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Do you notice changes to your blood glucose levels when you have a sunburn?
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Whenever in the sun, my BG shoots up. And the longer I stay in the sun, the longer I experience insulin resistance for sometimes hours afterward. Summer and winter, even in the car. I now wear UPF 50 Clothing and SPF 50 sunscreen to minimize effects. It’s terrible.
UPF clothing? Don’t ordinary long sleeve shirts and full-length pants protect me? And a broad-brimmed hat? And wrap around sunglasses? Is that what you mean by UPF clothing ?
Most regular shirts are only upf 10-20. I was skeptical at first, too, but I gave it try and wow what a difference. Also saves me time with slathering the sunsuncreen, and less messy!
I do sunburn, but have not noticed a specific trend with my blood sugars afterward.
I have not had sunburns but I have noticed that some times my glucose goes up if I am in the sun.
absolutely everything affects my blood sugar to some extent. So, I don’t worry about it. I just keep checking and adjusting as needed. Caffeine? Bad traffic? Family illness? That is life.
What a good full-coverage answer.
Or, as I used to tell the insurance company — I’ve god a pre-existing condition. I’m alive. ❥
With a light sunburn, no.
But I have experienced 2 severe sunburns over my 37 years, and my BG levels were super high.
I don’t remember the last time I allowed myself to get an actual sun. I’m obsessive about sunblock and protecting my skin. So I really don’t know about myself. My two boys though, ran higher with their sunburn 6 weeks ago.
I often wear sunblock clothes, use sunscreen, and avoid being out in the hottest part of the day. Dehydration is a bigger concern when the weather gets hot.
I eat a low carb diet and I find it makes me resistant to sunburn. I can spend an hour pushing my mower in the south Texas sun with no problem and I have very little suntan. My CGM does freak out at the heat.
The few times in the distant past when I did get sunburned was way before the technology was available to find out. As an older adult I’ve twice been dx. with skin cancer, so now I try to limit sun exposure.
Two episodes of skin cancer has me avoiding the sun. I had many sunburns while growing up, years before my T1D diagnosis. Thankful that I don’t even remember when I last had a sunburn.
I don’t hang out in the sun and try very hard to avoid any sun overexposure.
I recently (last month) had a 2nd degree burn on the whole back of my hand from a kitchen accident. I didn’t notice any changes to my blood sugar. But, with all the things that affect blood sugar, it’s really, really hard to parse it down to one single thing… at least, it is for me.
I grew up in FLA and was always tan. Went away to college and came back pale. Spent two hours in the Miami sun and got so burned I have NEVER allowed that to happen again. Predates my LADA diagnosis so long answer: don’t know and won’t find out.
I do not notice a blood sugar change in regard to a sunburn, but my blood sugars definitely are lower after being near the ocean. Maybe the sun and sea air/ minerals?
I never thought about sunburn affecting blood sugars until a few years ago while vacationing in FL, I experienced very high blood sugars and I researched sunburn and BS and realized sunburn causes stress to the body thus increasing blood sugars.
I selected Other because I am not sure either way. Most of the time I am outside in the sun, it involves activity, many times strenuous, that cause my blood sugar to go low. If I am not active I am sitting in the shade.
When I would get a bad burn aka blistered, etc. my sugar levels would rise to high levels and then I would drop, sometime to hypoglycemia levels and have a hard time keeping them up.
I’ve never noticed any influence of sunburn on BG control, but over my life I found the best sunscreen/sunburn protection has always been a deep sunburn at the start of the year. I could get a deep all over sunburn early in the year and the entire rest of the year I wouldn’t get any more sunburns despite working outside in direct sunlight all day long with no sunscreen or anything.
The last few years I have seen videos that are probably correct about the increase in skin cancer because those videos have had experts who correlated the increases in skin cancer following the increase in the use of sunscreen products by the public and they have said that they are convinced that it isn’t the sun’s ultraviolet rays by themselves that cause the skin cancer, but rather it’s something that the sun’s ultraviolet rays do to the sunscreen products applied to the skin and somehow the sunscreen product ingredients actually react with the sunlight becoming carcinogenic and ultimately causing skin cancer.
Nearly everybody I know routinely uses sunscreen products and over 2/3 of those I’ve worked with who would always preach to me on the importance of using sunscreen products actually had skin cancer, all after they started using the sunscreen products they were trying to talk me into starting to use. I on the other hand have only used sunscreen when visiting my brother and we’d go waterskiing but he’d always refuse to take me on the water unless I’d put on some of his sunscreen. I would use his sunscreen and still go home with a deep sunburn that prevented me from getting burned by the sun for the rest of the year and I have never had any forms of cancer.
I rarely get sunburns, but have not noticed any BG changes when I do get a burn (I usually tan after the first slight sunburn of the summer).