trouble trying to exercise

[megan]

i am type 1 and have been for over 20 years. i have done the DAFNE and been on glargine, then levmir, then went onto bovine hypurin isophane. along with novorapid and metformin. also 200 of the thyroxine each day and one fluoxetine.

i get regular UTI infections. I have become over weight over recent years with nothing seeming to make a difference.
i have a healthy diet. I cycle and walk. My problem is that each time i try to embark on further exercise to help the cycle of insulin resistence i see to be on, and to help me generally improve my health and weight, it always seems to go wrong.

I end up struggling because my sugars get higher and higher and i feel so awful i cannot manage it. i am fully aware of not exercising on high sugars as they get higher. i learnt this the hard way many years ago.

when they are high, i don't do it and adjust my meds as best as i can.

so a few weeks ago i joined a gym and took it carefully. managed a couple of half hour sessions and then the third time, my body felt like a lead weight and my sugars went really high and then i started to get some pains in my legs as the weeks went by. (i did stop going to the gym)......i went to start pilates to be more sedate and get a greater inner strength.......but then shortly later i my groin muscle suddenly went and i could hardly walk for about a week.
i went to the dr and got further advice.
i tried swimming...but had barely done one length of the pool and my elbow muscles hurt so much i had to stop....

so then i feel dreadful....and still get the pains here and there...sometime seizing up and sometimes lets me walk.

my point is that i just cannot seem to be able to unlock the energy successfully from my cells to help my body during exercise and so be able to get fitter and healthier and stand any chance at losing weight.

i have struggled for years at this. i seem to suffer with nervousness and stress a lot too.....it seems to have a mind of its own and take over

any advice much welcomed

thanks

 

[catherinecherub]

Hi megan,

I think you need the help of a Type 1 with this so am bumping your post up to get it noticed.

Take care.

 

[Snodger]

I'm type 1, but not sure I can help - but I can sympathise. I think often for us insulin users, exercise can actually make life harder, not easier. I know I'm not MEANT to say that. But let's face it, it's true: it makes it more complicated to calculate insulin doses and it makes it more difficult to lose weight, because often you end up having to treat hypos in the middle of exercising, and that undoes all the good you've just done.
If you are getting injuries, it's not surprising that you are getting discouraged. Am I right that you have definitely got insulin resistance as well as type 1? It sounds like it from what you say and the fact that you are on metformin.
I was at a seminar the other day (I'm a student) at which they were talking about studies being done on insulin resistance and the fact that it seems to be closely tied up with changes in brain activity. As I understood it (but I may have got it wrong), there starts to be a vicious cycle where insulin resistance changes your brain so your brain doesn't trigger off the 'I'm full now' messages to your body. And you end up eating more. Could that also be adding to your difficulties? The professors on this seminar said that Exenatide can help with this because it changes the brain patterns back. See http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-medi ... yetta.html and http://www.diabetesuffolk.com/Drugs/Exenatide.htm
PLEASE NOTE - I am not a doctor and I have not tried Exentide, so I am just passing on some ideas... I have no idea if this is helpful or not, but I hope so. And I just wanted to say, don't be too hard on yourself, and good luck.

 

[megan]

thank you for that....very interesting.....i have had my moments (particularly during what i call a hungry hypo)....when i have eaten more than i should have done.
i have followed lower carb for of eating (don't like the diet word)....i have even calculated how much insulin i should take to try to lose the weight and then figure out what i can eat. it doesn't work for me...infact it makes things worse.

unless i go into exercise with a good blood sugar....i will not be able to manage it and it will make me feel quite poorly....however then you have to keep an eye on it all day to avoid the hypo......so you could then say...take less insulin to begin with to avoid the exercise hypo....but then that will bring on a hyper during the exercise which then makes you feel even worse.

i am insulin resistent. a few things have made this change.......i am regularly on antibiotics for recurrant UTI's......one year i was given a different antibiotic (cannot remember its name at the mo)......i had such a weight lifted off my shoulders for that week.....i did't have to live with the high sugars because they all came down. and then i cautiously reduced the insulin and this was by quite a dramatic amount by the end of the week. i did speak to the dr about this but nothing was said.
then later that year i had the same antibiotics and the same thing happened again.....a huge reduction in insulin and i was fighting off the hypos....
i went back to the dr to ask what part of the drug he thought would be doing this (after explaining at some length).....
he looked it up and just said that there is only one mention of side effects on this drug and it is very rare.....severe hypo's!!!

that would explain the great insulin reduction....and thank goodness that i watch it so carefully!!..

so now i DO NOT have those drugs again!!!

and so at the moment i am on a virus suppression drug as a trial.....it has been suggested that this may explain some of the aches and pains.....i am wondering if the virus is something that could have been affecting my diabetes for a long time.....the virus is the cold sore one (herpes simplex)......and whilst i don't typically show the signs of ....it is in my blood and the dr wanted to see how i would go on the new drugs....all i do know is that my injections in my arms are working better at the moment....other body parts they are not working.

i am 5ft 6" and on approx 65 units total of insulin a day .....how does that sound?

 

[janabelle]

Hi Megan
that doesn't sound a huge amount, especially if you're not that active. I
was wondering whether you'd considered changing Novorapid for the Bovine Neutral? Novorapid is not insulin, you may be having a reaction to it. Side-effects are not confined to lantus, people suffer side-effects on all analogue insulins. The pain you're suffering might be related, just a thought :?

Hope you feel better soon
Jus

 

[megan]

thanks....am making moves to go back to my old diabetes team as i have no choice....i think the chances of changing insulin here will be very slim......they are more a sort of 'lets not listen to the patient team' ....i shall not go on as it will only bore and irritate me and you....

thank you for the idea though....i will try to speak about it