Does Working Out Lower Blood Sugar

How Does A Cgm Work

You place a small CGM sensor on the back of your arm and wear it for 14 days. Once in place, the CGM sensor will track your glucose levels at all times. Simply scan the sensor with an app on your smartphone and immediately youâll have access to your real-time glucose levels. This lets you see for yourself how your glucose levels react to specific foods, stress, or exercise. Then, you can make positive changes to your lifestyle based on your own bodyâs data.

CGMs can help reduce the risk of glycemic variability , hyperglycemia, and hypoglycemia, enabling you to reach optimal metabolic health.

To take this one step further and take the complexity out of glucose management, NutriSense combines CGM technology with clinical support from registered dietitians. This means you have access to clinical experts to guide you through your glucose management.

See how exercise affects your glucose levels in real-timeâ

Start your journey toward metabolic health by using a CGM. Track and analyze your bodyâs response to glucose during exercise, then understand the data with the help of personalized nutritionists. .

Blood Sugar Lowering Activities That Will Improve Long

Being on the defense when it comes to blood sugar management isnt always optimal, but lets face it, it happens. But that doesnt mean that you cant be proactive when it comes to improving your insulin sensitivity, and thereby daily blood sugar levels.

The key to improving your insulin sensitivity is to add resistance training to your exercise routine. And before you stop reading, Im not necessarily talking about hitting the gym and lifting massive weights.

You can, of course, do that, but if resistance training is new to you, I suggest you ease into it with bodyweight exercises in the comfort of your home. Start out with pushups against a wall and air squats until you build up enough strength to advance to more demanding exercises.

If you decide to exercise at home, check out my home resistance training videos for inspiration.

The beauty of resistance training is that it will improve your insulin sensitivity up to 48-hours after youre done! Increasing your overall muscle mass will further serve to permanently improve your insulin sensitivity.

Take Extra Precautions With Evening Exercise

Exercise does two things for those who have type 2 diabetes, says Dr. Hatipoglu.

First, your muscles need energy to work. To feed them, your body burns sugar as an energy source, lowering the glucose levels in your blood.

Second, when you exercise regularly, it helps your body use insulin more efficiently. This can lower your blood sugar levels for up to 12 hours after you exercise.

Also, keeping blood sugar low on a regular basis can dramatically reduce your risk of heart disease, Dr. Hatipoglu says.

Every person reacts a little differently to exercise, so she recommends tracking your blood sugar levels for four to five hours after post-meal exercise to see what your trend is. This can help you determine if your levels are healthy or drop too much.

This is particularly important if you exercise in the evening.

Especially after dinner, you need to know what your body will do when you exercise, she says. If you go to bed and glucose drops it can create a dangerous clinical situation.

Exercising after a meal is a good way to reduce blood glucose levels and lower your risk of complications from diabetes, including heart disease.

But, before starting or changing your exercise regimen, talk with your doctor to determine what is best for you.

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Why Am I Having Lows

If you are experiencing low blood sugar and youre not sure why, bring a record of blood sugar, insulin, exercise and food data to a health care provider. Together, you can review all your data to figure out the cause of the lows.

The more information you can give your health care provider, the better they can work with you to understand whatâs causing the lows. Your provider may be able to help prevent low blood sugar by adjusting the timing of insulin dosing, exercise and meals or snacks. Changing insulin doses or the types of food you eat may also do the trick.

Weight Lifting And Food Consumption

You should not exercise when your blood sugar is at its peak, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. In general, eating one to three hours before exercise is best. If your levels are below 100 mg/dL, eat a small carbohydrate snack before you exercise. Do not exercise if your blood sugar readings are higher than 300 mg/dL. Avoid exercising just before going to bed to avoid low blood sugar during the night, as your muscles continue to burn glycogen for hours after exercise. Consult your medical provider before you begin your exercise program for guidelines specific to you.

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Signs And Symptoms Of Low Blood Sugar

Each personâs reaction to low blood sugar is different. Learn your own signs and symptoms of when your blood sugar is low. Taking time to write these symptoms down may help you learn your own symptoms of when your blood sugar is low. From milder, more common indicators to most severe, signs and symptoms of low blood sugar include:

• Feeling shaky
• Nightmares or crying out during sleep
• Seizures

The only sure way to know whether you are experiencing low blood sugar is to check your blood sugar, if possible. If you are experiencing symptoms and you are unable to check your blood sugar for any reason, treat the hypoglycemia.

A low blood sugar level triggers the release of epinephrine , the fight-or-flight hormone. Epinephrine is what can cause the symptoms of hypoglycemia such as thumping heart, sweating, tingling and anxiety.

If the blood sugar level continues to drop, the brain does not get enough glucose and stops functioning as it should. This can lead to blurred vision, difficulty concentrating, confused thinking, slurred speech, numbness, and drowsiness. If blood sugar stays low for too long, starving the brain of glucose, it may lead to seizures, coma and very rarely death.

