Exercise and high blood sugars

Hi Em,

I know it works because i do it, but couldn't put the words together to express why, so i have copied an excerpt from a website

"When exercising, the body needs extra energy or fuel (in the form of glucose) for the exercising muscles. For short bursts of exercise, such as a quick sprint to catch the bus, the muscles and the liver can release stores of glucose for fuel. With continued moderate exercising, however, your muscles take up glucose at almost 20 times the normal rate. This helps lowers blood sugar levels."

Taken from: http://diabetes.webmd.com/guide/exercise-guidelines

Hope this helps,
Cara

Elc1112 said:

Hi all,

I'm hoping that somebody might be able to answer this question for me... I've been diabetic for over 20 years now and have always been told not to exercise if my blood sugars are high. Could anybody tell me why that is, please?

Thanks! Em

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I would guess the level of exercise has a bearing here, exercise comes in many forms and varying intensity and dependent on what your about to embark on could determine whether its okay or not okay.

..another MD snippet

Is Blood Sugar Ever Too High to Exercise?
Yes. In some cases, you should hold off on exercising if your blood sugar is very high. Ask your doctor about if and when you should hold off on exercise.

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Came across this...

When exercising, the body needs extra energy or fuel (in the form of glucose) for the exercising muscles. For short bursts of exercise, such as a quick sprint to catch the bus, the muscles and the liver can release stores of glucose for fuel. With continued moderate exercising, however, your muscles take up glucose at almost 20 times the normal rate. This lowers blood glucose levels.
But intense exercise can have the opposite effect and actually increase your blood glucose levels. This is especially true for many people with diabetes. The body recognizes intense exercise as a stress and releases stress hormones that tell your body to increase available blood glucose to fuel your muscles. If this happens to you, you may need a little bit of insulin after intense workouts.

If your blood sugar is high it is usually due to lack of insulin. Insulin is the hormone that moves glucose out of the blood and into the cells where it is used for energy. During exercise your body uses glucose for fuel. If you do not have enough insulin (and this will be shown by the fact that your blood sugar is high) then your body will not be able to make use of the glucose in your bood. If you then exercise, this will push your blood sugar even higher. Your body may start to produce ketones as it cannot use glucose for fuel it will have to start breaking down the fat.

Hope that makes sense. I'm not very good at explaining things.

What glucosegirl explains is correct in my understanding.

A high blood glucose could be an indication that there is not enough insulin in your bloodstream or it is not working well (insulin resistance can occur during illness). Your body doesn't understand that you have diabetes so it sees the lack of energy/glucose in the muscle cells as a lack of glucose in the blood stream. It's natural reaction will be to dump more glucose into your blood stream to feed the muscles with energy, your body doesn't understand there is a lack of insulin causing the problem. This will raise your blood glucose level even higher. As that glucose still can't enter the muscle cells (which it won't if there isn't enough insulin) your body then will start converting fat to energy and this can start raising ketones which can get very dangerous for a type 1 diabetic with a lack of insulin.

If however you have a high blood glucose but you inject rapid acting insulin to reduce it and then exercise at around the time when the insulin becomes active, your blood glucose will fall more quickly especially if you're exercising at the peak of the insulin intensity (Novorapid usually around 2 hours). If you inject into your thighs it will work at lowering your blood glucose even more quickly because the muscles working in that area stimulate the absorbtion of insulin more quickly.

I wouldn't exercise with a high blood glucose if the insulin is not present or not working correctly but if you have recently injected so you know there is insulin in your body then I think gentle exercise can actually be beneficial as it will help to reduce your bg more quickly. I agree too that intense exercise can raise your blood glucose because your body sees it as a stress and will release glucose to provide ample energy, not enough insulin on board for this release would result in a raised bg.

I'm still trying to work this out myself having just started insulin. I find that I can 'control' my blood glucose by having a snack before exercising, have something to eat when you finish, take my insulin (I typically I run in the morning). That seems all OK and my readings are good. What I have to watch is some 8 - 10 after as my blood sugar plumits, very quickly. At my next meeting with my diabetes team, I need to discuss this with them.

