Does cold weather increase risk of hypoglycemia?

"Radioactive Man" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I ended up aborting a run after several miles the other night due to having a blood sugar of 38
and feeling crappy even after eating to bring it back up. When I tried to run again after eating,
I ended up with a feeling of uncoordination, so I quit for the night. I realize that it may have
been simply due to injecting too much and/or not eating enough several hours before, but I'm also
wondering if cold weather may have been the culprit.

I wouldn't think so given what you write next.

The time I ran was roughly 6 hours

Quoted message said:

after using regular insulin (for lunch) and 3 hours after using novolog (for a small snack in the
afternoon beyond what could be covered by the regular), so I know that I was well past the
insulin peaks.

Well actually, you're about as wrong as it's possible to get with regard to the peak activity times
of both the insulins you mentioned.

Regular can still be having a VERY noticeable effect some 8 hours after injecting (let alone 6
hours) and Novolog/Humalog can be still be VERY effective at the 3 hour post injection mark.
In fact, Humalog/Novolog type insulins can still be having a noticeable effect at the 5 to 6
hour point.

Couple that to the fact that you used BOTH insulins in the same time period (within 4 hours would be
my estimate given lunch and a snack with a shot for each) before your run, and I'd say you mixed
yourself up a recipe for total disaster.

The cold weather COULD have an effect, but I have to say that for me, it's usually the opposite and
my sugar will CLIMB a little easier when the temps drop. When the temps climb, my sugars drop far
more easily.

Beav

"Radioactive Man" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I ended up aborting a run after several miles the other night due to having a blood sugar of 38
and feeling crappy even after eating to bring it back up. When I tried to run again after eating,
I ended up with a feeling of uncoordination, so I quit for the night. I realize that it may have
been simply due to injecting too much and/or not eating enough several hours before, but I'm also
wondering if cold weather may have been the culprit. The time I ran was roughly 6 hours after
using regular insulin (for lunch) and 3 hours after using novolog (for a small snack in the
afternoon beyond what could be covered by the regular), so I know that I was well past the
insulin peaks.

It seems to for me. Last winter, I blamed all the snow shoveling I was doing. But since this last
cold snap, the only snow we had was a light dusting that didn't stick. I have only had a couple of
actual hypos since this cold snap started, but my numbers do seem to run lower if I've spent any
amount of time outside in the cold. At first, I thought it was because I was walking in the cold.
But I've noticed this will happen even if I'm sitting outside.

On the flip side, in hot weather, my numbers seem to run a little higher.

--
Type 2 users.bestweb.net~jboveOpen ↗

Beav said:

"Radioactive Man" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I ended up aborting a run after several miles the other night due to having a blood sugar of 38
and feeling crappy even after eating to bring it back up. When I tried to run again after eating,
I ended up with a feeling of uncoordination, so I quit for the night. I realize that it may have
been simply due to injecting too much and/or not eating enough several hours before, but I'm also
wondering if cold weather may have been the culprit.

I wouldn't think so given what you write next.

The time I ran was roughly 6 hours

Quoted message said:

after using regular insulin (for lunch) and 3 hours after using novolog (for a small snack in the
afternoon beyond what could be covered by the regular), so I know that I was well past the
insulin peaks.

Well actually, you're about as wrong as it's possible to get with regard to the peak activity times
of both the insulins you mentioned.

Regular can still be having a VERY noticeable effect some 8 hours after injecting (let alone 6
hours) and Novolog/Humalog can be still be VERY effective at the 3 hour post injection mark.
In fact, Humalog/Novolog type insulins can still be having a noticeable effect at the 5 to 6
hour point.

But for me, the effect of novolog after 3 hours is very small. One day when I used novolog before
lunch (with similar amounts of salad, meat/cheese, and pasta), I saw a 58 at one hour after
finishing the meal (pretty close to the 80 minute post injection peak), and then ~132 after another
hour. Clearly, the stuff can wear off faster than the meal can digest in some cases. That is why I
prefer to use regular insulin with most large and/or low to moderate GI meals and also at social
events where I'm going to be nibbling for several hours. The only downside is the 20 - 30 minute
wait after injecting.

This morning, I used novolog with breakfast, and then started swimming a little over an hour after
finishing breakfast. BS was 139 before the 1.5 hour swim and 72 after with nothing consumed during
the swim. I believe the high intensity intervals I do while swimming offer some measure of
protection against hypoglycemia. The greatest danger is when I'm doing something low-intensity like
raking leaves or running 9 minute miles like I was the other night. The point here is that I can
exercise almost immediately after the novolog peaks without experiencing hypoglycemia, provided I'm
starting out with a BS on the high end of the acceptable range, as I did this morning. Thus, I would
suspect the regular insulin is more likely to blame in this case. I was looking at some activity
charts and noticing that ~10 hours after injection, 1 unit of regular creates about the same
activity as 1 unit of Lantus. That is not to say there is any similarity between the two, just that
~10 hours is the point at which they become momentarily equal in activity.

