Hypo after Karate?

[GracefulAng]

My husband (Busdriver60) attended his karate class tonight. His BG on Libre was going low when he was at karate class and I had to watch it. Then it went down to 3.6. Luckily, I have packed some sweetie things into his karate bag.

We will definitely need to pack his diabetes first aid stuff into his little bag for his Karate grading event in a few weeks. Would Lucozade Original be a good one to pack into his diabetes first aid bag?

 

[Thebearcametoo]

It’s always good to have a few hypo options to hand especially when doing anything physical. It’s also worth him making sure he’s at a reasonable level before starting anything physical. Some people need to make sure they’re over 6, others need to be over 10 or even higher so it will depend on the time of day and his own personal metabolism. Drinks have mostly had their sugar content slashed for healthy eating reasons so whilst having a drink with whatever hypo treatment he’s having is helpful a lot of the drinks themselves aren’t a sure fire hypo treatment any more. Looking at labels and working out how big a portion to get around 15g of carbs is the way to go. Lucozade isn’t terrible but it might be easier to have treat bags or haribo or skittles, a pack of jelly babies if he knows how many to take as a portion or things like lift glucotabs. Good luck to him in his grading.

 

[SimonP]

I'd reduce bolus significantly for whichever meal he eats before the grading and potentially also reduce basal if it's going to be a long session as they can be if there are lots of people attending. I always used to run low practicing Aikido (with a Judo/Jujitsu flavour) in the evening, even if I took almost no bolus for supper pre-practice.

Something sweet in a bottle is a good idea (flat Coke perhaps), which I never did - it's quite normal these days for people to go and grab a drink and it would be faster than trying to sit on the corner of the matt chewing a mass of Skittles as I used to (though these did work but just took some chewing!). Make sure he's also got water in case he doesn't need the carbs but is thirsty!

While it's more difficult to judge quantities with a drink, I used to find that no matter how many carbs I ate I would always need more eventually so it wasn't really a case of trying to judge quantities very accurately, just to get carbs down asap and back on the mat. With that said cycling drinks bottles are often semi-transparent and have markings on the side so he would be able to keep track.

Good luck to him with the grading 🙂

 

[Sally71]

You can get mini cans of Coca Cola or Appletiser (150ml) which contain exactly the right amount of sugar to treat one hypo. Keep a few of those in his bag, then it’s just a case of chugging one quickly if he’s low and you don’t have to mess around measuring the right amount. Also Lift glucose shots in little bottles. However, if he knows that karate is likely to drop him low, then it’s a good idea to reduce insulin beforehand (some trial and error will be required)