December 23, 2006
Behavior, Sick Days
Question from Memphis, Tennessee, USA:
My son-in-law has had type 1 diabetes since he was 15 years old. Since he and my daughter married, he has had several colds. He gets really angry and moody when he’s sick. He is a trained paramedic and he feels he knows what to do, but won’t go to a doctor. My daughter is so frustrated with his moodiness and refusal to seek medical help. Could these mood swings be caused by fluctuating blood sugar levels? He seems fine until he starts coming down with something and then the mood swings are really bad.
Answer:
You are very observant to notice this. It is known that blood sugars rise during periods of intercurrent illness. Stress hormones that rise during illness counteract the effects of insulin and increase insulin requirements during this time. If he is not regularly monitoring his blood sugars, he would not have increased his insulin levels and blood sugars will have remained high. It is during periods of very high blood sugars that people with diabetes can have mood changes. It sounds like he needs to be encouraged to go to a physician and work more on his diabetes care.
JTL
