Travelling and Type 1 - extreme sports (adrenalin / cortisol and blood sugar levels)

[Rachel sowden]

Hi all,

I'm off to NZ in a couple of weeks and booked into doing some adrenaline fuelled activities (sky dive / canyon Swing/ zip lining etc).

Does anyone have any experience with these activities and what they did to your blood sugars and any tips you could share?

I'm still fairly new (diagnosed under 2 years ago) so not sure what my sugars will be like with altitudes, jet lag, adrenaline/ stress etc.

Thank you in advance

Rachel x

 

[Antje77]

I don't have experience with sky dive / canyon Swing/ zip lining, but I do have some with other adrenaline fuelled activities.
For me, they can drop me hard or make me rise.

What I would do is test right before and have a little something if I were on the low side.
And then test right after, and again a short while after that to be able to prevent further dropping/rising.

 

[In Response]

I have been skydiving. It was amazing.
The thing to remember is that we are all different so the way my body reacted is not necessarily the way your body will react.
The adrenalin hit from skydiving caused my BG to rise.

Skydiving was a one-off.
However, I climb most weeks. I do not know if it is the stop start exercise or the adrenaline hit on the tougher climbs but I always need more insulin when climbing.
And then need less Insulin the next day.

 

[Juicyj]

Hey I lived in NZ for a couple of years - it's a fabulous country so hope you have an amazing time.

Fortunately adrenalin driven sports push levels up for me, it's the release of adrenaline/cortisol which causes the BG spikes, but always best to do anything you're new to or unsure of with slightly elevated levels say above 9/10 to have the insurance, the worst thing would be to go hypo so best to aim higher instead and sort out the levels later on when back on dry land (so to speak !) Also remember that these type of activities are quite short too so no need to panic about what your BG levels are doing. I did a sky dive a couple of years ago and went high but that was fine, I think I panicked more beforehand about my BG levels than the jump which was silly but when you're falling through the air the last thing you'll be thinking about is what your BG levels are doing !!!

 

[Rachel sowden]

I don't have experience with sky dive / canyon Swing/ zip lining, but I do have some with other adrenaline fuelled activities.
For me, they can drop me hard or make me rise.

What I would do is test right before and have a little something if I were on the low side.
And then test right after, and again a short while after that to be able to prevent further dropping/rising.

Hi Ante77 thank you for your reply much appreciated! That's a great shout to test before/ after and a little after to monitor! Thank goodness for my Libres!

I guess it's hard to know how it'll affect you until it happens! Rachel x

 

[Rachel sowden]

I have been skydiving. It was amazing.
The thing to remember is that we are all different so the way my body reacted is not necessarily the way your body will react.
The adrenalin hit from skydiving caused my BG to rise.

Skydiving was a one-off.
However, I climb most weeks. I do not know if it is the stop start exercise or the adrenaline hit on the tougher climbs but I always need more insulin when climbing.
And then need less Insulin the next day.

Ah thank you for your reply and sharing your experience with adrenaline fuelled activities, and so great to hear you had an amazing time sky diving, I haven't quite computed yet that I'll be doing it!

That's good to know about High sugars and adjusting insulin accordingly.. you're right though t1d is all so individual isn't it! Rachel x

 

[Rachel sowden]

Hey I lived in NZ for a couple of years - it's a fabulous country so hope you have an amazing time.

Fortunately adrenalin driven sports push levels up for me, it's the release of adrenaline/cortisol which causes the BG spikes, but always best to do anything you're new to or unsure of with slightly elevated levels say above 9/10 to have the insurance, the worst thing would be to go hypo so best to aim higher instead and sort out the levels later on when back on dry land (so to speak !) Also remember that these type of activities are quite short too so no need to panic about what your BG levels are doing. I did a sky dive a couple of years ago and went high but that was fine, I think I panicked more beforehand about my BG levels than the jump which was silly but when you're falling through the air the last thing you'll be thinking about is what your BG levels are doing !!!

Hi Juicyj thank you for your reply, that's so helpful! And actually very reassuring being reminded that the activities in themselves are quite short compared to the rest of the day! And yes that was my thinking about riding a bit higher as opposed to scoffing sweets on the plane up there!

And that's what I've been doing, I'm so so excited to visit NZ as its been on my bucket list, and I've found its been slightly shadowed by me worrying slightly about the unknown / being a burden potentially to my partner etc, but I do manage my diabetes well (thank goodness for CGMs)! But that reassurance around high sugars temporarily has really helped, thank you. Rachel x

 

[Juicyj]

Have an amazing time, it's creating wonderful memories which will last a lifetime.

 

[In Response]

And actually very reassuring being reminded that the activities in themselves are quite short compared to the rest of the day!

Whilst the sky dive is short, if you are feeling anxious now, the build up anxiety may cause your levels to be higher for the whole day (and maybe the day before). For me, the temptation is to over correct when I run high and need to remember not to when throwing myself out of a plane with a man strapped to my back.