I take these tablets I'll need to adjust my insulin - find it really annoying - why cant the manufacturers of antihistamines create a tablet that doesnt contain lactose!!

It is a pain they cant make these medications without it, it must be an active ingredient......

Theoretically you should not need to snack overnight, if you do then its likely you need to drop your BI dose, in the evening if split............the DAFNE targets say you should be higher before bed but a 5.0 is ideal for me...

Have a look round and investigate other possible meds that can be prescribed or bought that might limit the impact or eliminate the undesirable diabetic effects....

I take desloratidine (neoclarityn) tablets for my hayfever and they don't seem to cause a problem, or I haven't noticed that they do anyway!

I'd be surprised if it was the lactose in the loratadine tablets - they're still small and I'm sure you'd need a lot to equal just 1CP.

It is a pain. It might be that I'm a bit susceptible to this type of antihistimine.

I think I panicked when I saw my BG before was only 5.0 - I tend to panic a bit if the BG readings arent perfectly in the 'zone'. So from now on - less panicking.

chrisinbrum - I might have to check out the tablets your taking. I've already had different reactions to 2 antihistimines - with cetirizine after 1 tablet I became a zombie - completely knocked me out and with the loratadine - although the tablets are tiny it took 4 days before I felt the effect - it didnt matter what I did with corrections nothing worked, hence when I came off the tablets I've been able to control my BG's better and the corrections are now working.

I take Cetirizine hydrochloride based tablets and these don't affect my blood sugar. I found Loratadine based tablets didn't work very well on my allergies. Its worth trying both types to see which work best and have the least effect on yout BG. I agree with others the lactose content should not have a noticable effect on your BG.