Does anyone know whether using an infrared sauna would have any effect on my CGM (Dexcom G7) or my insulin pump (Tandem mobi)?
I could leave my pump outside but not my CGM or infusion set (TruSteel).
My guess is there would be no effect but I’m wondering if anyone has used one or has technical knowledge. Thanks.
I can’t reply about the infrared sauna but I can relate my extended experience with a traditional Finnish sauna. The Finnish sauna is hotter.
For a couple of years before the pandemic I went to the sauna about 5 days per week. I wear an old MiniMed 722 and the Dexcom G6. I left the pump and external tubing in the locker-room for about a total of 45 minutes. The G6 CGM, of course, remained in place.
I can’t remember specifically but I likely compensated for the missed basal insulin by adding a little before and after via a manual bolus. This system worked quite well for me. A sauna habit is very healthy and your post reminds me that it’s a habit I need to restore!
@TTnyc infrared sauna has been fine for me using Dexcom G6 and Omnipod Dash. The only thing that I have to watch for is short-term “fake” higher blood sugars while my internal body temperature is higher. If you see this issue when you shower, the duration and peak are similar. Love a good sauna session! (If you combine with cold plunge, note you’ll get fake lows from reducing your core temperature!)
Yes, when I take a shower my CGM has a fake high, followed by a fake low about 5-10 minutes after, then back to the correct BG within 15-20 minutes so I’m ready for some inaccuracy. Just don’t want to damage any equipment.
Thank you both for your advice.
Seconded, thirded, fourthed, whatever: the G6 and the G7 (my experience) are extremely prone to localized temperature changes particular “up” but sometimes down. This happened when I just went for a swim, the water was 77F but the air temperature at the time was closer to 90F:
I.e. it was reading 107mg/dL at 17:31 before my dip then it read 72mg/dL after at 17:46 (so two dropped readings).
That really doesn’t matter unless you are using an AIDS; who cares what the Dexcom says, given that we know it can’t handle temperature variations like this?
In this case I was heading downwardly and my AIDS recovered appropriately:
You can see the two dropped readings that the AIDS interpolated in the break in the bright green line.
My personal feelings:
Quite apart from that any “sauna” depends on heating up our skin until we start sweating. It doesn’t need a sauna; I work outside in temperatures that are frequently 90F and sometimes 100F (it gets a bit much at that point). The G7 with AAPS is certainly a challenge; the whacked out readings can cause AAPS to go into a mad correction loop. Because of increased G7 unreliability over the last month or so I’ve ended up turning off the AAPS AIDS on two occasions.
I’m not sure why radiant heat would be more or less detrimental to BG management that a sauna that uses convection and radiant.
A tangent I’m having a senior episode. As an early reader I heard infrared as in fra ed not in fr red. Well this post and one I read elsewhere I am sounding it wrong in my head. Next it will be ep I tome
I would take the pump off with any sauna, probably do a pre- correction bolus.
To be honest, I wasn’t thinking so much about heat effects on CGM and/or blood sugar— though it’s great to have reminders of those. I was imagining that maybe infrared light might damage electronics which probably betrays a real lack of understanding of basic physics. I’m grateful for the reassurance that it’s just another way of creating heat.
I get actual highs from a hot shower, especially in the morning. Not usually the brief shower but when I am in longer washing my hair. I have to take a correction bolus. In the morning it was a lot, in the evening not so much. I would actually start to not feel good. Now I take a tepid or sort of a cool shower and I am fine.
The hospital surgery area used to mess with my Dexcom. Whatever they have there makes it whacked!
The OR is full of electronic noise.
I think of CGM hot shower highs as false or at least transitory…I imagine more interstitial fluid circulates or comes to the surface or something. May be an imaginary process but in my case the highs go away as quickly as they came without insulin.
That’s a direct effect on the Dexcom kit. Heating the Dexcom up results in a sudden temperature change which the Dexcom can’t adapt to, this is transitory. It lasts no more than 15 minutes for me. If I go out in 110F I don’t see the same change even though the actual temperature change in the environment is greater; the Dexcom adapts most likely because the change it perceives more gradual.
So I conclude it is a bug in the Dexcom kit; spraying hot water on a Dexcom results in completely spurious readings.
The air temperature in a sauna is much, much, greater. However it is air, not water; saunas run close to 100C, 212F. We sweat and our skin temperature never gets anywhere near that high (saunas are dry, so the sweat evaporates almost instantly).
I have worn my Dexcom, and my Omnipod, in a real sauna but, of course, I didn’t invite my cellphone in so there were no complaints. Not sure what would happen with the O5 - maybe someone has tried it?
Saunas do not have significant radiant heat. You know when there is significant IR around; something is glowing red, or white (like a lightbulb). That is more likely to cause problems for wearables because they receive the energy directly; IR directly heats the surfaces it illuminates.
So I would prefer real, convection, saunas to the IR sauna which is basically a bathroom heater in a box. All the same, neither are a problem.
LOl, I do not want to derail the original OP. But while heating up the transmitter or sensor can certainly artificially raise the reading. There is a real affect on BG levels for some. Mine requires some insulin for a longer warm/hot shower. Even a mildly warm long shower and my levels go up. I will actually start to feel ucky and will switch it to a mild cold temp to stop it rising and feel better. But I will still need some insulin to bring my BG level down. This is from the person who used to love saunas, hottubs and hot showers. We actually put a cover over our shower at our old house to make it a steam shower for me. It was something I noticed very early on when I was misdiagnosed, I did not have a cgm and had to rely on before and after meter/stick readings. I would commonly shoot up to over 180 and had to stop taking hot showers.
I am looking for the original study I had tagged which was small group of type 1’s and said it was 50/50. The link might have been lost to the ending of TuDiabetes. But here are 2 other articles, the second is another small study..
https://www.quantifieddiabetes.com/2020/03/final-results-hot-shower-effect-on.html
I use red light therapy and infrared sauna at gym almost every day. Never had any effect on my tandem pump or Dexcom.
