# yo yo blood glucose levels :-(



## Marianne Simpson (Dec 28, 2015)

Hi I've been diagnosed nearly 7 years with type 1. I'm also new to this forum. Don't know if any of you have been in this situation, but I played around with this condition and felt like I have been in denial. Ive been managing but maybe not taking it as seriously as I should.  I'm like a yo yo with my bg readings and is only been these last few weeks that I've started recording my results and I'm so sick of feeling rubbish with high them low readings, my body doesn't know whether it is coming or going.  My bg is also affected by hormonal changes within the monthly cycle. I'm just  scared that I may have done some damage to my body with these yo yo readings.  I'm trying to manage it better and I'm hopefully going on the pump in January. I have a real sweet tooth and I do enjoy a few glasses if wine.  I have a busy life and unfortunately my diabetes has always Been last on my list I'm trying to make it my first priority. Sorry to moan but felt I needed to offload.


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## trophywench (Dec 28, 2015)

Hi Marianne - we're good at accepting offloads here!

When you get on the Hi/LO seesaw it's seems hard to get off it - but actually, if someone suggests something that should work, but sounds a bit batty so you go what the heck, I've tried everything else nearly, this won't work but I'll try it - in my case the person was my new DSN who otherwise seemed pretty sensible to me, sooooo I tried it.  And it only worked!

She said, when you are high and need to correct - try only having half the correction dose you'd normally think you needed.  Yes - you do indeed run higher generally than what you want to, but not THAT much higher actually.  And it should level out.  Once you have it level - at whatever figure that happens to be - THEN you can start working to reduce it generally, BUT you MUST do it GRADUALLY.

She was flippin right!  It stopped the hypos very very quickly - days.  Within a few months I was running in the 8s, odd 9s (and sometimes spikes of course but not as far as 'Hi')  and then could continue to make more gradual changes.


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## Marianne Simpson (Dec 28, 2015)

Hi Jenny,  
thank you for the advice,  I will certainly give it a go.  I'm willing to give it a try as I really want to get my bg under control rather than my diabetes controlling me. I think going on the pump will also help to gain better management. New year coming up new start.  Hope you are enjoying xmas ☺


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## Matt Cycle (Dec 28, 2015)

Hello Marianne and welcome to the forum.

Don't worry about moaning  - a lot of people have been in the same situation as you.  At least now you are taking positive steps to get things in hand.  Try not to concern yourself too much about any slip ups and keep focused on the main goal - better control.  Good luck, ask any questions you want and let us know how you get on.


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## Marianne Simpson (Dec 29, 2015)

Hi matt, thanks for your message. How do you find cycling affects your bg as I love cycling / walking but I am either high during and after or more prone to hypos I can't seem to keep stay at a consistent level with activity? :-/


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## Matt Cycle (Dec 29, 2015)

On the whole, as you would expect, it normally causes it to fall.  My rides tend to be longer though.  Variables include - length and duration of exercise, what I have eaten, how much insulin have I had, etc.  This is diabetes we are talking about though so anything's possible. 

Since I joined the forum I've logged most of my rides with the corresponding bg levels (a few ups and downs there)  :

https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/cycling.55014/

Don't think my levels are always fantastic, they're not, my HbA1c is okay but like you it's the day to day variability (and in my case loss of hypo awareness) I struggle with and again like you I've asked about going on the pump which would hopefully smooth out some of these variations.

As regards exercise sometimes a shortish burst of exercise can push up bg's as the liver will dump glucose in response to that.  It seems it's to do with aerobic or anaerobic exercise.  Of course both types of exercise can overlap.

Unfortunately with exercise and diabetes it's always going to be a bit of trial and error but the main thing is to do lots of testing and hopefully over time you should see patterns emerging.  Even then, always carry on with lots of testing.

Don't let diabetes put you off as any form of exercise, from a simple walk to the shops to a marathon, is good for you. I just consider myself an ordinary person with T1 who enjoys riding their bike. 

The Runsweet site has some really useful info.

http://www.runsweet.com/

If you're interested in some of the science behind the effects of exercise and T1 then this Canadian study is quite interesting.

http://insulinfactor.com/graphics/pdf/t1_diabetes_and_vigorous_exercisel.pdf

Hope this helps.


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## Stitch147 (Dec 29, 2015)

Hi Marianne, welcome to the forum. I can't offer much advice on the diabetes as I'm not on insulin. Whenever I walk I find my blood levels drop, slowly getting used to it. My real test will be the end of January when I will be taking part in the 10k winter run!


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## Matt Cycle (Dec 30, 2015)

Matt Cycle said:


> On the whole, as you would expect, it normally causes it to fall.  My rides tend to be longer though.  Variables include - length and duration of exercise, what I have eaten, how much insulin have I had, etc.  This is diabetes we are talking about though so anything's possible.
> 
> Since I joined the forum I've logged most of my rides with the corresponding bg levels (a few ups and downs there)  :
> 
> ...



Just realised I forgot to mention quite an important one.  After exercise (again depending on duration and intensity), levels can carry on dropping, sometimes for several hours.  (It is possible to play around with insulin but I would recommend you speak to your diabetes team before doing so.)  Plenty of testing is again needed.


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## trophywench (Dec 30, 2015)

DSNs - if BG was the absolute only thing in the world - would jokingly advise T1s to only exercise every 2 or 3 days - because the effects of strenuous exercise on it, can actually last for the next 48 hours!


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## Marianne Simpson (Jan 2, 2016)

Thanks for the advice, I do love my cycling especially in summer and I tend to go for regular cycle rides anywhere between 4 to 20 miles, im hoping I will be able to manage better control when I go on the pump. In the mean time I'm monitoring it and sending results to my DSN. 

Nice one stitch I can't run to save my life! Good luck with your winter 10k  run☺


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