Quoted message said:

Couple that to the fact that you used BOTH insulins in the same time period (within 4 hours would
be my estimate given lunch and a snack with a shot for each) before your run, and I'd say you mixed
yourself up a recipe for total disaster.

The cold weather COULD have an effect, but I have to say that for me, it's usually the opposite and
my sugar will CLIMB a little easier when the temps drop. When the temps climb, my sugars drop far
more easily.

Beav

"Julie Bove" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Radioactive Man" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I ended up aborting a run after several miles the other night due to having a blood sugar of 38
and feeling crappy even after eating to bring it back up. When I tried to run again after
eating, I ended up with a feeling of uncoordination, so I quit for the night. I realize that it
may have been simply due to injecting too much and/or not eating enough several hours before,
but I'm also wondering if cold weather may have been the culprit. The time I ran was roughly 6
hours after using regular insulin (for lunch) and 3 hours after using novolog (for a small snack
in the afternoon beyond what could be covered by the regular), so I know that I was well past
the insulin peaks.

It seems to for me. Last winter, I blamed all the snow shoveling I was doing. But since this last
cold snap, the only snow we had was a light dusting that didn't stick. I have only had a couple of
actual hypos since this cold snap started, but my numbers do seem to run lower if I've spent any
amount of time outside in the cold. At first, I thought it was

because

Quoted message said:

I was walking in the cold. But I've noticed this will happen even if I'm sitting outside.

On the flip side, in hot weather, my numbers seem to run a little higher.

--
Type 2 users.bestweb.net~jboveOpen ↗

Aye .. that's cos you burn more energy to keep warm in the winter. I find i need to eat a lot less
in the summer.

Spending signficant amounts of time outside in cold weather definitely does increase caloric
consumption. I've heard (guest lecturer from the US Army Environmental Research Institute) that
shivering burns 600 cal/hour.

The idea that your body may be able to compensate by dumping extra sugar makes sense to someone
who knows little about Type I, but it doesn't sound like this was working well if your blood sugar
got that low.

I don't know enough to have an opinion on the insulin issue. Have you run the same course
successfully with the same food and insulin in better weather?

-DF

On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 13:57:41 -0500, "Darlene J. Ford"

darford@speak{fnord}easy.net said:

Spending signficant amounts of time outside in cold weather definitely does increase caloric
consumption. I've heard (guest lecturer from the US Army Environmental Research Institute) that
shivering burns 600 cal/hour.

The idea that your body may be able to compensate by dumping extra sugar makes sense to someone who
knows little about Type I, but it doesn't sound like this was working well if your blood sugar got
that low.

I don't know enough to have an opinion on the insulin issue. Have you run the same course
successfully with the same food and insulin in better weather?

No, but I have run it with no problems in better weather on the evenings with the last dose being
only regular insulin at lunch, and several smaller snacks in the afternoon. That evening when I got
my BS down to 38 was a deviation from the norm. I had eaten a snack that afternoon without knowing
exactly what its carb content was, but believing it was too big to be covered by the residual
regular insulin still in my bloodstream, so I ended up taking a small dose of novolog to cover what
I thought was the excess.

Quoted message said:

-DF

"Radioactive Man" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Darlene J. Ford' darford@speak{fnord}easy.net said:

Spending signficant amounts of time outside in cold weather definitely does increase caloric
consumption. I've heard (guest lecturer from the US Army Environmental Research Institute) that
shivering burns 600

cal/hour.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

The idea that your body may be able to compensate by dumping extra sugar makes sense to someone
who knows little about Type I, but it doesn't sound like this was working well if your blood
sugar got that low.

I don't know enough to have an opinion on the insulin issue. Have you run the same course
successfully with the same food and insulin in better weather?

No, but I have run it with no problems in better weather on the evenings with the last dose being
only regular insulin at lunch, and several smaller snacks in the afternoon. That evening when I
got my BS down to 38 was a deviation from the norm. I had eaten a snack that afternoon without
knowing exactly what its carb content was, but believing it was too big to be covered by the
residual regular insulin still in my bloodstream, so I ended up taking a small dose of novolog to
cover what I thought was the excess.

And that's where the hypo came from. Something exactly like I said in my first post to you.

Beav