#524 Diabetes Variables: Hydration

August 13, 2021Scott Benner

Diabetes Variables: Hydration

Scott and Jenny Smith, CDE share insights on type 1 diabetes care

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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.

Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends, and welcome to the next episode of the diabetes variable series with me and Jenny Smith. This is Episode 524 of the Juicebox Podcast. This show is sponsored today by the glucagon that my daughter carries g vo hypo Penn. Find out more at G Volk glucagon.com forward slash juice box.

On today's episode, Jenny and I will be talking about hydration, and how that is a variable in your use of insulin. Please remember, while you're listening that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. And always, always, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan, or becoming bold with insulin. Don't forget, if you're interested in Jenny, professionally, she works at integrated diabetes.com. And you can hire her last little bit here, if you're looking for the diabetes pro tip series, which by the way also includes Jenny Smith, they begin at Episode 210 were are available at Juicebox. Podcast calm and at diabetes pro tip calm. There, you'll also find the defining diabetes series, The how we eat series, the variable series, and all of the other episodes of the Juicebox Podcast, including ones about algorithm pumping, and some of my favorite, the afterdark series.

So Jenny, we are getting into another diabetes variable. And I was thinking today, since it's summertime here in the US, we could talk about hydration and its impact on blood sugars. Yes, that's a great topic. So is it as simple as Watch, watch, watch me make a three minute long episode of this. Which maybe is fine, right? So I guess let's start at the basis of hydration like are most people probably don't understand what really being well hydrated means.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 2:28
I would say that that's probably correct. And I think that most people don't think that they're dehydrated until they're actually like physically oh my gosh, I have to get a glass of water or I need something to drink. Like you're beyond like that. Now you're definitely dehydrated, you should be getting something. This point.

Scott Benner 2:49
Yeah, kidneys hurt, you're thinking of the hospital. You're right, right. So So I guess that is how maybe most people think of hydration is the idea that like, like there's something significantly wrong, not just that there's not quite enough water in your body. And because of that, specifically with type one, and anybody who's using insulin, the insulin can't work. So can you give them a brief overview of why the insulin won't work if you're dehydrated?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 3:14
Well, one thing to start with is, you know, when you don't drink enough water, the glucose itself in your bloodstream becomes more concentrated. So it's thicker, it's almost like if you imagine the old saying of like molasses in winter, it's kind of like that, when you don't have enough water or liquid to let your blood and fluids flow through your body and your vessels like it's supposed to, it gets kind of sticky. And that leading to higher blood sugar levels means a lot of things including the fact that insulin which we're expecting to get absorbed out of our subcutaneous or underlying tissue, whether you inject it or you pump it however it gets in your body. Unless you inhale it, that's different. If you're putting it into your body via injection or pump, you're expecting your body to absorb it out of that underlying tissue absorption means that you need enough fluid to then sort of transport it into your circulating system. And if your circulating system is slow, because you're dehydrated, right, then the insulin is going to take a bit more to kind of get working if if you will, okay, along with potentially also having some higher blood sugars too. So

Scott Benner 4:37
is there I mean, bit poor hydration can also lead to body temperature rise, right? Yes. Which I guess could have an impact on blood sugars as well. I don't I just

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:49
it would be a stress to the body. Right. Yes. So the

Scott Benner 4:52
correlation but still important,

Jennifer Smith, CDE 4:54
but still important. Absolutely. I mean, if you think about it, all of the things in your body Rely on hydration right? In terms of like lubricating your skin and your joints and making digestion go the right way. Even just removing things out of your body, the reason that we go to the bathroom is to rid our, our body of some of the toxins and the things that it is sort of disposing of either you know, one way or another of bodily elimination. So if there's not enough fluid there to kind of move digestion. Now you've got other things that could be enough impact and stress on the body that could be raising your blood sugar

