• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

Testing after showering

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
P

Perfect10

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
At risk of diabetes
Can this have an effect on your reading?
since buying a BG monitor I have been testing out new foods and levels have always been in the normal range between 4 and 5 before meals and I think the highest it has ever been was 7.4 on one occasion but usually less than 7.
I did a random test tonight after showering it was 8, I was so shocked I washed my hands again in case it was something on my skin and tested again, it was 8.5. Tested again half an hour later and it’s gone down to 6.5?
For tea tonight I had about 15g carbs which is usually fine, in fact I can have about 25g carbs normally with little effect. There was nothing in the meal that I haven’t had before - it was a stir fry, bean sprouts, pak Choi, onions, mushrooms, meat. With berries and Nush almond milk yoghurt for pudding.
 
You don't mention when your shower was in relation to your evening meal. A nice warm shower usually brings my levels down rather than increasing them.
 
rebrascora said:
You don't mention when your shower was in relation to your evening meal. A nice warm shower usually brings my levels down rather than increasing them.
Click to expand...
When I googled it said showers usually lower levels which is what puzzled me? I’m still new to all this too.
My shower was probably an hour after eating and tested not long after that?
next time I shower I will test just before and then straight after again to see if this happens again?
 
Why would it be surprising that your BG was 8 or 8.5 an hour or so after eating? It is normal for it to increase after eating you know, even with low carb. What was your pre meal reading? Non diabetic people can spike up to 10 occasionally.
 
I enjoy hot showers (my partner calls them “scorching”).
I have noticed my Libre always reports a spike during my shower. This is a sharp peak which goes back to normal after the shower. I don’t know if the shower is affecting my blood sugars or my sensor.
 
rebrascora said:
Why would it be surprising that your BG was 8 or 8.5 an hour or so after eating? It is normal for it to increase after eating you know, even with low carb. What was your pre meal reading? Non diabetic people can spike up to 10 occasionally.
Click to expand...
I have never had a reading that high before, I was doing the check review adjust approach all over Christmas and nothing made my BG that high? I didn’t test before eating today as have tested previously when eating exactly the same and looking at my diary, last time my levels hardly changed? I just did a random test?
 
If that reading was just over an hour after eating and you didn't test before eating then I don't think you can draw any conclusions from the result at all. Random tests will throw up odd readings but your BG may be naturally higher today or this evening for some other reason... stress, exercise, illness brewing. As I said, even a non diabetic person's levels can go up to 10 and certainly 8 would not be unusual, particularly at that stage after food.
 
I keep a tub of glucotabs (aka Lift) by the bath, as a hot bath drops my BGs. But I recall when discussed on here before hot baths/showers send some low and some high, just as hot weather has both effects on different people!
 
silentsquirrel said:
I keep a tub of glucotabs (aka Lift) by the bath, as a hot bath drops my BGs. But I recall when discussed on here before hot baths/showers send some low and some high, just as hot weather has both effects on different people!
Click to expand...
I think it is like everything else it is differnt strokes for differnt folks.
 
rebrascora said:
If that reading was just over an hour after eating and you didn't test before eating then I don't think you can draw any conclusions from the result at all.
Click to expand...
Hi @Perfect10. To test the impact of a meal you need to test before and test 2 hrs after and observe the difference. As you build up records of these before and after tests you will pick up trends.
I assume doing the same thing before and after a shower would be informative - but probably unimportant if showering after a meal is your normal routine. If it isn't then be wary of the results you get in that situation.
Cheers. Nick
 
Perfect10 said:
Can this have an effect on your reading?
since buying a BG monitor I have been testing out new foods and levels have always been in the normal range between 4 and 5 before meals and I think the highest it has ever been was 7.4 on one occasion but usually less than 7.
I did a random test tonight after showering it was 8, I was so shocked I washed my hands again in case it was something on my skin and tested again, it was 8.5. Tested again half an hour later and it’s gone down to 6.5?
For tea tonight I had about 15g carbs which is usually fine, in fact I can have about 25g carbs normally with little effect. There was nothing in the meal that I haven’t had before - it was a stir fry, bean sprouts, pak Choi, onions, mushrooms, meat. With berries and Nush almond milk yoghurt for pudding.
Click to expand...
I regularly noticed a bit of a rise after a hot shower, back when I was testing a lot. I expect it's one of those things which are different for different folks.
 
Depends on what treatment is being used to manage diabetes, being insulin user I drop like a stone showering after bolusing & eating, that reason try to leave hour or two after or shower before meal.
 
How unusual for you @Perfect10 - and not a ‘rogue strip’ because you rechecked.

Try not to let these occasional oddities worry you too much. We are only in control of a few of the levers on the glucose-regulation-machine, and several of the knobs and switches are round the back where they can’t be reached 🙄

I think that’s why it is good to recheck things a few times - including responses to foods - before deciding a course of action.

A reading in the 8s may seem very high for you, and naturally you will have been surprised by it and want answers... but in the grand scheme of things it will not have done any damage, and you may never know exactly what caused it. That’s just how diabetes is sometimes.

But it’s the general, overall results that are more important, than occasional one-offs 🙂
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top