Can't control my blood sugar if I do anything physical.

In Response said:

Have you tried
- exercising before breakfast? I find this is great because I experience some Foot On The Floor liver dump first thing in the morning and the drop due to exercise balances this out
- not exercising whilst you have "insulin on board"? Exercise makes our body more efficient at using insulin. Therefore, I try to avoid exercise less than 4 hours after my last bolus.
- drinking a diluted sweet drink ,such as weak squash or fruit juice, whilst exercising? I find this maintains my levels rather than topping them up when they fall.
- an insulin pump? Hypos due to exercise was the justification for me to get a pump. This allows me to take the no "insulin on board" policy another step and stop my basal insulin before exercising, This also means I can revert to drinking water and don't need to exercise before breakfast.

I am not a doctor but I do not think your age has anything to do with your problems. I am a similar age and have adopted a strategy for minimising hypos due to exercise.

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StewM said:

Guidelines are a good starting point, but they won't and don't work for everyone. Your best bet is to feed this back to your Doctors if you're able to contact them easily. If not, you can modify things yourself. So how would you do that?

1) Be very careful.

You clearly know there's a possibility of going low, so be ready to test/treat a Hypo at the slightest sign of trouble. If you have a Libre 2 you can set-up alarms to help you. If you have a Libre 1 and/or a Blood Sugar Testing kit. Don't hesitate to test if something feels off.

2) Modify

If you chop 2 units off your dose and you still go Low. Take 3 off the next time and see what happens.

3) Adjust your standards for "in range"

When I was having the difficulties you described, I would treat 4.9 and below as "Low" and correct with Dextrose Tablets (whilst active). This meant I would catch the Blood Sugar drop before it became a Hypo.

4) Basal Testing

Any time I've had an issue like what you're describing it's been an issue with my Basal Insulin. Try to go without food for the time of day you usually exercise, don't exercise, and monitor your Blood Sugar levels. If the Basal's causing the issue, you'll find your levels are dropping in the absence of Bolus/Food.

With regards to your final question. It's neither here nor there why, as the steps you'd take to resolve the issue would be the same regardless.

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In Response said:

Another thing I would add is to be aware how different types of exercise affect your levels. Typically, cardio causes a drop and resistance training causes it to rise. So, if my levels are a little lower than I'd like to go for a run, I start the gym with some weights and vice versa.
We are all different and it takes trial and error to find out what works for ourselves rather than just following the one generic guideline provided by our consultant. Try each of the methods described above and find out what works for you. It may require a combination of things.

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