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exercise

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medion

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United Kingdom
Hi folks,How come when i cycle to work (about 6 miles)in the morning it dosent have a big affect on my blood sugar reading but the same route home and my blood sugar readings come crashing down.I have used the Dafne method for counting carbs and match the correct dose of insulin to the amount of carbs taken.The other question i have is has any one had laser eye surgary as i have been told i will have to have it and im nervous about it.
Many thanks in anticipation.
 
Hi medion,

Hard to say, especially without knowing what you're eating, how much insulin you're using, and what type of insulin it is.

I'm a cyclist too though (7 miles per day each way to the office and back, and a long run out at the weekend if I'm lucky).
The exercise definitely makes the insulin work much more effectively. At a guess, you're cycling after breakfast and the food is balancing the insulin you use first thing. On the way home, you probably haven't eaten for a few hours and the insulin still in your bloodstream is made more effective without the food to counterbalance it.

I find if I cycle really hard (race those couriers!) it will actually raise my blood sugars as a result of the stress hormones (adrenaline, cortisol). Options might be to reduce your basal dose to have less insulin circulating, or eat something small before the ride home.

Let us know how you get on.

All the best,

fergusc
 
I have the opposite affect with exercise I'm afraid. I play hockey and my sugar is fine before I start but shoots up to 21mmols by the time the game has finished. I've tried to take a bit of insulin before I play, but nothing seems to make a difference. Interestingly, when I play badminton my sugars are much lower. I've mentioned it to my Doctor but he doesn't have a clue why it happens!

I'll be interested if you find something that works for you!
 
Exercise initially raises my BG but then it plummets. If I go to the gym, starting BG of 6, 40 mins exercise, BG usually goes up to 15 ish. If I take all the insulin I require to cover ALL of the carbs in my evening meal, I usually hypo in the night.

My solution is to take less insulin with my evening meal and I have also moved my lantus to midday instead of evening. This seems to work for me.

Can't help with the eye surgery I am afraid but I do know a few people that have had it and it changed thier lives!
 
u5d32- I find the exact same thing, badminton for me drops me low to the point where i drink lucozade to prevent me from having hypo's, and i still do even with that.

whereas playing football i can start at 6 half time i will be 15 and then at the end of the game I will be 25. I think i cracked it though, yesterday I did somethign different injected insulin before the game

before game 7.2
inject 1 unit insulin
half time 8.1
after game 5.8

I felt so much better so will do that next time and hopefully it will work as well.


medion-

just wondering when you take your basal insulin, if it's in the moring then it could be that it's not got going for your ride to work, but it's fully active later in the evening.

What happens to your blood sugars if you don't cycle to work if you drove or at the weekends? would you stay steady or would they rise?
 
This subject, I'm afraid, seems to vary an awful lot for different people and different sports. I do about 12hrs of training a week and I have worked out that for every 45mins of exercsie I need to take about 60g carbohydrate (this seems to be the 'general' rule). So, that's a chocolate/sports bar or dextrose tablet depending on how I'm feeling. You need to check your blood sugar <i>every time </i> before you start training but you need to try to understand whether that reading is going up or going down, eg. taking it up to a couple of hours after injection is a fair bet that it's still going down, so take on some food/fuel before you start.
Annoyingly, weight-training or the first 20mins or so of training usually results in blood sugar rising because the liver dumps any stored sugar into the blood stream because initial cardio or just weights at least begin anaerobically, meaning sugar is required to feed the muscles; afterwards when the body returns to aerobic training then fat reserves will be used instead of fat.
I think I've rambled on for a little too long now; hope I've helped.

PS - For those of you who do two or three sessions a week when and how does the apparent '48hr' hypo window occur?
 
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