exercise

[mishj]

Does exercise really make a big difference in the numbers.  My daughter is 15, not very active and I wonder if more exercise would lower her numbers.

[JDRF-VOL-RL]

Hello.  I'm not a medical professional, just the parent of a kid with diabetes.  Absolutely, exercise makes a difference.  Exercise causes the release of adrenaline in the body, and that causes your muscles to absorb the glucose from your blood stream without the need for insulin.  The more exercise you get, the lower your scores, and the lower your insulin needs.  Exercise also makes you feel better in general, and the better you feel, the less stress you have, and the lower your scores become as well.

[masinsulina]

I have been a type1 diabetic over 20 years, Diagnosed at age 8. And have participated in sports and exercised most of my life. Based on my experience, exercise will NOT lower your daughter's overall bloodsugar readings(A1C). The best way to do this would probably be regulating the amount of carbohydrate in her diet.

Here is a very good article on diabetes and exercise:
http://spectrum.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/18/2/102

That said, I have find exercise to be very good for the mind and body of a diabetic person (or anyone else for that matter). Although my control has been less than perfect, I have never experienced any complications, other than getting low and going into insulin shock once in a while. I find my bloodsugar drops once during strenuous exercise, then sharply again about 15 hours after.

I hope you can help your daughter improve her overall health. At least by stretching and walking around.    

[JDRF-VOL-RL]

masinsulina, that's not quite true.  Continued, sustained exercise over a period of months will lower your a1c, because it helps lower the amount of glucose in your bloodstream.  

[KevinHarney]

The answer is that exercise DEFINATELY helps sugar counts!!!!! I am not a medical professional but I can tell you that it makes a huge difference to my levels and the the amount of Insulin that I take depending on the level of exercise.

Be aware that if you can start to get her to exercise that you will most definately have to adjust the levels of Insulin that she is taking.  This is especially true if she is on a long lasting Insulin like Lantus or Humalin N.  Exercise enhances the ability of Insulin to do its job so LESS Insulin will be needed and she might have to take in some carbs as well before or during the workout.  If she is on a short acting Insulin like Humalog or something then she probably should not work out if she has taken it in the past 2-3 hours.  If she has taken some in the last couple hours she needs to have carbs there to eat if she needs them ( which is a good idea even if she hasn't taken any.

The adjustments can be complicated but the benefits are definately worth it both in overall health and blood sugar counts.

Kevin

[kraysmom]

My daughter is 16 and is a very brittle diabetic.  Every time she attempts to do any exercise, her blood sugar sky rockets!  She can just do sit ups and stretches and her sugar can go from 135 to 450 in a matter of minutes.  She has to take insulin before and check her sugar before, during and after exercise.  It isn't the same for every diabetic, but if her blood sugar doesn't do as my daughters does, then it is the best thing for a diabetic.  Keep track of her numbers and run them across her specialist and see if she needs to do anything extra.  Best of luck!

[JDRF-VOL-SG]

I have read from other people about temporary sugar rises after exercise. This is because of adrenalin dumping into the body when strenuous exercise happens. Adrenalin acts to block the effectiveness of insulin and so many people find a temporary rise in sugar levels, followed by a drop. Kraysmom is correct that each person is different, though. I never experienced high levels after exercise, while others do. In my case, my sugars drop, and can drop up to 2 days later, depending on how strenuous the exercise was.