Hello - I have just come across this site when looking for information regarding the effect of sailing on T1 diabetes and wondered whether anybody could help?
My son who is almost 15 has had T1 since since the age of 5 - he is reasonably well controlled 3 injections of Rapid and one of Lantus per day. He is a keen sailor and has been taking part in competitive racing events. When the events start in the morning and run until early afternoon he manages reasonable well to keep his levels stable. However a lot of the events plan to start around 11.30am with up to 4 back to back races of up to 90 mins each on these days he is usually up at 5-6am (due to travelling to from home to the event) and has breakfast and insulin and then has pasta followed by insulin at aroun 10.30am - however a number of occasions the racing is then postponed at the last minute due to lack of wind - this weekend for example it was 2pm before they actually got out and 3pm before they started racing he tested once whilst on the water and his levels were low so he ate some carbs, however by the time he finally came in at around 7pm his level was 24 - I am guessing this partly was due to the fact the he hadn't had any insulin since 10.30am. Obviously high blood sugars could affect his overall performance.
If at all possible he wants to avoid having to inject whilst on the water due to the impracticality of trying to inject in sailing wear especially a drysuit.
Does anyone one have any similar experiences and if so any suggestions on how to deal with it or know any specialised nutritionists/doctors who would be able to help - I feel that the advice offered by his normal clinic is not specialised enough?
Thanks
Nicola
My son who is almost 15 has had T1 since since the age of 5 - he is reasonably well controlled 3 injections of Rapid and one of Lantus per day. He is a keen sailor and has been taking part in competitive racing events. When the events start in the morning and run until early afternoon he manages reasonable well to keep his levels stable. However a lot of the events plan to start around 11.30am with up to 4 back to back races of up to 90 mins each on these days he is usually up at 5-6am (due to travelling to from home to the event) and has breakfast and insulin and then has pasta followed by insulin at aroun 10.30am - however a number of occasions the racing is then postponed at the last minute due to lack of wind - this weekend for example it was 2pm before they actually got out and 3pm before they started racing he tested once whilst on the water and his levels were low so he ate some carbs, however by the time he finally came in at around 7pm his level was 24 - I am guessing this partly was due to the fact the he hadn't had any insulin since 10.30am. Obviously high blood sugars could affect his overall performance.
If at all possible he wants to avoid having to inject whilst on the water due to the impracticality of trying to inject in sailing wear especially a drysuit.
Does anyone one have any similar experiences and if so any suggestions on how to deal with it or know any specialised nutritionists/doctors who would be able to help - I feel that the advice offered by his normal clinic is not specialised enough?
Thanks
Nicola
