We’re getting started with a brutal heat wave in the northwest. The news casters are all reading from the same script: “elderly and those with health conditions” are at elevated health risk in the heat.
It got me curious: How does the heat increase health risk for diabetics…dehydration, etc.? Or does hot weather contribute to high or low BG?
Smarter people will hopefully answer your question, but wanted to say I hope you have A/C, @John58 !
Sure. For everyone, high heat makes your heart work harder. And for diabetics, that might mean an increase in insulin requirements over what they might see in a normal day.
But in the real world, for most of us, the higher heat simply means we have to pay more for our electricity bills. Or we may sweat a bit more and we get a bit more dehydrated.
But those realities don’t make for great print. So the story is created that it’s gonna crush us.
In general - moderate higher temps mean less insulin is needed. Extreme higher temps mean more insulin is needed.
Along with the dehydration comes erroneous CGM readings. I’ve personally experienced false highs when my Dexcom is exposed to direct sunlight for 5 minutes or more [readings of 7-8 when I’m actually 3-4).
Stay hydrated and cool 
Our Portland family is coming to Idaho this week. The forecast is for high 90s/low 100s and we do not have A/C. When we moved here in the mid-1990s we had just a few days of high 90s in August—nothing like this, ugh. I think I will dig out the tents and camp shelter for sleeping.
A few years ago my wife and I were on our way home from the central US, driving straight into a northwest heat wave. Stopped to camp at Farewell Bend State Park (OR/ID border) and it was 106!! The next day we stopped at a Lowes to buy one of these for our no-AC house:
Hisense Portable Air Conditioner (AP70020HR1GD) - Hisense USA (hisense-usa.com)
It works pretty well to keep one room liveable. The window vent hookup is not easy (unless you have casement windows) and needs to be modified (with tape and spacers, etc.) to fit other window types. It cranks out the coolness within about a 10-15 foot distance from the blower. I’m sure they’re sold out in the Portland/Seattle corridor but you might be able to find one in time for the house guests.
I am sorry, I missed something pretty big.
Where I live, AC is pretty much a standard in all homes. (In my state, about 98% of all residences have AC.)
I didn’t realize it was not standard in other parts of the U.S. Obviously the heat wave is a much bigger deal in other areas where AC is not standard. (Where I am, it pretty much only means higher costs.)
We did have an AC breakdown a few years ago in the middle of summer. It took 2 days to get service to replace the unit. That was pretty rough.
Seattle is at 44%, lowest of the 25 metro areas listed in the article:
I am putting AC in my project house but it is not installed yet. In fact, all the insulation is out. Pretty unbelievable how hot it gets inside with no insulation!
Just finished stuffing couch cushions up in my kitchen skylights to block the radiant heat…made a huge difference!
Silver lining to the heat wave: my corn and tomatoes are growing at an amazing pace. Watering in the evening is a great way to cool down after sunset.
Many parts of the Western US don’t have AC. Some areas like the Seattle area, Central Oregon and Northern California simply rely on nighttime breezes to cool things off, so AC isn’t a given. Considering the temperature shifts in the last 40 years for those areas, AC is a wise investment.
I also don’t have ac but summer in NY is pretty short, We are in the 90s real temp during the day right now, our third heat wave. Real feel / heat index is much higher. This is pretty normal for NY, with high humidity can feel 10-20 degrees hotter. But, man the temps you are getting in the the Northwest seem unheard of for the area. Stay hydrated, out of direct sunlight! Take frequent cold showers.
Playing hockey tonight…as long as the ice is frozen. Looking forward to getting close to that sheet of ice.
We thankfully have AC, but we visited one of our friends on Seattle that don’t. It wasn’t too bad, but honestly, we fled back to our AC house on Saturday morning.
We have window units, for which we are grateful, but would love central air! We also run fans to help circulate the window ac. Recently (edited to add how recent: May 22, 2021 and they are currently unavailable!) we purchased this from amazon and it does seem to help more than the standard tower fans we have.
Agreed! Got home tonight at 12:30 AM and it was 81 degrees outside. And that is 1/2 mile from Puget Sound, probably hotter inland. Crazy hot for the northwest.
The ice was surprisingly good despite the heat in the air. We had a problem with fog caused by condensation from all those sweaty bodies, got a little weird towards the end when it was impossible to see the puck more than 50 feet away. There were about 20 people from the neighborhood hanging out in the stands, pretty obviously only there to relax in the relative coolness.
And here I thought Canadians 
were the only ones who played shinny 
year round
Guess our air conditioner isn’t quite up to this unusual task. It didn’t break but also couldn’t cool our house below 80 degrees until late last night. Today is supposed to be even hotter, so hopefully it keeps working.
What I’ve dealt with over the years with high heat is my BG can drop incredibly low very quickly. After a trip to the ER one summer I found a younger doctor who is the only one who could offer any reason for this. She said “The only thing that I can think of is the heat will cause you capillary veins to dilate to cool you off, which would then cause your body to absorb the insulin you’ve injected more quickly than you are used to.”.I still watch out for low BG when the the temps go up.
One thing I will point out is that you need to drink way more water (preferably ice water) when it gets hot. In my younger days I used to work in an injection molding room where the temp would get to 105 degrees by 9am. I would fill a big insulated mug with ice and top up with water and sip that all shift. It worked out to be 104 ounces of water every 8 hours.
Good luck with the heat everyone!
When the temp is extra high, or if you take a hot bath, or go into a sauna, you are at risk for extreme lows.
During a heatwave, the best idea is to lower your basal and your carb/insulin ratio.
You should also check your bg trends regularly so you aren’t surprised by unexpected lows.
Thanks for the heads up @Charogle!! And welcome, glad to see that you found FuD, enjoy the Fourth!