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Changing Basal with the seasons

moray lass

moray lass

Well-Known Member
Messages
47
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hello me again. I having been reading on here that a few people change their basel with the seasons less in the summer and more in the winter.Could someone please tell me the reason for this ? All new to me. Thanks Moray Lass
 
Its a strange one this, the only thing I can think of is we are more active in the warm weather than we are in winter ( plus the extra daylight is an incentive to get out and about more).
 
Thanks noblehead do you find you go lower in the warmer weather with the heat
 
Yes as above really. I find the more active I am the less insulin I need to take. So I guess it makes sense that in the summer less insulin is required as most of us tend to do more. Gardening, days out etc
 
moray lass said:
Thanks noblehead do you find you go lower in the warmer weather with the heat
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Probably yes, as Nuthead says increased activity can make us more insulin sensitive, I find spending a day in the garden can be problem and I often need very little insulin for quite highish carb meals.
 
Thanks Noblehead and Nuthead now the weather is getting warmer I'll have to watch out for this. It seems to be a learning curve all the time
 
I cycle for fun and exercise. It really does drastically affect my insulin intake. Me and Mrs Nuthead peddle around twelve miles on a day out and I can easily increase my carb intake to around 300g over the day for the same insulin dose that normally would cover around 75g.
 
I think i may have said this once on this forum.

To be honest, its not a choice for me. I just have noticed my fasting numbers start to drift up or down, and that means i need more or less insulin. I don't say "Oh summers here, time to go into summer mode" and lower my rates lol I just start waking up with lower and lower sugars so i have to drop my basal lol

It may be because in the summer we all try to loose a bit of weight, and try to be outdoors and more active, or perhaps its just caused by hormone levels in our bodies ? Like a hibernating bear awakening from a winters sleep lol
 
I suppose all this makes sense in a weird sort of way.Still trying to get my head round all of this and is not easy!!!Just need to get as much information as I can and it has been a great help on here being able to ask all these questions
 
Don't assume that you will need less insulin in the heat. My readings go high and I need more insulin. The opposite happens in freezing cold weather and I have more hypos, despite reducing insulin. I have a friend with the same response. My doctor thinks it may be because my insulin turnover is much faster in the hot weather.
 
Hi Crystal,
I wasn't really assuming anything as I'm very new to all this was just trying to get a bit of advice as Id read about it on here and wanted to understand why.I am finding myself I seem to need more insulin at the moment and really trying to sort it all out.Which as i'm sure you know is not easy as nothing seems to be working at the moment
 
It doesn't help that doctors often don't really have an explanation for what you are experiencing. When I first told mine about the high readings in hot weather, he hadn't come across it before and seemed rather sceptical. Now he has heard of other patients with the same reaction, he has been forced to try to think of a reasonable explanation. I'm never sure whether it's just his own opinion!
 
I know what you mean the doctors at mine don't seem to have a clue about Type1 and it doesn't help that you see a different doctor every time you go and get a different opinion.I do phone the diabetic clinic at the hospital and they are very good but really you are just left to get on with it.If it wasn't for this forum and asking questions I don't know where I would be!!
 
Can I recommend a very good book- "Think Like A Pancreas" - by Gary Scheiner. He is an American health professional, specialising in insulin-treated diabetes and has Type 1 himself. He writes very clearly in an informal, non-technical way and I learned a lot from his book. My BG is much better controlled as a result and I still refer to it when I need to make adjustments. I only wish I had known about this book when I was first diagnosed.
 
I have this book on my kindle but when I first read it my head was all over the place and didn't really understand a lot of it but now I am starting to understand a bit more I have started to read it again properly.Hopefully this will be a help.I did pick up a few bits from the first read which were really helpful.Now that my head is a bit straighter I hope I'll be able to take a bit more in.Just got to take it slowly and not want everything perfect which I know is not going to be the case
 
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