Older adults retiring and experiencing more hypos.

[Singing bird]

I’m 68 and over the last 3 years have been reducing my working hours - gone from 5 days a week to 3 and now 2 days a week. Recently my blood sugar readings have been getting lower and lower. I can only put this down to being so much more relaxed. Has anyone had the same experience?
Many thanks.

 

[Lucyr]

What medications do you take and are you adjusting dosage as your work routine changes?

 

[Robin]

I have the same in reverse. I’m retired, and have been for a number of years, but if I have a busy day with more stressful stuff in it, I find that my glucose levels are higher than normal, so yes, I guess it works the other way round too.

 

[Proud to be erratic]

I’m 68 and over the last 3 years have been reducing my working hours - gone from 5 days a week to 3 and now 2 days a week. Recently my blood sugar readings have been getting lower and lower. I can only put this down to being so much more relaxed. Has anyone had the same experience?
Many thanks.

On the face of what you say, it does seem a plausible explanation. Perhaps work "stress" is not only reduced by the fewer working hours, but also you are simply disengaging with the more subtle "needs" of your workplace. Also perhaps you are just getting more time to quietly manage the background needs of your D: eg better pre-bolus timings, more settled sleep patterns, more home cooked food, better hydration levels. You might be subconsciously just making decisions that are better for you - because you can. One might expect just the opposite; I guess it could go either way.

May I ask how long have you been T1? Do you have any form of CGM, ie are the reduced BG readings from finger prick spot checks or backed up by 24 hour daily graphs, developed into 90 day averages etc?

Whatever the explanation there are 2 really clear benefits: reduced BGs (unless you are constantly very low, which can be very bad long term) AND less work = more personal time!

 

[rebrascora]

@Singing bird Is your job sedentary? I wonder if you are able to be more active in your leisure time than you are at work and that is the cause of you dipping low but as others have mentioned better sleep and less stress will also usually mean lower BG levels too. Usually you would look to adjust your basal insulin dose(s) to account for this difference but it depends on which basal insulin you use, as some are more flexible and can be adjusted daily like Levemir to account for the difference between work or leisure days and others like Tresiba are not and would need you to adjust your meal ratios to compensate. If you are on a pump then your profiles would probably need adjusting for work days and leisure days.

Are they daytime hypos or nocturnal ones? Hopefully you have Libre sensors or some other CGM to help alert you to your levels dropping and treat the hypos before they happen. If you don't then get in touch with your GP and ask for them to be prescribed as they are a game changer for most of us.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I’m 68 and over the last 3 years have been reducing my working hours - gone from 5 days a week to 3 and now 2 days a week. Recently my blood sugar readings have been getting lower and lower. I can only put this down to being so much more relaxed. Has anyone had the same experience?
Many thanks.

That’s an interesting question @Singing bird !

I used to notice that I generally seemed more sensitive to insulin (and needed less for the same intake of carbs) when I was on holiday vs when I was busy at work.

It was never altogether clear to me whether it was the relaxation (stress can raise BG levels) or the fact that I was more likely to be active and ‘doing things’ vs sat at a desk.

As my working patterns have changed in recent years, and now some of my work is more active, I don’t see the change between work and holiday so clearly.

Hope you find a new balance with adjusted doses 🙂

 

[trophywench]

I used to notice that I generally seemed more sensitive to insulin (and needed less for the same intake of carbs) when I was on holiday vs when I was busy at work.

It was never altogether clear to me whether it was the relaxation (stress can raise BG levels) or the fact that I was more likely to be active and ‘doing things’ vs sat at a desk.

Well I reckon it's a combination of those two - plus we'd mainly go somewhere red hot and peg ourselves out on the sand to cook in the sun on holiday which = less insulin for about the first 10/12 days but then just wore off, really.

Retirement was actually much more difficult all in all cos I'd latterly been under so much stress at work I'd had to pack it in early which I mentally found very very stressful! - the guilt of 'letting my colleagues down'......... whereas 'the firm I worked for' could go and hang and that's still a not nice sentiment for me.