My son's dance instructor emailed me asking what more she needed to know about having a diabetic dancer. (I told her a lot of stuff last April, but she's been in denial, doesn't want to be responsible, blah, blah, blah.) I was cheered by this message; thought she was finally coming around. I told her a few things, including not having the room so blasted hot. (All said politely.) She wrote back this long defensive email about how she loves heat, a/c is bad for dancers, whatever. My husband and I just decided to drop it and didn't respond. Today she has her assistant email me and ask what the temperature in the studio should be. IDK! Fortunately, we have a cold front moving through and the heat index is only in the upper 70s today. (My son is there from 9-4:30 today.) But we have a lot of weekend work coming up when it could still get pretty hot.
He'll live. He might have a harder time controlling (and I've read explanations of how and why heat can make you go low because the body is having to work harder to cool itself or can contribute to dehydration if going high). But I cannot find a directive anywhere of how hot is too hot. Anybody?
We live in southwestern Virginia, so it can still get pretty hot and humid here for a while.
angie u are totally right on the heat thing. i am also a dancer and our air conditioning was out for a good 2 weeks and i was spending at least five hours there and it was very hard for me to stay in my dance range( 150-170)
You are right about the heat. I am at a mastering your diabetes course here in Miami right now and we were learning a little about diabetes and exercise today. Does your son use the temporary basal rates at all? If your son experiences lower blood sugars and is concerned maybe talk to your d-team about lowering his basal rates for dance with a hotter room? That is the beauty of the pump there are all of these different ways to prevent lows and highs. Ask your doc about it.
angie it is like when aaron is on lantus you can decrease how much he gets although lautus doesnt work that way if and when he gets on the pump he will better understand
I don't know what physiological research about heat and muscle function she has done, but excessive heat is dangerous and can be damaging, specially with our bodies the way they are.
Luckily for you and your son, your dance instructor sounds like she actually really cares about having your son be a dancer and wants him there. For her comfort you may just want to start by having them slowly lowering the temperature each day that you meet until a compromise is reached =) She will be a very upset dancer if you change her environment to quickly. Explain that you want to find a temperature that they both can function- for maximum Evaporationas well as Convection- that his body needs a little more help with balancing.
I suggest that you look up these two words to have in the back of your mind when explaining this to her. you probably already understand Evaporation (and it sounds like that is the foremost method of body cooling that your instructor relies on.) However your son's needs he will need to balance this out with convection- which refers to loss of heat into the surrounding cooler
air. Relying solely on evaporation will dehydrate him FAST which can cause him to experience DKA. Convection will allow him to retain the water his body so desperately needs to function. mmm also see if there are some salt tablets or something like that for him to take before practice.
I'm a dancer as well. My dance professor always told us how it wasn't good for our muscles to get cold. Maybe the instructor could turn the heat off and just have a students wear sweatshirts or something warm over their tighter dance clothes. Then your son could take them off once he is warmed up.