Diabetes Motion Basics
While good for your health, staying in motion can create its own set of challenges to the active person with diabetes.
The most usual response is that your blood glucose will go down when you exercise. This decrease happens because contracting muscles are able to take up glucose from the bloodstream without insulin, although when you're resting, insulin is needed to keep your glucose levels in check. The response is not always as predicted, though, and a number of things can affect it.
In general, people who require insulin will have to be more vigilant about managing their food intake and medications to avoid ending up with blood glucose levels that are too low (hypoglycemia) or too high (hyperglycemia) from exercise.
It's important to understand how your medications can affect your glucose response to being in motion, along with how different foods can generally be strategically used to optimize any exercise you do. How often, hard, and long you're active also makes a difference. You'll also want to do what you can to prevent yourself from developing exercise-related injuries that can interfere with staying in motion.
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