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Lactic Acid and low BG

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fordy2010

Newbie
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Hello,

This is my first posting on Diabetes.co.uk. Greetings to you all.

I thought you all might be the best to ask about the a little instance I had today when out in the hills mountain biking.

I generally go riding on 15 - 20 mile rides so am well accustomed to long periods of riding. When out today, I started to get really bad burning in my thighs from what I can only assume being lactic acid. A few minutes latter I started to feel light headed so tested my sugars. They were 3.0 .

Reading around, it sounds like Lactic acid can be encountered by type 2 diabetics with high sugars (might be way off?) I am type 1 insulin dependent, and my sugars were low.

Can latic acid be a possible sign of an oncoming hypo, or am I way off the mark?
 
Hi fordy and welcome to the forum, not sure about the lactic acid thing but I would guess that with such low sugars your muscles were not getting enough glucose to cope with the exertion of peddling.

I'm also guessing that someone here will know more than me about this as due to arthritis my exercise at present is reaching for the remote control :D
 
I think that the muscle soreness may have been an indicator that you were running out of fuel. I know that personally I become very sensitive to any slight soreness when hypo. Last week I was backpacking and I had quite a few hypos despite almost no insulin being delivered through my pump. I soon realised that soreness in my right shoulder had become the most immediate symptom of a hypo. (obviously though if you are worried or it happens again contact your doc)

A lot of the things said about lactic acid build up , sorenss and exercise are based on now discredited ideas about lactate. This article explains recent thinking, it is quite complicated and it seems there is still a lot not understood. Obviously the use of different fuels is complicated in people with type 1 by the lack of fine control over insulin .
http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/lactic-acid.html
Fuel usage from a type 1 perspective is also explained on http://www.runsweet.com/DiabetesAndSport.html

From what I read (I'm no expert). Lactic acidosis is an extremely serious condition with similarities to DKA.(similar symptoms ie deep and rapid breathing, vomiting, and abdominal pain). It is a medical emergency. It seems to be normally associated with very ill people who are unable to breakdown lactate in the liver and/or excrete it through the kidneys. It is also sometimes linked to the use of some oral diabetes medicines, mostly now withdrawn.and even then it's thought to occur because the person has other serious problems. According to Dr David Rosen ' Lactic acidosis appears in diabetic patients at around 9-10 cases per 100,000 person-years'
http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/rosen/i186.shtml
 
For what it's worth: - I often get a tingling, burning sensation in the muscles I'm mainly using when my sugar drops. So for example if I were cycling the feeling would be in my thighs, when playing a wind instrument the feeling appears in my lips.
 
Hey everyone,

Thanks for your replies!

I am going to check out the links and have good read.

I guess in the positive side, it could be a warning before the hypo sets in.

Many thanks to you all
 
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