-
Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
-
Learn more about joining the Diabetes UK Support Forum team here: https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/volunteering-opportunities-why-dont-you-join-us.112862/
?
- Thread starter Amy
- Start date
- Status
i have had fits when in the 3,2 and under range. dont know if by fits you mean hypo but these can occur when bg is uder 5 as a paramedic once said to me 4 is the floor. If you are getting a low reading please get some advice/help as this is seriouse . I have also had fits when im having a hypo. Im sure someone will be along with more advice soon. Let us know how you get on. Take care
gail
gail
F
FM001
Guest
All depends on the individual Amy, each and every one of us will have a different experience of hypo's, and as I have never fitted or lost consciousness I cannot answer your question, but all I can say is it's always best to treat a hypo in the first instance to prevent such occurrence, so anything below 4 you should treat with fast acting glucose. Toby.
oh right okay, thanks. I have never fitted or ever lost consiousness, but i have had a reading once that just read 'LO' on my meter. Did panic me a lot.
x
novorapidboi26
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Think low on the meter just means the reading is out of the meters range which is different for each manufacturer....
The fitting comes as a response to the lack of glucose I suppose and is a last ditch attempt of your body letting you know its in trouble..........and I suppose this can be different for everyone..........
The fitting comes as a response to the lack of glucose I suppose and is a last ditch attempt of your body letting you know its in trouble..........and I suppose this can be different for everyone..........
So it doen't necessarily happen to everyone then ?
Has it ever happened to you?
x
novorapidboi26
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
I havent had a fit, and I couldnt say if it would always happen, some people may just go straight to unconcious........most of the time though I would expect the body to kick up a fuss (fit) if the levels kept dropping....
My wee brother has had a few, its was quite scary, I wasnt diabetic back then and none of his teachers knew what to do.......i proceeded to give him diet lemonade.......😱
yeah, i can imagine it would be a little scary :s
I'm the only diabetic one in my family, but everyone knows what to do if it ever came to that with me..although they would probably panic quite a bit.
I expect its probably a worse feeling for our parents to find out that we have diabetes, than it is for us.
x
shiv
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Hi Amy as toby says, it's all individual. I've been 'LO' (many years ago as a child) and still standing, and I've been unconcious in the 1s and 2s.
Got to remember meter in/accuracy; as nrboi said, LO is different levels on different machines.
Thankfully I've never fitted, the worst I've been is unconcious.
Got to remember meter in/accuracy; as nrboi said, LO is different levels on different machines.
Thankfully I've never fitted, the worst I've been is unconcious.
Robster65
Senior Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Hi Amy
I used to have fits (very similar to epilepsy, but from different cause) when I hypoed sometimes.
Even now, when I get down to the 1s or 2s, if I don't get enough glucose in quick enough it feels like I'm going to 'twitch', which is an involunatry spasm of your body. Once that starts to happen, I can slip either way. I haven't actually become unconscious and fitted for years, but it still scares me when I get too low.
Have you had a lot of lows ?
Rob
I used to have fits (very similar to epilepsy, but from different cause) when I hypoed sometimes.
Even now, when I get down to the 1s or 2s, if I don't get enough glucose in quick enough it feels like I'm going to 'twitch', which is an involunatry spasm of your body. Once that starts to happen, I can slip either way. I haven't actually become unconscious and fitted for years, but it still scares me when I get too low.
Have you had a lot of lows ?
Rob
Since i've been diagnosed i have had a lot of highs and lows..as i have been trying to work out the right balance of insulin to take. My levels have been pretty stable for ages, but recently i've started going running with a few of the neighbors, and my levels have been getting really low. I know that a lot of excercise can bring on lows, i find mine drop quite fast, Is there a level you should kind of make sure your at before excercising? because isn't there also a level that if your over it, then you shouldn't do any excercise as it will bring your level up even higher?? I'm a little confused over this..
x
novorapidboi26
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Again, eveyones different, I wouldnt excercise if 14 or above............i would be happy to go runnin on a 5.5 but only if I knew there was food inside me and with some jelly babies incase of hypo...........
Remember - more excercise means less resistant to insulin, so you might need less of an insulin/carb ratio.........
