Hi everyone,

I am new. I an having sporadic fbg measurements in the prediabetic range but not every day. Exercise consistently makes my blood glucose elevate. For example, last night my bg was 99 at 8.30pm. I exercised between 8.50 and 9.25pm. And my bg was 113 at 9.45pm. (My fbg was 99 this morning).

My question is - why is this happening and how (ab)normal is it? I have educated myself a little about blood sugar, and I know that exercise causes the liver to start manufacturing glucose from its stored glycogen. But I'm trying to figure out if what is happening is bad or good in my case, if it's a permanent effect or something that I should be trying to 'improve', how I might do that etc

Thanks for any help,
Paul.

Hum guess I asked a boring question, lots of views but no replies!

Not boring, Paulo. Hang in there, maybe we'll get an answer or two

I found this:

"Also, the type of exercise that you do can cause blood sugars to rise (albeit temporarily); a short period of intense (near maximal) exercise, especially when done in the morning before eating, can cause your blood sugars to rise during the activity and stay elevated for up to two hours afterwards. These effects are found in both non-diabetic and diabetic individuals and are attributed to an exaggerated hormonal response to intense activity."

They don't go much more into than that, but here's a link nonetheless:

http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publi.../vodwin0216.htm

Thanks Daryl. I wasn't doing intense exercise but I appreciate the link. I know that kicking up my glucose reading by 15 points is not disastrous but didn't know if everyone saw this effect, and if there were some easy tips to avoid it like exercising for a shorter/longer time, or at certain times of day etc. Looks like it might be a not-so-common problem, so I'll see if I can find a way to reduce it!
Paul.

Paul, to the best of my knowledge, my blood sugar drops when I exercise, even just 10 minutes on a recumbent bike can knock it down several points. Diabetes can be maddening in its refusal to be easily pinned down.

Pauleo
Intense weightlifting always makes my BG
rise a small amount.Aerobics usually makes
my BG decrease(as much as 50 points) but
sometimes aerobics makes my BG rise slightly.
That's how it is with me.
Eddie

Ah interesting, thanks Eddie. BG decrease makes more sense.
I had some spare time yesterday and tried doing four small exercise
sessions spaced throughout the day. (My rough idea was to see if I
could spread out or dilute the glucose release after exercise).
I had the same roughly 15 point increase in my final exercise session
but it dropped again after an hour, normally it stays longer at the elevated
level, so maybe it's somewhat controllable if I can figure it out,
Paul.

Bumping this up as I'm having the same problem and don't know what to do about it.
Exercise, even moderate exercise, is spiking my BG. Sometimes significantly, I've seen spikes as high as 172.
Since I've finally got my numbers down to near-normal, I've really been working lately on achieving tight control, no spikes over 120, which Dr Bernstein says is needed to stop diabetes from progressing.
So this is distressing, and I don't know what to do about it, aside from "quit exercising", which really wouldn't take much arm-twisting in my case, but hey, I'm trying!

Kitty, do you work out in the morning? Dr. B said on the recent teleseminar that almost everyone will see a spike early in the day from exercising, he advised to try to do it later in the day.

Type 1s tend to have an easier time with some of this, but type 2s have a crapped up messenger system between their pancreas and liver. Liver is supppose to produce glucose as needed, in type 2s it often produces glucose very inappropriately. Some type 2s can lower morning BGs with a measured amount of exercise, others of us (me) only see it raise.

Thanks for that info Darryl, but no, I'm an evening exerciser. Today I measured 107, walked a mile at 5:30pm, and half hour later was at 134.

Okay, hmmmmmm. How low did it go down? How long did it take? This is perplexing!

Well let's see ...[[get's out meter]]...it's now 3 hours later and I'm now at a pretty normal for me 111. That's on no food, I haven't eaten since the walk.

Should I possibly expirement with having a little protein either right before or right after? Which would make more sense?

Well, it might not hurt to experiment with both, but why do you think it would help?

Do you take insulin? Dr B talks about adding a little fast acting insulin to cover spikes from exercise. He also mentions prolonged exercise being more effective than shorter term. Of course, what constitutes "prolonged"?

This is one of the toughest areas of diabetes control, it doesn't seem like exercise affects anyone the same.

Well exercise for me generally brings it down.

However, this is after I get up.

I have a BFG that sometimes is up.

I eat breakfast, take my meds, wait a couple of hours. Then I see that my BG has gone down. Then I take a walk and my BG does go down further.

It is a well known fact that you will see BG rise when you have not had food for some time. You must eat to get it to come down. Now, I am speaking from a T2 prospective.

Go back and read up more on Dr. Bernsteins' Diabetic solution book. I know I need to sit down again and reread it now that I have been at this for a few months.