Summer is here with its additional challenges, especially when dealing with type 1 diabetes.
Hence why our team is launching a blog series where we will be talking about everything related to summer and diabetes, so stay tuned. In this first blog we compiled a list of 5 pertinent strategies to ensure you enjoy your summer to the fullest.
1- The obvious and always pertinent: Stay hydrated
Not being hydrated enough can raise blood sugar, and high blood sugar can make you urinate more, which can cause dehydration. So, to break this vicious cycle make sure you drink plenty of water.
2- Stay in during the hottest hours of the day
If you are planning to do some outdoor activity, exercise or need to fix a fence outdoors or do some gardening, make sure you avoid doing it during the hottest periods of the day. These do vary but usually between 3 and 4 pm is when it gets the hottest.
3- Be careful when it’s very humid out
It is best to avoid any strenuous work when it’s too humid outside, since humidity makes it even more difficult for the body to cool itself by sweating.
4- Keep your insulin cool
Going out for a picnic or planning a road trip? Make sure you have a cooling system in place for your insulin pen or pump. It could be a cooling case such as a Frio® wallet. Also try to keep your pumps, CGMs and strips away from direct sunlight to avoid malfunction.
5- Blood sugar monitoring
You also might need to monitor your blood sugars more often as they tend to fluctuate more than usual and more unpredictably.
These are just a few precautions to start, share with us yours!
Next week we will go a bit deeper to try to understand how heat and diabetes intermingle in another short blog, so stay tuned!