# Lactose free steroids



## HartHen61 (Apr 19, 2011)

Goodmorning everyone, can anyone tell me if there is such a tablet as lactose free steroids, if so what are they called and what strength are they, my dsn says because I'm on steroids every day it could be the cause of some of my symtoms xxxxxxx


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## AlisonM (Apr 19, 2011)

I've never heard of such a thing, but agree that some of your troubles could be exacerbated by taking steroids. Mine certainly have been.


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## Caroline (Apr 19, 2011)

Are you by any chance on metformin? A lot of people get tummy upsets with metformin and can be aggrivated by other medications. Have a chat to your DSN again and ask her opinion, slow release metformin may suit you better.


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## HartHen61 (Apr 19, 2011)

Yes I'm on metformin 1000 twice a day and glikazide three tablets a day, my problem is that I need steroids as I'm on 24 hour oxygen and 15mg per steroids, when my COPD is bad I have to increase the steroids, but it was my daughter who suggested trying to find lactose free steroids to see if this might help, ps I have also just started (13days ago) on humulin I to see if I can get my bg's down as they are constantly high, my dose is 18 and have not had much change in bg's as yet but will keep increasing until I get some results.


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## margie (Apr 19, 2011)

Steroids do increase blood sugar and the higher the dose the greater they will be put up. I don't know if lactose free steroids exist or whether they would help but if you speak to your local pharmacist they should be able to tell you what is available.


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## Pumper_Sue (Apr 19, 2011)

HartHen61 said:


> I have also just started (13days ago) on humulin I to see if I can get my bg's down as they are constantly high, my dose is 18 and have not had much change in bg's as yet but will keep increasing until I get some results.



Hi HH,
Sorry to hear you are having so many problems 
I have been told by a few different consultants now that for each 1mg of prednisolone it = 2 units of insulin.  Obviously everyone is different, but if this is the rule of thumb then you have a little way to go yet.

Hope things improve for you soon.


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## randomange (Apr 19, 2011)

Pumper_Sue said:


> Hi HH,
> Sorry to hear you are having so many problems
> I have been told by a few different consultants now that for each 1mg of prednisolone it = 2 units of insulin.  Obviously everyone is different, but if this is the rule of thumb then you have a little way to go yet.
> 
> Hope things improve for you soon.



Huh, I've never heard of that, and I kept asking when I started on pred if they had any idea how high it was going to send my BGs and people kept saying " we don't know, but you're gonna need more insulin"!  But looking at my basal, that seems about right - I'm probably about 20 units higher than I was before I became ill, and I'm on 10 mg pred at the moment.  It doesn't fit so well if I look back to when I first started on pred, but there was a whole bunch of other factors affecting my insulin resistance at the time.

Good to know!


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## Copepod (Apr 19, 2011)

HartHen - the person to ask is a friendly pharmacist, who has access to lists of ingredients, including lactose, gluten, additives etc, to help people with such sensitivities / allergies. For common medicines, that are produced by several manufacturers, there are often slightlt different formulations, some of which may suit you better than others. The pharmacist can also explain about different formulations of other drugs eg metformin is also available as SR (slow release) and Glucophage powder to mix with water to make oral solution.


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