Flu Shot

Is it very very strongly recommended that Diabetics get flu shots? I really don’t want to get one as I think my very first flu shot last year caused my diabetes last year. Is the reason because our blood sugars can go extremely high if we get the flu? Do they go extremely high if you just have a cold?

Two things: yes, it is recommended, not because of the high blood sugars, but because when you’re that sick, you usually can’t eat and therefore you can’t use insulin without going low. As a result of not having food, your body burns fat for energy, which means diabetic ketoacidosis is a very big possiblity. DKA is life-threatening, so it’s something to take seriously. Your alternatives are to have the flu shot, or else take a variety of other steps to avoid the flu (like getting conscientious about hand-washing, wearing a mask, avoiding crowds, keeping tabs on your vitamin D levels, and making sure you eat super-healthy food).



Your flu shot did not cause your diabetes (I’m assuming you have Type 1, right? Otherwise you wouldn’t be blaming diabetes on an immune-system-related trigger, right?). In all likelihood, the fact that you got diabetes after having a flu shot was a coincidence. At worst, your immune system was already dysfunctional and the flu shot was the final straw that sent it into overdrive acting against your beta cells – but even if that’s the case, if it hadn’t been the shot, it would’ve been something else, and for all you know the autoimmune attack was already happening, just happening slower. It takes a great many factors, both internal/genetic and external/environmental, all acting in concert to trigger the autoimmune attack against the beta cells, and a flu shot by itself won’t do it.

Oh is that why you are supposed to have the fly shot? Oh ok, But interestingly enough if you google flu shot and diabetes, there are a couple of sites that say there kids got Type 1 after their first flu shot. But now that I have Type 1, I Guess I have to get a flu shot.

I have gotten my flu shot ever since I was able to get them, I was diagnosed with Diabetes in 2006. So if I have had my flu shot sine 1978 or 1979, I would’ve of been diagnosed much earlier than 2006. So I agree with Elizabeth on what she said.

I am half joking about the flu shot causing it, but I did have a doctor say it could have been a trigger since I had the antibodies for it. But I am just making sure I have to get one. Do almost all diabetics get flu shots?

they say all Diabetics to get a flu shot. I’ve always gotten then regardless.

Just because one event follows another does not mean there is a cause and effect relationship. If you take a large number of of subjects statistically a certain number will get T1 soon after. Of course this also does not prove the flu shot did not cause it, what it says is you cannot make a determination given just this evidence.



DKA is nothing to mess with. I never got a flu shot until I developed diabetes, but now I always do.

I never ,ever get the flu shot . Do I need extra mercury injected into my body ? Do I need anti-freeze inject in me? Those are the things in the flu shot that only promise to protect on certain strains of the flu. Vitamin D is a better bet . Maintaining high levels of vitamin D can give 400% more prtection than the flu shot without the risk of side effects.

There’s so much misinformation on the web… Even sites claiming they cured kids with a raw diet. Seriously, I wouldn’t buy into any of it.

i have a pretty firm anti-vax stance…

per the package of the efficacy data on the package insert is the Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine

“Specific levels of HI antibody titers post-vaccination with inactivated influenza virus vaccine have not been correlated with protection from influenza virus. In some human studies, antibody titers of 1:40 or greater have been associated with protection from influenza illness in up to 50% of subjects.”

The FDA defines seroconversion as achieving an “antibody titer” of 1:40. IF the vaccine was 100% effective at achieving “seroconverison”, it would provide protection in up to 50% of recipients.

But the vaccines are not 100% effective at achieving seroconversion.

The only vaccine approved in the U.S. which includes efficacy data on the package insert is the Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine from CSL Limited. They state that their vaccine only provides seroconversion for a dismal 48% of those 18-65 and only 34% for those over 65.This means the vaccine works, at best, in only 1 in 4 recipients (48% of 50%). Not very encouraging odds.

so, even though i am anti-vax for different reasons, its reason enough that they don’t work in more than a 1/4 of the people who get them. with those odds the negative effects surely do not outweigh any promised benefit.

