The best insulin level for exercise in patients with diabetes to enable endogenous glucose release is shown by a recent study.
Diabetes and exercise are two things that ought to go together but frequently seem to be at odds with one another.
To preserve heart health and keep insulin resistance low, regular exercise is essential. But it also has significant dangers, chief among them incapacitating lows that can materialise without warning.
If your insulin levels are excessively high, chugging carbs or working out complicated temporary basals is unlikely to make you any safer during an exercise.
Insulin Levels Matter for Exercise Safety
Data collected from 12 participants—six with type 1 diabetes and six without—during predetermined activity tests were analysed.
Three distinct starting circumstances were used for the same activity test for each type 1 participant:
normal blood sugar and little insulin present
normal blood sugar and a lot of insulin present
moderately elevated blood sugar and inadequate insulin supply
Before, during, and after the 60-minute workout, each participant’s glucose fluxes were measured during the exercise tests.
In just the diabetic participants, the researchers discovered that endogenous glucose production:
when low insulin levels existed before starting activity, increased during exercise.
did not rise for people with high blood insulin levels during exercise
This proved to the researchers that the amount of insulin in the bloodstream, rather than the initial blood glucose levels, is more crucial to sustaining non-hypoglycemic blood sugar levels.
The Function of Insulin in the Release of Endogenous Glucose
A person without diabetes has a blood sugar drop when they don’t eat enough or exercise excessively. In response, their body releases glucose into the bloodstream.
Why, therefore, does a diabetic’s system not react the same way when their blood sugar levels are falling?
The issue is entirely related to insulin levels.
A person without diabetes’s body stops producing insulin when their blood sugar levels fall. Their body subsequently releases glucose that is necessary for survival as a result of this decline in insulin concentration.
However, this insulin-drop glucose-increase feedback is often absent in diabetics.
Your blood sugar is lowering because you have enough (or frequently too much) insulin in your system.
Your body never receives the signal to release glucose from the liver without that decrease in blood insulin levels.
With this feedback loop in mind, Our conclusions make perfect sense when analysed in relation to data.
Exercise will cause the liver to produce glucose, but individuals with diabetes will experience a more subdued response due to the previously mentioned malfunction of the insulin feedback loop. And whether you’re exercising or just lounging on the couch, the body will produce less glucose the more insulin you have on board.
Exercise Increases Risk After Taking Insulin
The risk of developing serious hypoglycemia when exercising immediately after taking an insulin bolus or correction dosage is therefore higher than when exercising when your insulin levels are low.
Your body can respond to exercise more naturally by releasing glucose to maintain normal blood sugars if your insulin levels are low enough when you start working out, even if you aren’t consuming sugar through food or drink as you go.
On the other hand, your body won’t release glucose from the liver to make up for blood glucose being utilised if you decide to exercise soon after a meal that you bolused for or after adjusting for a high. This means that if you don’t eat enough carbohydrates while working out, your blood sugar levels will plummet.
In Doctor’s words: “When blood glucose levels are normal or modestly elevated in people with type 1 diabetes, moderate exercise is preferred to maintain an active lifestyle; nevertheless, it should not be done when these levels are elevated, such as shortly after a bolus or PRANDIAL dose of insulin.”
