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High Blood Sugars After Jogging?—A Running Solution
DIABETES HEALTH is proud to announce our newest column. In every column a case study about someone with diabetes will be presented by one of our advisory board members. By sharing start-to-finish experiences of people with diabetes we hope to examine problems both rare and common, and show how those problems can be tackled and solved.
Our first column comes from Kris Berg, EdD, our exercise advisor from the physical education department at the University of Nebraska.
One of my more interesting cases dealt with a young graduate student with type I diabetes who worked in the exercise physiology laboratory I direct. He has type I diabetes and was a sprinter in college. Well into his first semester here, he took up jogging. He enjoyed the low key nature of easy running and soon became quite aerobically fit. He eventually progressed to some interval training on the track where one alternately runs vigorously for a lap or two and then jogs to recover. He also entered his first race.
I congratulated him on his first race, but he complained that he was puzzled by high blood glucose after the race (and after most of his interval training sessions). He had not encountered the problem before in his sprint training.
Vigorous Activities Heighten BGs
The rise in BG is quite common in highly vigorous activity. Like any stressor, high intensity physical activity elicits adrenal secretion which stimulates the liver to release glucose. Interval training is intense enough to have this effect. Competition in a race combines two stressors: the activity and the emotional excitement. The result is an even greater rise in BG after exercise. In comparison, moderate pace jogging nearly always caused a drop in my patient's BG level.
I suggested that he consume a bit less carbohydrate in his pre-run snack on days he performed intervals or competed in a race. I also advised him to use corrective regular insulin very cautiously (i.e., in a very small amount) after such exercise to bring the BG back to normal. The BG typically drops slowly in the hours after activity once the stress hormones are no longer in the blood. Thereafter, glucose uptake into the muscle and liver will remain elevated for several hours as these organs replenish their supply of glycogen or stored carbohydrate. Adding much insulin to the blood may accentuate the uptake enough to cause a drastic drop in BG leading to severe hypoglycemia.
Research Results
This student, strangely enough, did his master's degree research and thesis on the topic of stress hormone secretion with different types of exercise and the effect on BG levels in people with type I diabetes. He found that fast interval training caused BG to rise after activity while walking resulted in a slight drop in BG. He hopes to have the paper published soon in a research journal dealing with diabetes.
Categories: Blood Glucose, Blood Sugar, Diabetes, Exercise, Fitness, Insulin, Low Blood Sugar
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Diabetes Health is the essential resource for people living with diabetes- both newly diagnosed and experienced as well as the professionals who care for them. We provide balanced expert news and information on living healthfully with diabetes. Each issue includes cutting-edge editorial coverage of new products, research, treatment options, and meaningful lifestyle issues.
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- Type 1 / 1.5 Diabetes
- Type 2 Diabetes
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- Hyperglycemia
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Comments
I've been dealing with this exact problem for the past month. It all makes perfect sense now.
This is very interesting. I am a type 1 diabetic and due to run a marathon in 8 days, I am still researching in this area of blood glucose control post running and would be interested to read his paper.. if at all possible. Kind regards, Emma.
I have the same problem...it is frustrating. I ran 10K the other day. I woke up with 115 and afetr the approx 1 hr run, I was over 200. I'm type 2 and this is really annoying me that I can't exercise without raising my BG. Not sure if I should take a metformin before a run.
Very gently cardio (keeping HR below 70% of max) seems to be the only way I can keep my BG from going up. But I don't have enough time to get enough of a workout that way!! Any one have any clues?
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