I have always been advised to reduce insulin prior to exercise and let my BG get high to compensate for the exercise. I used to run with a starting level of 10-14 and it would always come down nicely to between 5-7. This includes having jelly babies during the run.

However, I didn't like leaving my BG levels to go high as I would feel very lethargic before running and through the afternoon at work (I prefer to run after work). These days I try to adjust for exercise as little as possible, I know I need a jelly baby for every mile I run and will take more if it's particularly intense. This way I am more at risk of going too low but I find the main danger of this is in the half hour after exercise.... so I eat something quickly!

It's really down to our two oldest diabetic friends.... Mr Trial and Mr Error.

Hi everybody,
I have diabete type 1 for almost 2 years. I am 31 years old. I am doing alot of sports weekely. Some times heavy training like gym, martial arts, jiu jitsu. Some times i push really hard. I never have had any problem with it. I keep my Bg in control easly. I can eat almost anything after the training. Usually my BG before gym is somewhere between 5-7. In the evening after training I have a shot with 3u and I eat 100-120hc. After 2hours my BG could be 4 or 7, rarely more. Some times I need extra carbs or less insulin. I have meals without insulin rearly.
So you shouldn`t be worry about sport. I can`t see any issue. All you have to do is to take it easy with small steps to learn it. If you feel bad you can eat something or drink a juce.
Goodluck!

I prefer yoga rather than gym. But yes you have to take control diet, that will not increase you sugar level. I would say some kind of supplement like grapeseed extract.

I never pay any heed to this advice. If I test and my BG is between 12 and 15mmol, I find that a 2 or 3 unit bolus is sufficient to allow me to exercise and always by the end of the session my sugar level is back down to something respectable. I guess it's possible that for the first few minutes of the session my performance is impaired before the insulin has had chance to begin shuttling the glucose into cells but I've never felt any the worse for it. No hypos during or after the session for me with this technique either, although this may not be the case for everyone, so be careful.

ok what about bs 15-20 and have an hour of sport at school . yes or no?????? bearing in mind daughter is on bd insulin and will drink orange juice to make it high so she can.t do it?????

You're saying your daughter 'deliberately' drinks too much OJ before exercise to give her an excuse to not take part?

If that is the case

1) she has to know what it does to her

and

2) you have to find out why she dislikes it so much that she will do 'anything' to prevent it?

At least that's my view as a starting point.

She could be self-conscious, afrad of hypo's, being bullied, have her monthly (if she's that age) or feel clumsy etc etc. I think that is the key to solving the 'symptom' that is the OJ and resulting blood sugars.

Correct me if I got it all wrong to begin with.

just diesn.t like stoolball at the moment and not allow to wear track suits in summer!!!!!.

if fact shes not keen on school since easter when she had a massive hypo out of the blue at easter. but should i say yes its good to do sport when high bs or should she not. and no she will not take extra insulin nor watch her carbs at lunch x

I don't think I am qualified to answer that, really.

The general advice seems to be if you are going to do something that will require short, intense burst you may find your levels rising.

If you do gentle steady things like walking, it should not go up any further.

I don't know to be entirely honest, though, and I think it is individual a lot too.

Could you make some sort of agreement with her school that if levels are high, she can do a walk or gymnastics exercise instead of the thing she dislikes? May take the pressure/excitement out of the exercise, allow her to get a bit of movement, not encourage her to try and avoid it, and probably mean her levels would be more steady than otherwise?

I think to be honest, I would ask here diabetes team for advice also. There's a component of youngster, a component of diabetes and a component of school rules as well as she may have gotten a scare, so she is trying to prevent a repeat. I think I'd phone them for advice, that's what they're there for after all, too.

I was always told do NOT exercise when BS is >17mmol/L as exercise can cause BS to raise more & you are at a higher risk of developing ketoacidosis. Your daughter is clever... wish I'd have thought of that one in school :wink: