Physical activity and high blood sugars

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Ron AKA replied on Tue, Sep 22 2009 7:09 PM

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The short answer is that you would have to measure BG during exercise and right after. If high and rising, then you would want to inject some short acting insulin like Novolog to prevent the high. What insulin program is he on? Pump? Multiple Injections? What kinds of insulin? And as you are doing, you need carbs -- preferably of the low glycemic index type to avoid the lows later -- probably not much after the insulin is taken. You will have to experiment.

As I understand it, aerobic exercise (lower activity level which you can keep up for a long time), tends to make BG go down. Intense anaerobic exercise (lactic acid is produced and you can only maintain it for short bursts of time - hockey is a good example) makes it go up. Basketball is probably a mix of aerobic and anaerobic. The other issue is stress. Stress can cause BG to go up too. Anaerobic exercise and stress cause BG to go up.

This article on Type 1 and Vigorous Exercise does a good job of explaining it, but it is somewhat complicated. Note that you have to multiply the international BG units used in the article by 18 to get the equivalent US units.

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Florian replied on Tue, Sep 22 2009 9:41 PM

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Hi, check this site and I'm sure you will get an answer to all your questions. Its the Diabetes Exercise and Sports Association  (www.diabetes-exercise.org)  Also check the latest issue of the DESA Newsletter, The CHALLENGE. There is an article by Gary Scheiner and exercise physiologist and CDE about exercises that cause blood sugars to go up.

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mu7799 replied on Thu, Jan 7 2010 2:35 PM

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Hi, Laura.

Please check out the Diabetic Athlete's Handbook by Sheri Colberg-Ochs. It has answers to your questions, which I have been looking for over the past 10 years.  It is very difficult to find someone educated in both exercise and Type I, but Sheri does it.  My eddo, who is the head of Diabetes at Georgetown University Medical Center thinks very highly of her.  She's associated with a group called Diabetes Exercise & Sports Association (DESA) at www.diabetes-exercise.org, which should be another good resource.

Good luck!

mu7799

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Andrew replied on Sat, Mar 6 2010 6:03 PM

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I found this post distressing for some reason. I have been exercising vigorously with type 1 diabetes for over 50 years.

A few questions.

1. Before the game what is your son's blood sugar. Some time in the past I was told not to exercise if my blood sugar was over 300. Generally I want my blood sugar only slightly elevated if that before exercise. Especially in competitive sports I would much prefer to go low than high. Although both affect performance the affect of high blood sugar is harder to correct.

2. Does he test his blood sugar during the game? Would be interesting to know when and how his blood sugar goes up.

3. When he tests after the game are his hands clean?

When I ride my bicycle during lunch hour at work and then eat lunch after wards my blood sugar rose, but that is due to eating to soon and not enough insulin in my system when I eat.