Sugar in Winter: Why Readings Rise and How to Protect Numb Feet

Every December the same message arrives from Abbu: “Sugar is high again, I haven’t changed anything.” Sugar in winter really does tend to run higher, for reasons you can see on the dastarkhwan and in the step count, and cold weather also brings a danger most diabetic families never think about until a blister appears: feet too numb to feel the heater.

Why Sugar in Winter Goes Up

Some of it is simple arithmetic. The evening walk stops once the fog and smog roll in, gajar ka halwa, panjiri, pinni, dry fruit and endless cups of sweet chai arrive on every table you visit, and the wedding season stacks late dinners one on top of another. Sleep shifts too. Put fewer steps together with more ghee and sugar and HbA1c creeps up over the season, and many people see a slightly higher reading in spring that nobody can explain.

Infections add their own push. Colds, flu and chest infections are more common in winter, and any infection releases stress hormones that raise sugar, sometimes sharply, even if you’re eating less. Cold itself may play a small role too, since the body releases some of the same hormones in cold weather, although nobody should blame the weather alone when the halwa, the missed walks and the lingering cough are sitting right there in plain view. The practical point is the same whatever the mix: check more, and bring the numbers to the doctor, instead of assuming the tablets have “stopped working”.

Portion sizes for the winter spread are covered in our winter desi food portions guide and dry fruit portions.

Numb Feet and Heaters: The Burn Nobody Feels

This part costs toes. Long-standing diabetes often damages the nerves in the feet, so heat and pain simply don’t register. A person with numb feet can rest them near a gas heater, on a hot water bottle or beside a coal angeethi for an hour and discover a blister, or a deep burn, only the next morning. Then poor circulation slows healing. Infection sets in. A small burn becomes an admission.

1. Keep feet at least an arm’s length (roughly 1 metre) from heaters, angeethis and fireplaces.
2. Don’t sleep with a hot water bottle or heating pad against the feet. Warm the bed first, then remove it.
3. Test bath water with your elbow or a thermometer (about 37 °C), never with your foot. Numb feet can’t judge heat.
4. Wear clean, dry, loose-topped cotton or wool socks, changed daily, without tight elastic that leaves a groove.
5. Look at both feet every night, including soles and between toes, using a mirror or a family member’s eyes.
6. Moisturise heels, but not between the toes, where damp skin invites fungus.

Our daily diabetic foot check goes step by step, and winter heaters and cracked heels covers the dry-skin side.

Socks, shoes and the razai

Walking barefoot on a cold marble floor is a winter habit in many homes. So is shuffling in thin chappals. Both expose numb feet to stubbed toes and cracks. Bad idea. Wear closed, soft house shoes indoors, shake shoes out before putting them on, and keep the razai off heaters. Small things. They save feet.

Meters, Strips and Insulin in the Cold

Glucometers and strips have an operating temperature, printed in the leaflet that most of us throw away with the box, and a meter carried in a coat pocket through a cold morning, or strips left in a car overnight in Murree or Shimla, can give odd readings or error messages. Bring them indoors, let them sit 20 to 30 minutes at room temperature, warm cold hands with warm water, dry them fully, then test.

Insulin must never freeze. Never. In very cold areas or unheated rooms, don’t keep pens on a window sill or in a car. Store unopened insulin in the fridge’s main body (not near the freezer compartment), and a pen in use as its leaflet directs. Insulin that has frozen, looks cloudy when it should be clear, or has clumps should be replaced.

Sick Days: Flu, Fever and Diarrhoea

Illness is when diabetic emergencies happen in winter, because the sugar rises from the infection itself at the very moment when vomiting or poor appetite makes lows possible too, especially on insulin or sulfonylureas. Dehydration strains kidneys too.

1. Keep taking your diabetes medicines unless your doctor has told you which to pause during illness. Ask for those sick day rules before winter, in writing.
2. Check sugar more often, about every 4 hours if you’re on insulin, or as your doctor advises.
3. Sip fluids through the day: water, thin soup, and ORS if you have diarrhoea (one standard sachet in the amount of water printed on it).
4. If you can’t eat, take small starchy sips or bites (thin khichdi, a plain rusk) so a low doesn’t creep in.
5. Seek care the same day for vomiting that lasts more than a few hours, sugar staying over 300 mg/dL, or drowsiness.

People with diabetes are among those advised to get the yearly flu vaccine before winter; ask your doctor or local health centre. The kidney side of sick days is explained in diabetes and kidney tests, and lows are covered in sugar low symptoms.

Keeping Active When It’s Foggy

You don’t need the park. Really. Ten minutes of brisk walking indoors after each meal (up and down the corridor, round the courtyard, on the roof when the sun comes out) adds up to 30 minutes a day. Sit-to-stand from a dining chair, 10 times, a few times a day, uses the big leg muscles that soak up glucose. Our 20-minute walk plan works indoors as well. More is on the Diabetes and Blood Pressure hub.

Sugar in Winter: Questions