Precautions when Exercising for People with Diabetes

We all know that exercise is really almost a panacea. In other words, it cures almost everything, right? It makes our mood better. It helps

with chronic disease. Just so many things. When you have diabetes, you have to take a few extra precautions.

So obviously, the first thing is if you're new to exercise, or you've been away from it for a while, you want to start slow. Because of course, you don't want to hurt yourself.

Secondly, you need to check your blood sugar before, during, and after exercise. What is it you're looking for? What are you thinking about? Before exercise, if you check your blood sugar and it's 70 milligrams per deciliter or less, it's too low for you to exercise.

What can you do about that? You can eat a fast acting carbohydrate snack such as a half a cup of fruit juice. Maybe some glucose tabs or something along that line - something fast acting, then check your blood sugar again and see if it is between 100 and 250.  If so, you're probably going to be okay to exercise. If your blood sugar is over 250, you really need to be very careful.  It may be too high for you to exercise. So what you want to do there is check your ketones in your urine. The last thing you want to do is develop ketoacidosis while you're exercising. This is a very, very serious situation and needs immediate treatment. You have to go to the emergency room and get this treated.

Being very cautious and aware of where your blood sugar is, is super important. During your workout, especially if it's a long one, you're going to want to stop and check your blood sugar about every 30 minutes.

Why do you want to do that? You want to see if your blood sugar is too low. Is it too high? Do you need to eat a snack?

Finally, after your workout is done, you want to check your blood sugar immediately after you're done and see where that is. And then over a period of four to six hours, you want to keep checking it. This is going to tell you where your blood sugar is.

What happens during exercise is we use up a lot of sugar from storage. It's stored in the muscles and the liver. Your body needs to replenish those storage areas and will be pulling blood sugar from the blood. So your blood sugar could really drop.

Are you going to have to do this all the time? Probably not. But like with food, checking your blood sugar can show you what foods work well in your body and what foods your body can't handle.  Checking your blood sugar is really critical so you know how long you can exercise, what kind of strenuous activity you can do, and so on.

I absolutely encourage you to talk to your physician and your healthcare team, and find out what are the best snacks for you around exercise. Also, what is the best time frame for you to exercise? What are the best types of exercise for you? Especially if you're on any kind of medication, and certainly if you're on insulin.

We want to exercise. We want to move. We want to feel good. There's a lot of benefits to good exercise, and we want to be safe.

If you're interested, download my free 30 day guide to managing or reversing your type two diabetes. I hope that you'll enjoy it. Just click the link below.

Thank you.

Dr. Elaine

Link to my Free 30 Day Guide

https://www.drelainestewart.com/30-day-guide

This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider for advice about a specific medical condition.

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