Bolus in the heat

The kind of heat we get in the UK (and, I guess, Ireland) would not be enough to impact my BG.
However, a morning of pitching a test and chopping firewood is very likely to bring it down.

Unfortunately, there are so many things which can impact our BG, sometimes it is difficult to tell which one has caused the change.

I would do extra BG tests but, depending what I have to eat for dinner, I would not go without any insulin ... I may drop it a bit.
I may also think about dropping my basal tonight as I am likely to have used up my glucose reserves during the exercise which will impact tomorrow's BG.

The heat always seems to make my insulin work a bit quicker and made hypos more likely. ? absorption increased?
I do note though that you were exercising and, if that was not usual at that time , it might have contributed to your hypo.
And in any case I am glad you only chopped wood and nothing more vital whilst your BSL may have been falling!!

mountaintom said:

Thanks. I think I will probably have a little Novorapid at dinner time and correct if necessary. I don’t trust the weatherman so won’t be changing my basal tonight.

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My suggestion for basal change tonight has nothing to do with the weather.
Not only does exercise make insulin more efficient, our liver also releases extra glucose into our blood to provide the energy. As a result, we have less supplies in our liver to drip (and use our basal insulin) over the next 24 to 48 hours.
So the basal reduction has absolutely nothing to do with what is going to happen but is due to what has happened.
This may also explain why we need less bolus - more of the glucose in the food goes into liver supplies than usual so less gets into our blood from the carbs we consume.

I apologise. My answer was in response to the general question about heat and about what may have happened around your lunchtime.
My interpretation of events from there is: The effect of exercise on insulin sensitivity may last 12 to 24 hours sometimes 36 hours.. Also muscle glycogen is released in response to exercise. The liver glycogen release is more to do with helping to correct for the hypo.
The 'debt' in released glucose storage is 'repaid' through the liver and muscle 'reclaiming' glucose to refill stores of glycogen . This reclaiming occurs about 6 hours and more after the exercise. and causes the fall in blood sugar often noted if steps are not taken to anticipate and moderate this effect. e.g. the precaution of lowering the insulin working around that time such as the Novorapid and/or the precaution of eating more carbs to allow for both liver/muscle glucose storage uptake and for body cells. The precaution (s) is/are needed because of what has happened (prior exercise) and what will/may happen, which is lower blood sugar or a hypo.

mountaintom said:

Just curious to see how much the heat affects everyone else on here. I had 70g carb breakfast at 8am and injected 2.5 units of Novorapid (half my normal ratio). I had a sandwich and some biscuits at 12.30 and didn’t bother bolusing and now at 13.00 I’ve had a hypo (I’ve been pitching a tent and chopping firewood and it’s very warm here in Kerry today). I’m thinking I don’t even need hardly any Novorapid in this type of weather if I’m out in it. I won’t take any for dinner.
How does the heat affect other people?

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The heat has always affected me and I'm pretty sure that chopping wood would certainly take it out of you.

mountaintom said:

Just curious to see how much the heat affects everyone else on here. I had 70g carb breakfast at 8am and injected 2.5 units of Novorapid (half my normal ratio). I had a sandwich and some biscuits at 12.30 and didn’t bother bolusing and now at 13.00 I’ve had a hypo (I’ve been pitching a tent and chopping firewood and it’s very warm here in Kerry today). I’m thinking I don’t even need hardly any Novorapid in this type of weather if I’m out in it. I won’t take any for dinner.
How does the heat affect other people?

Click to expand...

Ive had a nightmare few days in this heat too. Did same as you, halved ratio and still managed to near kill myself ha

Blood sugar was 8.8 when decided to cut the grass yesterday. Thought would be plain sailing . 15 mins in and sweating, went in for a drink and checked BS and it was.... 2!! Checked again on another finger and was still 2. Swiftly chugged half a can of coke and ate two digestives.. had to throw a few glucose tablets down as well as wasn’t enough to bring it up.. waited until bs was 6 then finished the job.

Didn’t inject for supper which was toast and ended up having another hypo anyway.. and then another in middle of the night. Had worst nightmares too Felt like **** all day at work so have reduced lantus tonight and have only injected one unit all day.

Afraid to eat much of anything incase goes high, don’t want to inject incase goes low again. Managed to stay around 6 today eating low carb and small amounts of fruit etc..

Let me know how you get on! I’ve emailed my nurse to ask for a Libre or something to help me. Why don’t we all get one? Half a chance then at least. Fingers are like pin cushions here trying to keep up with the roller coaster blood sugars!


Good luck!