Also depending on when your running, you could chop a few units off your previous meal time in anticipation.......
imtrying
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Can you explain this to me? I've never been told that before....often if I'm high and I can, I'll go for a run to bring my levels down....often being over 14.
mine drop quite far when doing cardio (when I used to go to the gym I'd hypo so bad I ended not injecting at lunch so I was in the 20s when I went in after work, 9 when I finished my workout and would be hypo by the time I got home an hour later!)
still haven't managed to find a way to work my sugars when doing weights and resistance - a usual scenario for this is being 5 before starting, 15 when finished and then into the high 20s and low 30s in the evening and the next day......
and people wonder why I say exercising isn't so easy!!
Robster65
Senior Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
There's a book which some of us have called 'The diabetic Athlete' by an American author. It has advice on how much carb and/or reduction in insulin for different sports/activities.
If you find you go hypo during/after a run and have to take, for example 30g extra to get back to normal range, you could maybe work out your insulin ratio for 30g and try injecting that much less, if that makes sense.
I usually prefer to eat the extra, but if you're trying to lose weight, it can be counter-productive !
The reason for not exercising when high is because you won't have enough/any insulin in your bloodstream and can't pass glucose into your muscles. The liver will then pump out some glucose because it thinks your muscles don't have enough glucose. This pushes your BG higher. Your body will start to convert fat to glucose to feed your muscles but this creates ketones, which are toxic. You end up on a spiral of ever-increasing BG and ketones and can do damage.
So test regularly and try to keep above about 5 and below 8 or 10. It is sometimes hard to do though.
Rob
If you find you go hypo during/after a run and have to take, for example 30g extra to get back to normal range, you could maybe work out your insulin ratio for 30g and try injecting that much less, if that makes sense.
I usually prefer to eat the extra, but if you're trying to lose weight, it can be counter-productive !
The reason for not exercising when high is because you won't have enough/any insulin in your bloodstream and can't pass glucose into your muscles. The liver will then pump out some glucose because it thinks your muscles don't have enough glucose. This pushes your BG higher. Your body will start to convert fat to glucose to feed your muscles but this creates ketones, which are toxic. You end up on a spiral of ever-increasing BG and ketones and can do damage.
So test regularly and try to keep above about 5 and below 8 or 10. It is sometimes hard to do though.
Rob
Robster65
Senior Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Forgot to mention. Aerobic (running, cycling, swimming) and anaerobic (weights, sprinting) burn glucose differently !
anaerobic takes glucose from the liver i think which is why your BG keeps going up. It's a complicated little set up with many variables and you need to experiment with glucose and insulin amounts and timings for different exercises.
There are others on here who could explain it better !
Rob
anaerobic takes glucose from the liver i think which is why your BG keeps going up. It's a complicated little set up with many variables and you need to experiment with glucose and insulin amounts and timings for different exercises.
There are others on here who could explain it better !
Rob
novorapidboi26
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Cheers rob.................
The 14 I quoted was my personal experience, some ppl may be able to drive down the sugars at that level, maybe even me sometimes, all depends on what insulin you have and food you have eaten...........
I choose to stay below that before attempting activity........
The 14 I quoted was my personal experience, some ppl may be able to drive down the sugars at that level, maybe even me sometimes, all depends on what insulin you have and food you have eaten...........
I choose to stay below that before attempting activity........
Copepod
Much missed Moderator
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Runsweet website
Until you can get hold of a suitable book, this website has lots of good information for sports with type 1 diabetes, not just running / athletics, and it's UK based, despite being .com http://www.runsweet.com/ Starting Sports tab is a good place to start reading about physiology of aerobic / anaerobic exercise.
Until you can get hold of a suitable book, this website has lots of good information for sports with type 1 diabetes, not just running / athletics, and it's UK based, despite being .com http://www.runsweet.com/ Starting Sports tab is a good place to start reading about physiology of aerobic / anaerobic exercise.
If you're above 14mmol, it may be that you have insufficient insulin to enable the glucose to be used by your muscles. If this happens your body will burn fat for fuel releasing ketones which can lead to DKA.
Above 14mmol you should check for ketones before attempting to exercise . If you don't have any then there probably is enough circulating insulin and you should be OK to exercose but need to check BG frequently. (and you should probably avoid anaerobic exercise as that may raise levels). If you have ketones you need to treat them and the glucose level.
If you are above 16.7mmol (300mg/dl ) then you almost certainly haven't enough insulin so you shouldn't exercise at all until you've lowered your glucose level.
Last edited:
- Status