Matt Dionne | Sports and Health Editor
Featured image: York University’s diabetes research team recently released a publication outlining safe methods to exercise with diabetes. | Courtesy of York Media
As people with Type 1 diabetes are aware, and people without might not be, exercising impacts a person’s blood sugar levels. This means exercise can be a tricky subject for the 300,000 Canadians who live with the disease.
Recently, York professor Michael Riddell published a document that outlines safe ways for people with the disease to exercise, as well as how exercise can have an impact on their blood sugar and nutrition.
“This document is the first to try and come up with a consensus on how to manage exercise. We know that exercise is good for people with both types of diabetes, but it’s a bit tricky to manage, as it can cause a spike or decrease in blood sugar depending on the type of exercise,” says Riddell.
“The [document] talks about how much insulin we need to take, whether it’s by a needle or pump, and what we report is that on days that people are doing aerobic exercise like walking or jogging, they have to take less insulin, and we provide an algorithm to determine how much less. But on days where people are doing very intense exercise, such as hockey, sprinting or an intense session of weight training, they might have to take more,” he adds.
Anaerobic exercise is a type of high-intensity exercise where the body gets less oxygen than it needs, and produces lactate as a result. While aerobic exercise is much lower in intensity, the body is getting the right amount of oxygen and is able to sustain the exercise for a longer period of time.
“Aerobic exercise tends to cause blood sugar to drop too much, and anaerobic exercise tends to cause blood sugar to rise too much. So that’s why, when we advise people on how to exercise, we suggest doing a mix of both, so you can have the moderating forms of the two different exercises […] If your blood sugar is trending on the low side, you need foods that are high in carbohydrates, but if your blood sugar is trending on the high side, you need to steer away from carbohydrates and eat more protein-based fuel until you get your blood pressure down,” says Riddell.
Staying hydrated when exercising is also extremely important for people with Type 1 diabetes, as a spike in blood sugar means the body will need more water than usual.
Part of the motivation for the research was the fact that many people who live with Type 1 diabetes are overweight or obese. They struggle with maintaining a healthy body weight, as well as meeting the suggested amount of weekly physical activity.
Fortunately, having Type 1 diabetes doesn’t mean physical activity is impossible.
“Having Type 1 diabetes definitely changes my daily routine, but it hasn’t deterred me from exercising. The biggest obstacle is my own will. In fact, having diabetes and learning more about it has made me more aware of eating healthy and living healthy,” says Cole Kennedy, a fourth-year professional writing student.
“The only complications arise from your blood sugar levels. Exercising can cause your blood sugar level to drop, which is concerning if it goes too low. It’s always good to eat well before and after exercising, as well as monitoring your level throughout the exercise.
“You have to be able to feel when you have low blood sugar, or test it with a blood meter. You don’t want to overexert yourself. Sometimes it’s good to increase your blood sugar with a meal or drink beforehand to prepare for the workout you’re about to do,” he adds.
If you’d like to learn more about exercising with Type 1 diabetes, you can check out the document, which was published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
