high readings after exercise

[jeg1000]

hi There.

Can anybody shed some light on this. My son who has T1 often has a spike after exercise. We rely on him to tell us if he needs extra sugar when being active but unfortunately he does not always pick up on the signs when he is engrossed in sport. We tend to put this down to a hypo and then rebound phenomenon. This is without really knowing how a rebound works. Really the question is, can a rebound happen so quickly after a hypo or is something else going on. Our diabetic nurse tells us that a rebound phenomena can happen days after the hypo that causes it, hence my confusion right now.

hope someone out there can help with this.

jeg1000

 

[Northerner]

It's a bit like that advice about shares - the values can go up as well as down! Normally, exercise will cause a fall in blood sugar, logically from the body using up its fuel. But, blood sugar can also rise with exercise as other hormones like adrenaline can cause the liver to release sugar into the bloodstream. So, it may be that your son is not having hypos and rebounds, but simply the intensity and maybe excitement of the activity is causing his sugars to rise. If he's not feeling hypo but his sugars are rising this is most likely the explanation. A rebound is a similar mechanism - a hypo will cause the brain distress, hence the sweating or shaking experienced, which causes stress hormones to again prompt the liver to output glucose. But, as I say, if he's not feeling hypo then it's probably just the exercise that's causing the rise.

Hope this helps!

 

[Anthony Neve]

i tend to agree with Northerner. but i will add that if his sugars are high after exercise due to the liver releasing glucose, after the exercise the liver will need to recoupe the glucose its released so keep an eye on BG levels after the exercise, as they will probably start to drop again (as the liver recoupes its glucose for next time).

 

[jeg1000]

Thanks for the help. That does give a different slant on things and something to factor in next time.

jeg1000

 

[Adrienne]

Hi

Can I just add here that there is new thoughts and research out about exercise and insulin. The normal way of thinking was if over 14.0 do not do PE or any exercise as your levels will go up. For exercise you need to have energy and to have energy you need to have insulin in your cells. If you don't have insulin in your cells you have no energy and your levels will rise. If you are over 14.0 you have no insulin in your cells.

So the new way of thinking is that exercise has been split into two types, aerobic and non aerobic. Aerobic is continuous ie swimming, cycling, skipping etc, non aerobic is stopping and starting ie football, netball, athletics etc. There are slightly different rules for the two types.

I learnt all this on an advanced pump training day. I do not know the rules when on injections only on a pump.

The idea is that you have to have insulin on board to exercise so using a pump this is easy and you can use the bolus wizard and give yourself half of what it wants to correct you, if you are over 14.0 (or just too high on a pump). With injections I'm not sure how you would work this out.

I hope that this makes some sort of sense. It was a lot more complicated but in my small brain this is the easiest way for me to understand it and pass it on.

I hope it helps.

Take care🙂
Adrienne