Scott Benner 5:35
chivo hypo pan has no visible needle, and it's the first pre mixed autoinjector of glucagon for very low blood sugar in adults and kids with diabetes ages two and above. Not only is chivo hypo pen simple to administer, but it's simple to learn more about. All you have to do is go to G Volk glucagon.com forward slash juicebox g vo shouldn't be used in patients with insulin, Noma or pheochromocytoma. Visit g Vogue glucagon.com slash risk. Symptoms of dehydration feeling thirsty dark yellow or strong smelling urine dizziness lightheadedness, feeling tired dry mouth, lips eyes or ping fewer than four times a day are things to look for. for hydration. I think maybe the other important thing to say here is that if you're dehydrated, a can of coke isn't the answer. Right? Like so. Right? So no, it's I feel like there are so many people right now just waiting for me to say water. But you should be drinking water. Right? And and how much do you know? How much do you drink a day?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 6:49
Um, a lot of water. We go through a lot of water. And I mean, it's the main thing that we all drink. We don't drink milk or any of those other things. We don't drink juice as a beverage. So, gosh, my water bottle is 32 ounces. And I probably go through at least two of those a day. And that's just water. I mean, I drink probably two or three glasses of tea in a day. I drink one cup of coffee in the morning. You know everybody knows what I do.

Scott Benner 7:25
Pleasure drinks like because that's how I think of that. Like I had a die ginger Lv I sound so boring. I had a diet ginger ale The other day I was like, Well, I haven't had this in such a long time. It's

Jennifer Smith, CDE 7:35
my, my pleasure drink. Like if I did this when I was pregnant to start because I wanted something that was like a treat in the evening. But I didn't want something that was going to like ruin everything for overnight. So there's a brand of quote unquote, sugar free cereal, or not cereal, soda. zevia. Okay, and it's sweetened with stevia. Some of them are sweetened with stevia and monk fruit, etc. But it's zero sugar. And my favorite is their ginger root beer. Okay. So if I was going to have a treat, I mean, we usually even only buy it like if we're going camping now. But that was my thing to do, like in the evening. A really big glass with lots of ice and zevia. Okay,

Scott Benner 8:25
well, the so I'm seeing here online that it could take up to 36 hours to rehydrate yourself. If you're dehydrated, like like I guess clinically dehydrated, right is there. So I guess there's also a world where you're just sort of on the bubble and you hear all the time I do it with harden. Like there are times where if our blood sugar's kind of stuck, I'm like drink a big glass of water. See what happens. And you do sometimes see like, it is almost like flipping a switch sometimes. Yeah, so that's not that's a case where you're not as hydrated as you could be. But you're not clinically dehydrated. Correct? That makes sense?

Jennifer Smith, CDE 9:01
Correct. I mean, clinical dehydration is definitely much more of a there's a visual as some of the symptoms, the signs and things that you mentioned already are kind of in place. It takes a lot to be really dehydrated enough to need to go and get assistance. I mean, in general, you know, how much water do I drink? the age old? Oh, you should be drinking, you know, eight glasses of water a day essentially, or what adds up to like two liters of water. Right. So doing that, a lot of people also don't think that that intake is just considering actual drinking. There is fluid in a lot of the food that we eat naturally, you know, our fruits or vegetables. So it's another reason that they should just eat better food because we also hydrate our body. The less processed foods are

Scott Benner 9:57
Yeah, okay, and so on. I think the last thing I want to say, and I know this is difficult but it's you know, diet Snapple is not really good for you. You know, it might taste good to you it might not have sugar in it. So you're excited about it. I am not judging. I am definitely a person who, in my heart of hearts wants my drinks to taste like something. But, I mean, I there exists just no doubt in the world that just drinking water is more valuable, I

Jennifer Smith, CDE 10:30
suppose more valuable. Yeah, I mean, if you do want a little bit of something like flavor wise, you can always add some lemon juice or some lime juice or something like that to the water to get it to have a little bit more flavor. If your reason for not drinking water as much as just because water doesn't taste like anything. Even like some of the sparkling waters, like spindrift and the Waterloo, they get an awful lot of really good like natural essence sort of like flavored it's a sparkling water but sometimes that even is enough for people to drink a little bit more than just plain water.

Scott Benner 11:08
Right. Well, I think that's a an excellent place to leave this so awesome. Thank you very much.

Jennifer Smith, CDE 11:14
Yes.

Scott Benner 11:20
First, I want to thank Jenny for being such an important part of the show. Don't forget you can find her at integrated diabetes comm I'd also like to give a huge thank you to one of today's sponsors, g Vogue glucagon, find out more about chivo hypo pan at G Vogue glucagon.com Ford slash juicebox. you spell that GVOKEGL Uc ag o n.com. forward slash juicebox. Thank you so much for listening, and for sharing the show with others. I'll be back very soon with another episode of the Juicebox Podcast.