Exercise and type 1 diabetes

[adrian29459]

Hi day007. I don't think I can really answer your question about the problems of exercising at high levels, its all quite complicated and some might be detailed on this website here - http://www.runsweet.com/index.html

Do you do any long lasting insulin in the mornings or evenings? You could always try having three weetabix or trying something higher in carbs/fibres, e.g. shreddies. Not sure what kind of orange juice you're using but perhaps a sports drink might be better?

 

[phoenix]

Can someone explain to me exactly what the problem is of exercising with a blood sugar over 10/14 or whatever counts as a really high level?!

If your level is over 14mmol, you should check for ketones before exercising. If you have ketones, don't exercise... deal with them.
You probably have insufficient insulin in your body causing the high blood glucose and ketones. If you exercise, your body won't have enough insulin to access the glucose in your blood and lower it. In an effort to get the fuel it needs it will utilise fats ,which will in turn cause your levels to go up further and produce more ketones.
(it can come on very quickly, I was diagnosed after developing DKA during a bike ride and I hadn't gone very far)
If your blood glucose was high to start with you should check regularly (you should anyway) to make sure that it is going down. Some kinds of exercise (particularly anaerobic) can cause levels to rise anyway.

At higher levels the risk is greater so if you level is above 16.5-17mmol (I use 300mg/dl) you should not exercise even without ketones , until your levels are lower.

 

[day007]

The thing is though that I'm taking my bs up to that high level because it does drop all that way down during exercise. If I start at 14 it will drop down to hypo level by the end, so if I didn't start at a 'dangerous' high level then I'd just hypo during exercise and be forced to stop early. I'm a bit confused as to why my bs can drop so much with exercise, because the rest of you seem to be reporting drops of 2-4 during exercise while i'm experiencing drops of 10+

@adrian25459 - I take all my long-term insulin just before bed, but then again this response to exercise happens whether I exercise just after breakfast or just after dinner. Thanks for the web link!

 

[phoenix]

Mine also drop a lot, its my main reason for being offered a pump (I'm not in the UK), my log book was full of hypos, and they were almost always caused by exercise. Things are better now I can reduce my basal for exercise.
On MDI I found that whatever level I started at I'd still almost always drop to hypo levels within the first half hour, so it didn't make sense to artificially raise my levels.(though I admit I was too scared of high bgl to raise them to start above 9mmol.) I used to cope by taking dextrose after the first 20 minutes and then every 20 minutes or so. After about an hour and a half, I found I didn't need to top up as frequently. I managed a marathon doing just that. However, I'm not fast (I'm a plodder in my late 50s), it might be very different for someone who was faster or more competitive. I think it also might make a difference if you have had diabetes for longer, I've been finding recently that it takes far more dextrose and far longer to recover from a hypo.

 

[welshdan]

Hi! I'm new to the forum - welshdan. Hi all

I've read through a few subjects that interest me - pumps and exercise, with my Diabetes.
I'm a type 1 diabetic (14yrs), 29yrs and 4 injections daily (3x Novorapid & 1x Lantus) My last 3years HbA1C's have been 6.#
I ran the Cardiff Half Marathon last year, and I run the Edinburgh Marathon this year. I trained with few problems. Sure, I had to alter my Insulin dose, and my diet had to change (porridge, rice, potatoes, fish, tuna) and I always had to have lucozade tablets on me, and a diabetes.co.uk wrist band on but, easy! I run on average 8min miles. Day before a long run 12 miles + I'll eat a massive carb dinner plenty of rice pasta and potatoes. I'll have a good breakfast in the morning and run my bloods before the run at 15+. I'll drink isotonic drinks on my way round and eat glucose tablets when I need. I test when I finish, and more often than not it's around 4/5.0. I'm no doctor but I know my body. Your body needs fuel to be active - it'll use those sugars in your blood for energy. If it works for you, run them high before you start. If you don't you're running the risk of having a serious problem during! Look at the above results. If I hadn't run them that high before starting I would have had to eat/drink twice as much during the race.

 

[maryrachel]

I really dont get the whole excercise thing. I have a problem with high BG early evening so I have started to excercise to bring them down (and for other reasons of course). When i finish excercising I am higher than I started. I thought it was because the lantus had worn off so I split my dose but BG's early evening still high and still higher after excercise. I only do 1/2 hour at a time cos frankly I dont have the energy for more but what am I doing wrong? I realise I need to get my BG's down but I dont know what else to try.

 

[MacMarketing]

Hi,

I am a half marathon runner and I find that I burn up a lot of energy in the two hours it takes me to complete. What I find difficult is not going too high. If I go too high then I just want to o to the loo all the time, which is not convenient! It is better to eat a decent amount 2 hours before such exercise - I'll have 50g of carbohydrate with some raisins. I will probably give myself half of my usual insulin. I'll check before the race begins and will pray that I am no higher than 14 and no lower than 10.

I carry with me energy gels (I stuff them down my sports bra) and I have one every 30 mins...this equates to about 22g of sugary carbo every 30 mins! So...at the end of the race I have consumed 90g carbo....that is a lot! The last run I did I did this and ended with a score of 7.7...perfect. However, I was dropping like a stone and then had to drink a bottle of powerade afterwards.

If you are exercising for more than an hour you need to take carbo on board like this. If it's for an hour you should be ok to have a snack before and after. I suggest eating banana before...or dried apricots. I don't feel comfortable running long distance unless I am about 9 or 10 - 14.

 

[JP1980]

Have been a type 1 for 7 years now, before I was diagnosed I was a gym freak and sports nut...still am now.

