Contents:
- Medical Video: 6 ways to beat the heat with diabetes
- What effect does hot weather have on diabetes?
- 1. Hot weather makes dehydration
- 2. Diabetes makes it difficult for you to sweat
- 3. Hot weather interferes with insulin response
- 4. Severe inflammatory air pollution
- 5. Hot weather makes the feet vulnerable to moldy
- Tips for controlling the symptoms of diabetes in the dry season
Medical Video: 6 ways to beat the heat with diabetes
Not only foods that can increase your blood sugar levels. Living in a tropical country like Indonesia, you also have to be more careful about extreme weather. Because the hot weather can make diabetes symptoms worse in most people.
What effect does hot weather have on diabetes?
Hot weather can actually have a negative impact on the health of the diabetics through various unexpected ways.
1. Hot weather makes dehydration
Hot weather is prone to dehydration. However, having diabetes itself basically has made you tend to be easier and more quickly dehydrated than others.
Symptoms of diabetes cause you frequent thirst, excessive sweating, and frequent urination which then makes the body lose a lot of fluid. Dehydration, in turn, can increase blood sugar which can further aggravate your diabetes symptoms.
Especially if you are a user of insulin, dehydration can reduce the blood supply to the skin, thereby reducing the absorption of insulin doses after being injected.
2. Diabetes makes it difficult for you to sweat
Sweat is the body's natural way to cool off from extreme temperature increases. When yawning (drying) on your skin, sweat will remove heat and cool you.
However, the combination of scorching weather and the constantly humid air during the dry season keeps you feeling hot. This makes it harder for the body to cool off because sweat cannot evaporate properly.
In addition, damage to blood vessels and nerves that occur as a result of diabetes can damage the sweat glands so that your body cannot sweat when needed.
This condition can cause heat exhaustion and heat stroke which is a medical emergency.
3. Hot weather interferes with insulin response
Extreme hot weather can interfere with how the body regulates, produces, and uses insulin. This can increase riskblood sugar levels jump dramatically (hyperglycemia) or even decline suddenly (hypoglycemia).
Every person with diabetes can have a different response to changes in temperature extremes. In some people, hot weather can cause blood vessels to dilate. Widening of blood vessels can accelerate insulin absorption which causes low blood sugar (hypoglycemia).
Citing diabetes.co.uk, the risk of hypoglycemia due to hot weather tends to be higher in people with diabetes who are taking blood sugar-lowering drugs.
While a handful of other people are more vulnerable to sudden increases in blood sugar during activities in the dry season. This is because hot weather causes stress on his blood glucose metabolism system.
4. Severe inflammatory air pollution
In Indonesia, extreme hot weather is also affected by high air pollution from vehicle emissions. Substances of pollutants that enter the body can cause inflammation.
"Inflammation triggers oxidative stress which forms the basis of all chronic metabolic diseases (including diabetes)," said prof.Dr.dr.Ketut Suastika, SpPD-KEMD, Chair of PB PERKENI (Indonesian Endocrinology Association) when met by the Hello Sehat team in August then at Jakarta City Hall during the signing of the "Cities Changing Diabetes" program.
Emotional stress facing the heat of environmental weather and road congestion also increases inflammation in the body. The more inflammation that occurs in the body of diabetics will increasingly cause insulin resistance.
Vice versa. The more the body is resistant to insulin, the more it will trigger more severe inflammation. Insulin resistance makes blood sugar rise dramatically which then aggravates your diabetes symptoms.
5. Hot weather makes the feet vulnerable to moldy
In the dry season, your feet can sweat profusely so that they remain moist at all times. Especially if you keep on wearing closed shoes. The condition of moist skin becomes the place where fungi grow to cause infection.
Tips for controlling the symptoms of diabetes in the dry season
Elderly is the group of people most at risk of developing blood sugar problems in hot weather. However, diabetics of all ages must remain aware of and anticipate the dangers.
Summarized from the United States CDC and other sources, here are ways you can control diabetes symptoms during the dry season:
- Drink plenty of water often, even if you are not thirsty, so you are not dehydrated.
- Avoid alcohol and caffeinated drinks such as coffee, tea, energy drinks, and sports drinks. This drink can cause the body to lose fluids and increase blood sugar.
- Check blood sugar before, during, and after you move.
- You may need to change the dose of insulin you are using, but consult your doctor first. Don't change insulin doses without your doctor's permission.
- Wear loose clothing, which is cool, and brightly colored so it doesn't overheat.
- Always use sunscreen and a hat when you move outdoors for a long time. Sunburn (sunburned skin) can increase your blood sugar levels.
- Go to shelter in an air-conditioned room when it starts to overheat. In extreme hot weather, cooling the body using a fan alone will not be enough.
- Save your diabetes medication, including insulin, in a place far from the sun. The drug can be damaged if exposed to direct heat. Never leave the drug in the car.
- Learn the symptoms of hypoglycemia and symptoms of hyperglycemia in anticipation of treatment.
- Exercise in a cold room to prevent riskheat stroke.