I saw getting the flu shot as pointless. It doesn’t really prevent flu… just certain strains, IF that. Plus, vaccines have their own dangers. Vaccines should be for things that are permanent, or may need a booster every once in a blue moon. Not a yearly thing. Plus… you can get the frigging flu from getting the vaccine anyway… Lots of people argue this is not the case, but it happens ALL the time. Couple of years ago, a woman pregnant with twins got the flu vaccine, got the flu from it, and she lost the babies. She was on her 3rd trimester. They had been trying for years to have babies. I think we could avoid most issues with flu and illness if we just took universal precautions, and carried hand sanitizer around. Though I have to say… the flu doesn’t scare me nearly as bad as “Dengue” or Break Bone Fever does… This is something you can get from a mosquito, in the Caribbean… I got it when I was in 6th grade, and it literally feels like someone broke all your bones, and they’re on fire. Awful stuff. You can’t even walk with that.

I always get a flu shot. All the stories of how bad it is when PWDs get flu make me not want to experience it for myself. Throughout my life I rarely get sick (I like to say I never get sick, I just get conditions!), but since I was diagnosed with diabetes I take the extra insurance. Subsequent studies have completely disproven the one that came out in the 70s or 80s about mercury and autism, but the negative feelings towards vaccines linger and people seem to feel very strongly. Everyone makes their own choices, like everything. But since I so rarely get sick I don’t want to experience sickness as a diabetic, so I just get a flu shot.

It is a personal decision. I have had them some years and not others depending on my school or work environment. If you work with a lot of different people, say a hospital, retail, food service, and especially if you work with children, etc., where you come into regular contact with random people I would say to get one. Nothing is guaranteed 100% with any vaccine, but as a preventative measure for your health and the health of those you may come into contact with. I don’t think there is a link between vaccines and all the illnesses that have been attempted to be linked to them. The New England Journal of Medicine even retracted almost all of the articles it had printed on vaccines linked to autism from several years ago. Mercury found to be present in vaccines such as the MMR, was subsequently removed from vaccines because of that particular event as well.

Like i said it’s a personal decision. However, we are talking a flu shot not discussing all vaccines in general. Personally that would open up a worm hole of discussion that would not end well. The flu will probably no kill you in this day and age.

I will personally take whatever precautions are reasonable to avoid the flu (even if they aren’t 100%). It causes hell with my bgs and almost every time I will get small amounts of ketones in my urine at some point. There have been 1-2 times where I was almost certain that I would end up in the ER but luckily I was able to hold the fort long enough for it to pass…the flu is brutal when you have D!

I’ve gotten a flu shot every year for the past 18 years and have never gotten the flu. Even with a husband in the house with the flu last year, I never got it. I don’t want to risk anything by not getting it.

the flu shot doesn’t give you diabetes!!!

I agree with you Anna! and it has never caused me to have any issues with my BG levels.

The flu shot is comprised of either dead virus or the protein envelope around the virus. There’s no way that can cause diabetes. Last year I got the flu shot but couldn’t get the H1N1 in time. I ended up with H1N1 over that Thanksgiving. The dangers to you not getting the flu vaccine are greater than if you do. I figure an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

if you do decide to get a flu shot (which i personally recommend to EVERYONE regardless of their autoimmune status…), get it soon because it takes about 14 days for it to have the possibility to provide any protection. and you’d better believe that peak flu season is comin’ up with all the travelers and face-to-face interaction of Turkey Day!

I have gotten a flu shot every year since I had children. No, it does not prevent every strain of illness circulating the planet but for God’s sake, if it even prevents SOME, isn’t it worth getting it? I personally would go mad if I had to take on the medical profession on every single issue, but that’s me. I just don’t have the energy or the will to become an informal authority on anything. And hopefully I will keep the good luck not to ever have to feel I need to.