Does Exercise Impact Your Glucose Levels

The American Diabetes Association advises that exercise can lower your blood sugar levels for up to 24 hours because:

• Your muscle cells use available insulin more efficiently, meaning you increase your insulin sensitivity .
• Your muscles use more glucose during exercise than when theyâre resting. This greater uptake of blood sugar into your muscle cells naturally lowers blood sugar levels.

But, your blood sugar levels will respond differently while youâre exercising than they will over the long term. Letâs unpack the differences by looking at each.

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How Working Out Impacts Your Blood Sugar When You Have Diabetes

Working muscles are sugar-burning powerhouses. Here’s how one bout of physical activity impacts your blood glucose, even hours after you stop sweating.

Being active is one of the key ways to help manage diabetes, stay healthy, and lower high blood sugar. Yet, navigating changes in blood glucose when you’re active can seem daunting, especially if you are on insulin or other blood-sugar-lowering medications. Knowing how and why your blood sugar changes can go a long way to help you recognize what’s normal and what’s not. And just how great of a management tool physical activity can be.

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty to help you move more and keep your blood sugar under control.

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Your Blood Sugar During Exercise

The Warmup

It’s time to get your heart pumpin’: As you start to move, your muscles use their own stored sugar as well as sugar from the bloodstream to make an energy compound that helps them contract. And soon, your hungry muscles need more sugar to make that fuel. So your body gradually lowers insulin levels and raises glucagon levels to release more stored sugar into your bloodstream for muscles to use.

At rest, muscles require insulin to absorb glucose, so how does that released sugar enter active muscle cells with only a small amount of insulin? First, working muscles place more transporters on the surface of their cells that act like doors for insulin to deposit sugar into. The more doors, the more sensitive cells are to insulin, even with less of it floating around. And second, active muscles can also absorb glucose on their own without insulin, so less insulin is needed. Both pathways prompt muscles to absorb excess glucose, helping to lower high blood sugar.

The Workout

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Benefits Of Exercising For Diabetes

There are many benefits of being active when you have type 1, type 2 or other types diabetes. Moving more can:

• help the body use insulin better by increasing insulin sensitivity
• help you look after your blood pressure, because high blood pressure means youre more at risk of diabetes complications
• help to improve cholesterol to help protect against problems like heart disease
• help you lose weight if you need to, and keep the weight off after youve lost it
• give you energy and help you sleep
• help your joints and flexibility
• help your mind as well as your body – exercise releases endorphins, which you could think of as happy hormones. Being active is proven to reduce stress levels and improve low mood.
• help people with type 2 diabetes improve their HbA1c. In some cases, this can help people with the condition go into remission.

Its important to remember that being active is even more beneficial if youre also making healthier food choices, not smoking and getting enough sleep.

Can Januvia And Glipizide Be Taken Together Safely

Community Answers No, The two drugs are virtually identical. If both of the drugs are taken together may potentiate the risk of hypoglycemia. Yes Januvia can be taken with any other medication for Type 2 diabetes. There are studies in the prescribing information of januvia used in combination with glipizide, metformin, insulin. There are no contraindications to take the two products together, however, it is recommended to closely monitor patients hypoglycemia when januvia is used together with any sulfolyurea like glipizide. I take glipizide, metformin at their max dose and januvia . My diabetes is still out of control. my weight does not change. I eat no refined sugars. In the last 18 months my digestion has changed so dramatically that I can eat nothing but bland foods . Know more here READ THESE NEXT: Can a new diabetes drug also help my mother lose weight? Essential Info About Type 2 Diabetes Drugs When Blood Sugar HighContinue reading > >

• Exercising Safely with Type 1 Diabetes

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How To Manage Blood Sugar When Exercising

As always, testing blood sugar levels is a good idea. You should test before, during , and after exercise. If you can use a continuous glucose monitor , that would make testing during exercise even easier.

These numbers will help you establish what your blood sugar levels should be during exercise. Its especially useful to consult with a doctor if its new to you.

But, once youve figured out how your body responds, it should be fairly straightforward to establish how to manage blood sugar when exercising.

For instance, you might want to eat a snack prior to your aerobic exercise or, particularly if you want to lose weight and want to reduce carb intake reduce insulin for your meal. And, if doing anaerobic exercise, you might want to increase insulin.

So, dont feel discouraged by how blood sugar will change. Just be prepared. Always make sure to have a high-carb snack with you eat it while exercising if you need to!

Exercising with diabetes is manageable: many athletes can attest to this. Jay Cutler, the professional American football player, and Scott Allan, the Scottish professional association football player, both have type 1 diabetes.

Indeed, Christel is another inspiration so much so that weve interviewed Christel Oerum!

