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Fatigue in Type 1 Diabetes - Not related to hyperglycemia

If everything checks out medically with a blood test and your control is not too bad its a state of mind you may have to accept.

I always feel tired prior to any activity that mayb because I have just had a meal but once I am hour into activity its gone

I can sleep anywhere anytime when I travelled on bus to work I use to here regular commuters whisper its dozy getting on again.

The reason for my titedness is i sleep only 5-to 6 hours a night, work and commute 10 hours a day and box and run 3 nights a week. A routine for 40 plus years whilst diabetic but its only now in late 50s i find i need 7 hours sleep.

The Coronvirus hit me after it had gone and its been 12 weeks to gain stamina and not be tired day after activity For instance carried a bag of sand aporox 30kg because wet to car aporox distance 50metres making 4 trips as 4 bags. This knocked me out for 2 days and hips and back suffered.

So in summary if nothing is found medically with tests ignore it and do whatever the day demands
 
Hello, im sorry to hear about your tirednes concerns, i too would like to have a bit more energy ! I have been Type 1 for 38 years also have underactive thryroid but on the correct dose of Thyroxin and i get underlying tiredness thesedays ( not exhaustion ) more so as i have got older say in the last 10 years ( im now 50) . I am a Libre user thesedays with pretty steady control with the odd blip like most of us get. Since ive been on tbe Libre ive found out i can get hypos for over 2 hours whilst asleep and not wake up. I dont go unconscious tk goodness or wake up a particularly shaking mess lol but its worth bearing in mind that if you get any hypos at night that they might have gone one for a long time and make you feel tired in the day. I had one for over 2 hours last night and feel more tired today. Its hard for me to trouble shoot as i was having to change my long acting insulin a couple times a month due to changes in my overnight glucose readings but now i can be tweeking my dose every few days sadly. To illustrate i had a low one night recently so i reduced my long acting by 1 unit the following night. The following night they ran high ! Im sure a lot of diabetics will agree that this is when diabetes has a mind of its own and and does your head in slightly lol. Doing our best from experience usually works but ocassionally expect the unexpected !
 
Are you able to use half unit pens with the insulin you’re on?
 
Fairygodmother said:
Are you able to use half unit pens with the insulin you’re on?
Click to expand...
Hello thanks kindly for your suggestion, i can see where you are coming from tbh
I am not sure with the insulin i am on but generally i am a bit insulin resistant normally to be honest. Normally an adjustment of 1 unit wouldnt make such a big change in my levels. Quite often i will make a change in my nightime of 2 units at once either up or down as required with no bad outcome. I think it is more to do with myself at night poss hormones as suggested by my consultant that can make what would normally work adjustment wise not work as expexted To illustrate how unpredicable my levels can be at night i do 2 long acting jabs mid eve and morn 12 hrs apart. Within the last say 4 weeks say i have had 26 units at night. Bizarrely and this never ever happens but i dropped right down to 8 units at one point, and atm i am on 16 and i will drop that tonight. Anyway less about me, thank you kindly for your interest and i hope you are keeping well yourself ?
 
Hi this is my first post on here. I have very recently been diagnosed with T2 ( last couple of months) along with high blood pressure. I am not really surprised I am overweight and of African descent which makes me more liable so I understand. This forum caught my attention because I am tired all the time with little energy and needing to sleep most days for up to 2 hours even after a good nights sleep. I am 55. I am diagnosed with depression long term 20 years - and this is mainly linked to my mood which is effected by my tiredness and ability to cope with day to day life.

Up until 5 years ago I was able to cope and kept an orderly house, was on top of everything and functioning well Managing the tiredness and depression. My marriage ended unexpectedly and since then I have been through immense stress as a result of ongoing emotional and financial abuse. I am very slowly trying to get my life back into some order but the comments on here from Lowcarb2 about starting a job and being unable to finish due to tiredness resonate so much. I had to move home as a result of the divorce and did not have the energy to clear the house of unwanted items before the move. I ended up bringing the contents of a large 4 bed home to a 3 bed with some put in storage. I am now trying to catch up but it is very very slow progress and as a result feel like I am living in chaos and clutter.

I was also diagnosed with breast cancer that required surgery and radiotherapy just as the marriage ended so the comments on here about this are also interesting. In my late teens during A levels I had suspected Glandular fever and I was off college for over a month never fully returning. In my early thirties I was off work for over a year following difficulties with management and diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. I never returned and was lucky enough not to need to work.
(I had also just got married). I have noticed stiff joints, always had a problem with my left hip and went through a period were I was falling over a lot ( again in last 5 years) and then ended up having back surgery following a lower disc issue.

