Regular exercise is important for all types of diabetes management. For people with type 1 diabetes, regular exercise helps your insulin to work more effectively and is good for overall health however, it also has the added risk of hypoglycaemia. Credentialled Diabetes Educator Rachel McKeown from ADEA provides tips on how to avoid hypos when playing sport and exercising.

Tips

• When you start a new exercise, monitor your BGL more often
• Check your BGL before starting exercise
• It may be better to have a higher BGL than your usual target range before you start, as it will most likely go down during your exercise
• If exercise is longer than an hour, check your BGL every 30 mins
• Sweating, feeling faint and light headedness while you are playing sport are symptoms of a hypo. It may be hard to distinguish between the effects of being sweaty from exercise and having a hypo. Check your BGL if you can. If you can’t check, treat the symptoms as a hypo to be safe
• Particularly when starting a new exercise routine, record how you are feeling and your BGL. More often than not, it’s a process of trial and adjustment to get the right levels of glucose for the exercise
• Discuss with your healthcare team the type of exercise and intensity and work with your diabetes educator in the trial and adjustment stage
• After exercise, check your BGL more regularly, the risk of a hypo lasts for up to 48 hours after exercise

Diabetes shouldn’t stop you from playing the sport you want to pursue. While it can seem daunting at first with fluctuating BGL – with time, patience, trial and adjustment, it will settle down and the long term benefits are immense. Remember, if you are feeling low, treat it as a hypo.

Exercise can help you feel great, have more energy, better manage your diabetes in the long term and reduce your risk of heart disease. Read our article ‘Why do we exercise?’ which acknowledges all of the benefits of physical activity for people with diabetes.