Insights from members of the Health-Shared Diabetes community related to Winter.

Winter is the season that you often either hate or love. What we do know is that it brings with it, for our healthshare community, reduced activity, more time indoors, certainly the cold weather and more community infections. It is the season of parties, overindulgence with food and alcohol, but for many it causes seasonal affective disorder and low mood due to the shorter days and darker days. Health Shared wants to discuss all of these topics in fortnightly sprints, looking at the treatment options, having confidence in self-care and ownership of that care, when to turn to healthcare for treatment and addressing some of those lifestyle concerns such as smoking sensation and reducing alcohol intake. Tell me what it is that you don't like about winter. The tough things about winter are the shorter days, being less active, being stuck indoors more and some of the coughs and colds that they tend to come around at winter and I don't think anybody really enjoys those. And also there's this kind of like you feel like you want to hibernate in the winter so your meals become heavier, like potatoes in it, and lots of carbohydrates, and eating rice, and it's dodgy food, just becomes something that you do in the winter, because it kind of gives you that comfort. And so your diet changes quite dramatically in the winter months, and you have to become really conscious of what you're putting into your food, and the way that you do exercise, that becomes much more difficult because of the general psychology of being in the winter, dark months. OK, so what is it that you like about winter? I like the cold, I actually like the cold weather. I love the bracing winds and, you know, a bit of snow doesn't bother me. But some days you just get up and you think, do you know what? Today I'm just going to work on the computer, get all my admin done. And then you eat accordingly to suit that sort of like day of sitting at a computer and just going out for sort of like half an hour as opposed to going out for an hour and a half. OK, so there's good and there's bad. How do you face those challenges? If it's bad weather and I feel that I'm not going to be able to do my physical activity, walks then that becomes a concern and I try and counteract that with having a little less to eat that day and take more care with my blood glucose levels. What characteristics or attributes that you might have or you've learnt over the years help you navigate through your diabetes during winter? I think what I need to work with better, or achieve better, is sufficient sleep because I'm constantly sleep deprived and that's because of bad habits such as looking at your smartphone in the middle of the night where the blue light goes straight into your brain and stops you from sleeping. So that has its effects on stress. activity was the one I was going to focus on because sometimes it is more difficult in winter but it's about dressing upright and I'm also kind of mindful that I should, you know, life is a risk but I should try not to put myself at extra risk of falling and so I'm more conscious especially when that I'm avoiding nice petrols and, you know, obvious things. With all these challenges, what motivates you to get up and get going? That's a difficult one. I think because, I mean, for instance, shopping and things. I live near shops in a village so that I can go out and then I can meet people as well out there. So I think that's the motivation really. At home, it's family that keeps you going, you know, when your kids wait for you to come home in the evening or wait for you to tell you what new thing they have done. It's really fantastic and these are the simple things in life, but they also are the more wonderful things in life. That keeps me going. What is it that really worries you most about your diabetes during the winter months? I don't want to fall ill, whether it's flu or with COVID or any other viruses that is going around, because I know that will place such a downfall on my diabetes, and then it will be a mission for me to get myself back up again. So I am up to date with everything. So I make sure that I'm up to date with flu jabs and COVID and everything else. With these worries and anxieties, how could a healthcare professional help make you feel better? I think we know that healthcare professionals are increasingly being taught and increasingly understood that when they are working with individuals they need to think about their mental well-being alongside their physical well-being, but most of them are sitting there in a five minute exchange or at maximum the 10 minute exchange and it's very difficult to say well tell me how you're feeling. They prefer to be able to say well tell me what symptoms you have because that's easier and more discreet and something that you can focus on and say okay well you're metformin rather than saying ah what can you do to be able to you know feel mentally more comfortable with the fact that you're having to stick to a more difficult diet when everyone around you isn't sticking to that more difficult diet. Joining our HealthShared community, how do you see being part of that community as a help to you and your diabetes? It's great to have doctors who can give you pragmatic advice but it's also great to hear from someone who is literally experiencing the same thing you're doing and it might even just just be to say I'm going through this too, I know how it feels, would you like to talk about it? You know, sharing can often, you know, a, what's it they say, a trouble shared is a trouble halved or something like that, you know, there is something in and of itself in talking to people who are in your shoes that I think can help you at least with the mental side of your condition which as I said before I think is a big part of having a chronic condition and I think if If the community can bring people together to share their opinions and their feelings about their conditions, that can only be for the good of everybody who's part of that community.