I am forever trying to understand this tiredness which nobody else I know seems to suffer from.

I believe I may have had a breakdown recently as unable to get out of bed for over a week just as we went into lockdown. My children had to return here from uni rather than to their family home and I was also under extreme financial pressure still being controlled by my ex husband. I question myself whether I may have had the virus I had a tight chest and headaches - something I don’t normally suffer from - and was just wiped out.

I am conscious that I need to work on my health and primarily get my weight down. But just reading this forum has made me wonder whether there is something more going on with me and I am prone to certain conditions linked to autoimmunity.

I just wanted to say thanks for posting this - I may be a bit closer to understanding my circumstances
 

You haven’t had it easy at all. You have had so much stress and had a lot of pain inflicted on you.

Hats off to you for talking about your situations and opening up, many find that extremely hard to do.

You are an incredibly strong person to have dealt with what you have, and to be able to speak about it all.

The tiredness is inexplicable sometimes, and just because we look as if nothing’s wrong with us on the outside.... I often get “well you look alright, so what’s the matter with you”! BIG EYEROLL.

Diabetes can go hand-in-hand with other conditions, sometimes it’s a process of elimination when getting checked out for anything else that could be affecting us all. But also, you’ve had an incredible amount of stress, strain and pain, so it’s absolutely not surprising that you feel how you do.

I just wanted to send you some virtual hugs and love, to let you know we’re all here for you when you need to chat or vent, and also that slow progress is better than no progress.

All the best to you,

Rachel x x
 
Kazzabling said:
Since ive been on tbe Libre ive found out i can get hypos for over 2 hours whilst asleep and not wake up.
Click to expand...

The libre is well known for giving 'false low' readings if compressed during sleep, please don't adjust your basal insulin without checking night time lows against a blood glucose meter, it will mean setting your alarm to check but I wouldn't trust a low reading from a libre during the night.
 
Hello @hooverhedgehog Welcome to the forum - can I move your post into a new thread to help gain more visibility for your post and more responses ?
 
I too suffer from extreme fatigue after an exercise session, i've been known to come back from a 2 hour bike ride and simply collapse on the sofa for the rest of the day, sometimes when out running I can also start to become very tired too. I'd love to know more about the mechanics of t1 to identify what could be causing it, but this thread is incredibly useful to hear from others and to find out more about possible reasons, I heard from @MarkMunday on another thread about using insulin before exercise so that any glucose is being metabolised during exercise however I am cautious about insulin on board during exercise to avoid lows, so tend to run slightly higher as a buffer to prevent this.
 
I got diagnosed in February and while generally I don't feel overly tired, I feel like my body does.
I used to train 2 to 3h a day and be fine, then had an overtraining injury and now it's been almost 2 months. I feel weaker, muscles hurt more and longer and I need more rest days than before.
I can't quite tell if this is from T1D, insulin or did I really overtrain that much that my whole system is now slow and recovering (which I kind of doubt, I wasn't exactly an athlete).

I switched from Lantus to Tresiba this week, I'm hoping this may make a difference too - or that I find some other way to get back to full energy training.
 
I think it really depends on the nature of your exercise - if low intensity aerobic cardio especially if for a reasonable duration will a) actively use up glucose/glycogen stores in presence of insulin & b) may increase your insulin sensitivity for 24-48 hrs? My only assisted hypo occurred after a 2 hour manual lawn-mowing session...
But HIITS, interval training, resistance and weight training even if relatively short duration can cause me big BG spikes - believed to be related to increased adrenaline/cortisol release? - definitely my weight training sessions will spike my BGs, but if combined with mild cardio (even 30 min walk home from the gym) will recover quite fast.

Back to the poster's observation - I tend to find I can be quite wiped out after a physically active day (even half day), irregardless of BG levels. So far my thyroid tests have always been normal, I'm not anaemic.
 