Some other aspects to consider:

Taking Care Of Your Feet

Ulcers or other lesions on the feet are a serious danger for people with diabetes. It is important to avoid foot damage especially for middle-aged and elderly people.

• Always inspect your feet before and after exercise
• Avoid exercise that causes stress to the feet . Exercise which poses minimal weight or stress on the feet is ideal such as riding an exercise bike or brisk walking in good footwear
• Wear comfortable and well-fitting shoes.

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How To Prevent Low Blood Sugar After Exercise

What you do after you work out is just as important for your safety, well-being, and efficient recovery as what you do before.

• Don’t exercise in the afternoon or evening: Plan to complete workouts at least four hours before you intend to go to sleep. This way you can assess how activity affects your blood sugar. If you exercise right before bedtime, you increase the risk of a nighttime hypoglycemic reaction that could be serious. If your blood sugar is less than 100 mg/dL before bed, consider doubling your snack or, if possible, reducing your insulin dosage to lessen the risk of a low blood sugar reaction while you sleep.
• Skip the post-workout sauna, steam room, or hot-tub session: As relaxing as these treatments are, all will keep your heart rate elevated and may contribute to lower blood glucose as a result.
• Check your blood glucose immediately after you exercise and for several hours afterward: Check your blood sugar shortly after exercise to ensure that it is at a safe level, and again two to four hours later. If it’s still low at the two- to four-hour post-exercise check, re-check it in another two to four hours or until you are certain your glycogen from exercise has been replaced and you no longer see a lowering of your glucose.
• Hydrate and fuel up post-exercise: Milk-based drinks with carbohydrates and proteinsuch as chocolate milkare particularly effective at hydrating the body and replenishing glucose stores to prevent delayed hypoglycemia.

Why Exercise Is Important For People With Diabetes

When you exercise, your body burns glucose, or blood sugar, for fuel, which helps lower blood sugar levels. As you exercise more, this effect is amplified over time, which is important for people who experience chronically high blood sugar levels, like those with diabetes or who are at risk of developing it.

A 2019 scientific review found evidence that structured exercises like engaging in an eight-week exercise class reduced insulin resistance for people with type 2 diabetes. The average participant saw their blood sugars drop by 5.12 points after intervention.

Regular exercise can also help you build muscle and decrease fat, both of which boost your body’s ability to use insulin the hormone that helps your body convert blood sugar into fuel. In general, people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes benefit from becoming more sensitive to insulin because it’s the key component to helping regulate blood sugar.

A small 2017 study followed 28 women with type 2 diabetes for eight weeks. Fourteen participants did not exercise as part of the control group, while the other 14 did aerobic exercise three times a week and resistance training twice a week. After eight weeks, the exercise group had lower blood sugar and less insulin resistance than the control group.

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Different Types Of Exercise And How They Affect Type 1 Diabetes

Lifting weights at the gym. Running on a treadmill. Joining a soccer team. All three provide great exercise, all with a different effect on glucose control. From the professional athlete to the occasional power walker, people with type 1 diabetes can reap the benefits of exercise with the right management. Heres a rundown for you before you run.

Aerobic Endurance And High

HIT is effective in improving aerobic endurance. In one study six all out SIT sessions over 2 weeks improved the mean cycle endurance time to fatigue while cycling at approximately 80% of pretraining VO2max by 100% . This required a total high-intensity exercise time of only 15 minutes with a total training time commitment of approximately 2.5 hours. In another study, a less intense version of HIT produced a similar improvement in VO2max after 4 weeks of training, as was seen in the more intense SIT group . The less intense HIT required only half the intensity but double the repetitions of the SIT, and may be more practical for the nonathlete.

Many people do not exercise despite the proven benefit of endurance exercise. An exercise program requiring less time commitment may appeal to some people. The aim of this paper is to review the impact of high-intensity exercise of short duration on blood glucose levels in diabetic and nondiabetic people.

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Exercise And Blood Sugar Impact

So why do some types of exercise make our blood sugar drop like crazy while others make it increase or hardly have any impact? I know from my own experience that I really have to watch my blood sugars if I do steady state cardio, while an interval training session will have little impact or even make my blood sugars go up.

It turns out that the main reason why interval training wont make your sugars drop as much as steady state cardio comes down to two factors.

Both of these factors are affected by exercise, regardless of the type of exercise you do. However, the scientists found that after 15 minutes, there was a statistically significant difference in the two factors depending on whether the test subjects did interval training or steady state cardio.

They found an overall higher production of glucose, both during and up to 2 hours post-exercise in the test subjects that did interval training when compared to those doing steady state cardio. Glucose utilization was also higher for the interval training group, but it never caught up with the glucose production.

This means that interval training has less of an impact on blood sugars than steady state cardiovascular training because your body is producing glucose as fast or faster than you can use it.