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Hot baths

M

mercury

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After a visit to the library today, in my search for more knowledge and understanding I came across a book called the Diabetes handbook. It is written by Jane Franks. Anyway all was going well till I came across this paragraph.
Extraordinary as it may seem, having hot baths may help reduce blood glucose levels. As heat increases metabolism, it also speeds up glucose regulation. A recent study found that subjects who took a 30_minute hot bath every day for three weeks lowered their blood glucose levels and lost weight into the bargain. it was referenced to [Hooper PL. Hot-tub therapy for type 2 diabetes mellitus. N Eng J Med,1999]

anyone heard of this or would like to offer their thoughts on it?

bob
 
Never heard that before. I have,however, heard that you need to be careful if having a bath within 30 minutes or so of injecting as it can affect insulin absorption.

Might try out this new theory though. Any excuse to have a hot bath! :)
 
Hi there
Regarding the hot baths enquiry, if Ive had very high blood sugar, Ive taken a hot bath and it has reduced my blood sugar, so it does work and I found out just by chance !
sailing 5
 
Hi
Have been type 1 diabetic for 46 yrs and understand the regular bits, but news like this is very interesting. I wonder if the same applies to a 20 min hot shower?

...Actually came to this site by accident after watching telly a moment ago and someone mentioned diabulimia. I thought I was the only person doing this but please don't criticise or lecture me. It would simply be appreciated if I could talk to someone else who does this.
 
Presumably the same effect can be achieved in a sauna or steam room - if it is due to the general raising of the body temperature.
 
Hi BluevolvoC30, welcome to the site, I am sure you will find it really helpful! If you type Diabulimia in the search bar at the top of the page, you should find all of the discussions about it listed. I only heard about it yesterday for the first time when reading a post discussion. If you are not sure about anything, just ask - everyone is really helpful on here. :D
 
Hi Bluevolvoc30,

I fell into the diabulimia phase when I was younger and made myself really ill as a result. My sugar levels were crazy high and I ended up with DKA. I also lost so much weight that I gave myself osteoporosis. Fun times!

I like to think I am over it now, but I am still do wary of giving myself larger than normal doses of insulin and get very upset if I put weight on.

Anyway, not going to lecture you about it as that would just make me hypocritical. All I will say is be careful. You can reduce your insulin requirements without letting your sugars run high all the time.

Em x
 
I won't dip a toe in the bath unless it's lobster hot (i.e I come out very pink and rosy!) I've been doing that every day for some years and not found it has any effect. Saunas and steam rooms make me dizzy so I assume that they affect my blood pressure.
 
Hi everyone,
Thank you for responding in the way you did. I am careful of extremely high b/s levels but can't stop this as I've been doing it for years. Will type in Diabulimia and continue discussion there. Thank you x
 
Hi again Fraddycat and Elc1112

When and why did you start doing this Elc112?
In my 20's I remember being bulemic, skipping insulin, drinking to excess to lower blood sugar and rocking the night away on a journey of self destruction. ...Went down to about 6st before loosing consciousness and going back up to 8st 10lb. But now I've sussed out how to do it and stay around 7st 10lb.
I eat 5oz oats with rice milk for breakfast, a 9Bar for lunch, then a fish salad for tea with a drink of fresh orange and some strawberries... and I also have about 3 cups of decaffeinated tea or coffee throughout the day and some 85% organic dark chocolate. However, I then miss my evening insulin so get REALLY thirsty. Four or five pints usually washes the sugars away, but then I have my insulin around 10.30pm.
This then lowers my blood sugar but also means I don't go into a hypo around 4am (the most common time of death)... and I loose weight.
 
I started when I was about 14. I started getting very conscious about my weight and developed an eating disorder. I was terrified of eating ad would usually eat nothing more than an apple or banana a day. As I was eating so little I had to reduce my insulin right down. I then quicky learned that the higher my sugars the more weight I lost.

Anyway, arrived on like this until I was 17. At my worst I was about five and a half stone. I was taken into hospital with DKA just after my 17th birthday and was formerly diagnosed with anorexia. My mam had taken me to tw doctors before this but the GP insisted that I could not have an eating disorder as I was diabetic. I should point out that this was 12 years ago as diabulimia probably wasn't as recognised back then!

After my hospital visit I started eating more but still limited my insulin and let my sugars run high. This meant that, although I put on some weight, I didn't pile on too many hands.

I was 19-20 before I really managed to break the cycle.

I'm about to turn 21 for the tenth time and my sugars are now under control - last hba1c was 5.4. I still keep my insulin dosages low but I do this by sticking to a low Seb diet.

I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I regret what I did all those years ago. My periods stopped for over two years and I still do not know if I will ever e able to have kids of my own. I've also got osteoporosis. I still worry about my weight and it does still control my life. I hate the fact that I can't just enjoy a meal without thinking how many calories I have just eaten.

From a diabetes point of view, I have background retinopathy on both eyes. I have been diabetic since I was six. I am sure the high sugars and years of bad control made this worse. I've been really lucky apart from this though - god knows how!

I'm about seven and a half stone now, so a much healthier weight. Still find it very easy to slip back into bad habits!

Anyway, I understand all too well how easy it is to get into the habit of skipping injections. Speaking from experience, I can honestly say it is not worth it! Try the low carbing and see if you can reduce your insulin requirements an manage your weight at the same time.

Please shout if you have any other questions x
 
Elc1112 said:
Never heard that before. I have,however, heard that you need to be careful if having a bath within 30 minutes or so of injecting as it can affect insulin absorption.
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The warmth of the water accelerates the speed in which the insulin is absorbed, personally I try and wait for at least an hour before getting into the bath after injecting.
 
Thanks noblehead - good to know :)

Bluevolvo - sorry about tw horrendous spellIng in my last post. I was writing it on my phone when I was travelling into London on the train. Hopefully you can decipher most of it! I see my phone has autocorrected some of the words and replaced them with completely the wrong word in places! I really should learn to review things before pressing send lol
 
I see my phone has autocorrected some of the words and replaced them with completely the wrong word in places! I really should learn to review things before pressing send lol
Elc1112

Yes I used to have problems with auto correct. I used to write the minutes for a local scout group and one guys name was Futcher. I had to make sure that I checked what auto correct had put in - it was rather rude! :oops:
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After a hot bath I feel absolutely TERRIBLE. Never checked BG before and after a hot bath - I should, really.
 
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