Just wanted to say that I feel your tiredness! I’m 36, type 1 since 13. I have a healthy BMI and diet. Been to the doctors several times over the last few years about extreme fatigue, after doing what I would call a “usual” amount of activity at work and exercise 3 times per week. One day I dragged myself out the door to take my dogs for a walk and actually found my eyes closing as I walked along the street. On a city break last year with my boyfriend, who has much more energy than me, I was an exhausted wreck after 3 days of keeping up with him, I find I need rest breaks or a nap, and if I’ve been out or had an early morning then I can’t handle going out at night, which is crazy at my age! Blood tests always come back normal, and I was referred to the Chronic Fatigue specialist who said my results were not quite borderline. I had glandular fever at 15, and whenever I get even the slightest bit tired my glands swell and my throat gets sore. I can’t help but think it’s all somehow linked to the immune system.
The only thing that has worked for me is to make sure I’m in bed for a whole 9 hours. I may not sleep through but I used to aim for 8 hours and maybe get 7? If that means getting to bed very early, I do it. It is frustrating as at my age I feel I should be able to do so much more.
Make sure you’re resting enough and prioritising sleep if you can.
 
I suffer from chronic fatigue as well and when tested for coeliac and thyroid hormones during my diagnosis of T1D there was nothing out of the ordinary. In fact I have the original copy of my test results.

My serum transglutaminase was 0.9 U/ml (normal range 0-6/ the lower the better) so I’m very unlikely to be coeliac.

My free T4 level was a bit high at 21.2 pmol/L (normal reference range is 12-22) but I’m still within range so there’s nothing abnormal there
 
A few people have mentioned thyroid and you do need to make sure that it is checked properly. The same antibodies that attack your beta cells are the one that attack your thyroid so hopefully they usually check your thyroid regularly too. And thyroid issues can make you tired.

But if they just check the thyroid itself it can show up normal. My Free T4 test says my thyroid is normal, but the TSH test is too high. Which means my pituitary is sending TSH at a higher level to signal my thyroid to make more thyroid hormones. It means my thyroid is actually not okay but is still functioning at a normal level for now. In my case I am taking a natural supplement that has helped me a lot and put my thyroid into that normal range. As soon as I tell the doctor that I am getting tired she says she will put me on a thyroid medication, or if I get worse blood tests.

https://www.verywellhealth.com/understanding-thyroid-blood-tests-low-or-high-tsh-3233198
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326774#high-levels

There is also a belief that once you have an autoimmune disease you are more likely to develop another, celiac is more common when you are a type 1. There are several autoimmune diseases that can make you tired. So make sure you mention the fatigue to your doctor so they can run more tests.
 

TypeZero, whilst the FT4 is, generally, a more useful test than the most usual TSH, for a better picture, you need to know your T3 score too.

In essence, TSH is a signalling hormone,signalling the thyroid to push out T4. Our body then converts T3 to T3, which is the active hormone.

The TSH score tells us our brain can ask for action. The FT4 informs a rough gauge fr the amount of T4 the thyroid is secreting. The T3 is the action hormone, and without that at a decent level, symptoms can be dire for some.

Not everyone's thyroid can react to the call to action (TSH). Not everyone can generate enough T4, for generation, anf not everyone can convert T4 into the active T3.

In my own case, my body is poor at pushing out T4 naturally, but even with prescribed T4, my body is unable to convert to T3. In that instance, I have to take T3, which the NHS hate to prescribe, as it is very expensive.

Without testing TSH, FT4, T3 along with Thyroid peroxidase (TPO) and Thyroglobulin (Tg) antibodies nobody has the full picture. In many cases, even if the NHS tests for antibodies, they usually only test for TPO, even what a consultant requests the tests.

A bit like diabetes, our thyroids are very complex glands, but it is central to our whole metabolic systems, and therefore, energy levels.
 
Hey, I felt exactly the same had lots of blood test and apparently my levels were in range until I went to see my consultant at the hospital and he stated my iron levels were in target but on the lower scale so I now take iron tablets and have noticed a massive difference but keep specking to the doctors as they kept saying everything was fine when I really knew it wasn’t!
 
Me too! Pain in hands and feet, desperate thirst, sleepy and yawning, no energy.
 
I've accepted that fatigue, no doubt due to long working hours, is part of my life now, as is my daily dose of caffeine that I require to prevent myself collapsing with exhaustion every day at work. But the main problem for me is taking in enough calories to get my body ready for the next day; intolerances to fatty, starchy and any foods with a GI of 50 and above doesn't help with control either.
 
Hi I was diagnosed type 1 in may and I have a physical job and when I now come home from work there are night I’m really exhausted and before I was diabetic I never felt that level of tiredness and I did wonder if the diabetes was playing a part
 
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