I find being around 10 keeps me ok, test right before I start and half way through my session and then at the end.
Always have an energy drink with me.

My workouts are between 1-2 hrs long, contain cardio and a lot of weights also.

I used to also play American Football (a bad tear and surgery to my ACL stopped that, not Diabetes!), which took some getting used to in regard to levels...but Haribo is your friend!

Any questions, feel free to ask, my degree in Sports and Exercise Sciences with a study of Diabetes in Sport a few years before I was diagnosed is some strange coincidence but helped me understand it...and now, how to exercise and deal with it.

Cheers

JP

 

[joelcam]

Hi,

I guess everybodies different, having read different peoples approaches and ideas..but this is what works for me.

I train 5 days a week (3 days of weight training / 2 days of cardio work (boxing based training).

In terms of my fitness levels, I would consider myself really fit..a typical cardio session would be 6 x 3 minutes on the heavy bag, 4 x 3 minutes of shadow boxing, follwed by another 30 minutes of a variety of high intensity excercies....pretty much flat out for 90 minutes (with small rest in between).

Thankfully my levels are usually between 4-7mmol and I very rarely get a reading above 7 (maybe once every 2 weeks and usually only due to eating something new and not 'guessing' right on my insulin as I don'c count carbs..

I have found that my sugar levels normally drop to 5 2 hrs after eating (when I would usually train) so on the days I train I get them to 6 by taking slightly less insulin (1 unit less). This then means I train at 6 and almost always finish on about 4.5. I then shower and test again and usually drop just below 4 (but feel okay) and have a low card protein shake that gets me back up to 5-5.5 and then I'm okay for the night...

Can't say this would work for everyone but thankfully since my diagnosis in August last year I have managed to keep things under control pretty well. In fact, in a weird way I am thankful that having diabetes has seen my overall health and wellbeing improve due to a stricter diet and better emphasis on physical conditioning.

I did stop training for all of December as a 'treat' and felt awful and had more regular highs, so will ALWAYS keep fit.

 

[adrian29459]

Hi,

I thought it be worth reviving this thread to find out if anyone did Great North Run this year? How did you get on controlling your diabetes across the 13miles? Did you make any specific diet changes leading up to the run?

I'll just let you know how I got on. This was my 3rd GNR. I made sure to 'carb-load' just like everyone else preparing for the run, eating lots of pasta and carb-rich meals. This year I decided to try running with a belt holding my blood tester, glucose tablets and some kendal mint cake. I managed to finish with a time of 2hr 7min. I was pretty pleased with this time, beats the previous year by 8mins. What I was more pleased about was managing to run the whole distance without one stop for a blood test. This you could say was a little irresponsible of me but eating a tablet or block of kendal every 7mins I felt I was doing ok with blood sugar levels.
After the run I did try to test my blood sugars but soon found out my tester was not working, I think this being because the strips got wet through the damp belt case. After much hunting for the diabetes UK charity tent I decided to ask a member of public in diabetes gear if he new directions and he kindly allowed me to use his blood tester revealing a blood sugar reading of 7.9.

So did anybody else do the 30th Great North Run?

 

[BitOfARunner]

Hi Adrian,
Well done on your Great North Run!
I have been T1 for about 11/2 years, but have been running for over 20!
I found I just had to learn how my body reacted to exercise. At first I was running way too high, perhaps paranoid about hypos, but now I know that if I set off at a brisk pace then the BG will go up anyway. I'm more likely to hypo if I run too slow!
I take jelly babies or hypostop with me on a run, but have only needed it a couple of times the last year. I would have thought a block of Kendal Mint Cake every 7min was a bit OTT, but you know your body!
Last night I did 71/2 miles. BG before the run was 5.2, I took 2 JB. After the run it was 8.6, an hour later it was down to 6.8.
Don

 

[jameshallam]

Everyone's different so I think the best thing to do is keep on experimenting until you find something that works for you. Probably best off starting by over estimating how much sugar to take or underestimating how much insulin...

I normally play squash once a week for between 30-60min before lunch. I find that my blood sugar will be higher when I finish than when i start so don't bother having any sugar before playing (unless I'm below 5).

Today I started at 7.2 and finished 45mins later at 9.
Normally I would knock a unit off at lunch to compensate for exercise, but as I was a little high I decided not to. 2 hours later I was 4.8, another 30mins after that I was 3.8, so time for a snack! Just tested now and am 6.1 so all is good - that'll probably drop a bit before my dinner tho'

I do find when doing more prelonged, but less intense exercise but BG drops a lot more. Even things like sightseeing, shopping or walking for a couple of hours and i would need to have more sugar or less insulin... I find it's the 'stealth' exercise that gets me - all the stuff i used to do that i don't really consider real exercise!

 

[copepod]

Congrats to all who ran GNR. I never managed to get an entry organised in the years I lived on Tyneside.
Couldn't even watch TV this year, because I was at work, leading an activity birthday party for 20 x 4 to 5 year olds, plus a few younger & older siblings plus parents. So, enjoyed running round a park, stopping them falling in water during pond dipping, lifting them to see demonstration beehive etc, plus 7 miles round trip bike ride.
Perhaps GNR next year...

 

[twedspeed]

Hi I do boxersize 3 times a week for an hour 6 till 7 PM , and find that I need little or less insulin for the entire night, About 2 hours afterI come back from the gym the intensity of the exercise starts to lower my levels and I have to watch it a bit more than normal -
Please be aware of this and dont let it catch you out.
Keep up the exercise tho - "its how we beat this awfull disease" :wink: