Diabetes management varies slightly from season to season. In particular, unlike other seasons, it is easy to lose appetite in summer like these days, and there are many cases of failure to control blood sugar because fruits are plentiful and fruit intake is high. In terms of physiology, there is a lot of activity compared to other seasons, and there is a lot of water loss due to sweating, so dehydration may occur. In addition to frequent rain, the occurrence of water-borne infectious diseases is high, and severe dehydration due to high fever and diarrhea may occur. With the help of Professor Geun-Yong Park of the Department of Endocrinology at Konyang University Hospital, learn more about the characteristics of diabetes and how to prevent it.
◇Characteristics = Management of diabetic patients is somewhat more difficult than in other seasons due to changes in diet, physiological changes in the body, or diseases that occur in summer. In particular, because it is hot, there are more changes in appetite than in other seasons, and when a meal is skipped due to anorexia, hypoglycemia can often occur in patients being treated with oral hypoglycemic agents or insulin injections. At this time, you should exchange for other foods that suit your taste so that you do not skip meals. Also, in summer, fruits such as peaches, plums, and grapes that contain a lot of sugar are abundant, so if you eat a lot of fruits, your blood sugar may rise and it may be difficult to control. In particular, fruits contain nutrients necessary for diabetic patients, such as water, minerals, and vitamins, so limiting fruit intake simply for fear of high blood sugar is also a bad dietary habit.
◇Symptoms = Summer is more active than in other seasons, and there is a lot of water excretion from sweat, which can lead to dehydration. In particular, water-borne infectious diseases, which occur frequently in summer, can be very dangerous for diabetic patients because they are accompanied by high fever, nausea, vomiting, and severe diarrhea. Therefore, diabetic patients of children and the elderly should avoid eating raw if possible and eat cooked food, and if waterborne infectious disease is suspected, they should be hospitalized immediately.
◇Prevention = Dehydration aggravates diabetes, which can lead to diabetic coma in children or the elderly in diabetic patients, which can be fatal. Therefore, in the summer, whether due to physiological or pathological conditions, special attention must be paid to avoid dehydration. Diabetic patients need to be hydrated enough because they are characterized by an increase in urine volume while being dehydrated. Drink enough water to quench your thirst to prevent high blood sugar. As the weather gets hotter, diabetic patients also eat a lot of drinks or ice cream to quench their thirst. However, beverages contain a lot of sugar, which can have a bad effect on blood sugar control. Especially, sports drinks for immediate thirst quenching have about 60-80 kcal of calories, which makes it difficult to control blood sugar.
◇Caution = In summer, there is a lot of physical exposure and activity, so you may get hurt. If blood sugar control is maintained normally in recent years, the wound can be treated relatively easily, but in the case of a patient whose blood sugar is not well controlled, even a small wound must be treated in a hospital. In particular, in the case of diabetic patients, the foot part, which is not often paid attention to in the body part, is easily injured in the summer, so avoid walking barefoot, and clean between the toes to dry it. In addition, you should check your feet for athlete’s foot or wounds every day, and be sure to receive treatment at the hospital. Because of the hot and humid summer weather, many diabetic patients develop athlete’s foot or eczema on their feet. This is because diabetics have relatively low immunity, so bacteria thrive well. In addition, the foot area is not easy to treat because blood circulation and sensory nerves that feel pain are relatively dull. If care is neglected, the feet may rot and require amputation. Keep your feet as cool and dry as possible, and after washing and drying your feet, apply plenty of lotion to your feet to prevent dryness or cracking of the skin. Help Professor Geun-Yong Park, Department of Endocrinology, Konyang University Hospital