Aerobic exercise and high BS levels

Spirit of Eden

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Can anybody give a simple explanation of why my BS levels are always high after Aerobic exercise (e.g football/ tennis) ? Usually 14-15mmol.

To me it suggests that my liver is pumping out glucose into the bloodstream during the sport to help muscles with energy, but if there is not enough insulin available (I only take insulin) then there is no way for the glucuse to get transported into muscles etc

This pretty much always happens, but I would be very nervous about taking insulin before sport
 

mo1905

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Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
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Rude people !
There is no easy answer unfortunately as different people will react differently to exercise, however, as a general rule, intense or competitive sport ( tennis/football ) will raise sugars, low intensity exercise tends to reduce levels.
 

Spirit of Eden

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Thanks Mo1905, agree totally with what you say.

After a year or so on insulin I can now control my BS really well as long as there are no aggravating factors. High and Low intensity &activity activity are obviously good things to be doing as a diabetic but they really mess with my levels.

I would really like to understand what is physically going on when I exercise so I can think ahead. This article seems to agree with my theory about Aerobic exercise.

http://www.joslin.org/info/why_do_blood_glucose_levels_sometimes_go_up_after_physical_activity.html
 

Signs

Well-Known Member
Messages
195
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
My personal experience.
Type 2 mainly diet controlled and metformin with occasional gliclazide when levels are elevated.

Without gliclazide - High intensity intervals followed by weights increases levels a few points. Will remain high for a few hours. However I usually have a have a protein shake which brings levels back down quicker. I have no idea how it works, just know it does.

With gliclazide doing the same workout my levels drop quickly unless I've had carbs beforehand.

Cheers, John
 

ElyDave

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,087
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Spirit of Eden said:
Can anybody give a simple explanation of why my BS levels are always high after Aerobic exercise (e.g football/ tennis) ? Usually 14-15mmol.

To me it suggests that my liver is pumping out glucose into the bloodstream during the sport to help muscles with energy, but if there is not enough insulin available (I only take insulin) then there is no way for the glucuse to get transported into muscles etc

This pretty much always happens, but I would be very nervous about taking insulin before sport

you're not aerobic, that's why.

You are likely to be anaerobic for large parts of these exercise, intense activity followed by recovery. The adrenaline (I'm also assuming these are competitive) will cause your liver to dump glucose into the blood stream. I can see this in both intense interval workouts, weights and sometimes cycling time trials in myself.

The thing to be careful about when it happens is not to overdo any corrective doses, but rather monitor BG regularly ,say every half hour for a couple of hours as you should start to replenish the muscle glycogens and BG is likely to drop fairly quickly.