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Generally wanting to make exercise my friend again... I used to do moderate exercise before diagnosis; nothing crazy, some sprint training, some shorter runs, swimming and Bikram/Vinyasa flow yoga... But as I came towards the end of my honeymoon and pre insulin, all of these would make my numbers rise & stay high; the only exception has been walking, which I would still regularly do 4 miles or so per day.
I've literally been on insulin less than a week, but already noticed I seem to be *very* insulin sensitive - and just a brisk half hr walk to the shops knocks a couple of points off/leaves me wanting to eat...
So, whilst I'm keen to exercise, I'm also scared of it: before cos it would make me high and now in case it makes me overly low... Tips to overcome this would be muchly appreciated x
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Hi Artemis,
Thanks for your input.
It sounds as though you are already beginning to discover that insulin and exercise don't mix very well.
Really it's just a bit of a balancing act. The fact that previously, when you were exercising and not using insulin you would get higher blood glucose readings, suggests that you were just exercising at quite a high intensity. This is because when you raise your heart rate, it can cause a stress response in your body, which triggers your liver to release glucose into the bloodstream.
Exercise such as walking can actually be quite tricky when it comes to BG management, because it is not enough to raise your heart rate (and trigger a liver response) but it is enough for your muscles to burn through glycogen (their stored glucose stores), and begin to take glucose out of your bloodstream (hence the drop).
We'll try to get some info on the website that addresses these problems. Certainly we don't want you feeling scared about exercise.