Diabetes and Exercise!!!!

The effects of exercise on your blood sugar levels may be confusing.In the long run exercise is extremely important in helping you control your diabetes. But sometimes exercise makes your sugar levels increase temporarily. When you start to exercise your body senses that you are going to need more energy than usual. So if your sugar level is normal or slightly low, the liver will quickly pump more glucose into the blood to send to the muscles, and your blood sugar will temporarily rise.

In a non diabetic person, the increased blood sugar will trigger a fast release of insulin, and the muscles will quickly take up the glucose, so your blood sugar will not go up very much.

But if you are a DIABETIC, you cannot release a lot of insulin or insulin won't be as effective, so your blood sugar will go up a lot when you first start to exercise.

HOWEVER, if you have high blood sugar when you start to exercise, your liver will sense that you won't need a lot more glucose than is already there, and it won't pump more glucose into the blood. In addition when you exercise, whatever insulin you have in your system becomes more
effective. So if you have high BLOOD SUGAR exercise will help bring it down faster than normal.

If you start exercising when you almost have no insulin in your system,for example first thing in the morning, that tiny bit of insulin can't do much even if it is more effective. Twice zero is still zero. So exercise first thing in the morning may result in an increase in blood sugar.

It is very important to eat a little bit of good carbohydrates before you exercise. About 30 - 45 minutes before your workout seems to be best. This has two effects:

1. It makes the blood sugar rise, so the liver doesn't pump excess glucose into the blood stream.

2. The increased blood sugar stimulates the production of at least some insulin. The exercise makes insulin more effective, and this helps to bring down your blood sugar.