Highs & Lows of Type 1 Diabetes by Patrick McAllister

Author:Patrick McAllister
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Good Books
Published: 2017-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

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HERE’S THE GAME PLAN—T1D AND SPORTS

I have been playing sports for as long as I can remember. I love the healthy competition and constant physical and mental action that surrounds every sport. When I was diagnosed with T1D, I knew that being physically active was definitely going to come with its fair share of challenges, but it in no way discouraged me from playing sports. Throughout this chapter, I will discuss how to manage your T1D when playing sports or working out in general, and then I will explore how to handle specific sports. My greatest piece of advice to you is never to let your T1D get in the way of being physically active. It might be difficult, even annoying at times, but you can do it. If I decided to cut myself off from sports when I was diagnosed with T1D, I would have lost a part of my life that was very important to me. Fortunately, I figured out how to be an athlete with T1D, and you can too.

Whenever you participate in a sport, you are physically active. Whether it is basketball, baseball, or bowling, you are exerting physical energy in some capacity. Because of this, your body is using up more sugar than usual to provide energy to your body as you move. As a result, you are more prone to have low blood sugars. This means that you have to pay very close attention to make sure your blood sugar levels do not plummet while you are active.

Additionally, the majority of the sports you might participate in will take place outside on a hot, sunny day or inside in a similarly hot court. Even if you are skiing on a cold winter day, you are probably wrapped up in many layers of clothing, which is going to make the immediate area around your body very hot. Heat tends to cause your blood sugar levels to drop because it “superactivates” the insulin already in your body. This, combined with the fact that your body has to use more energy to stay at a normal temperature, can really tank your blood sugar. Know the environment you are playing in, and make sure to account for the heat that might make your blood sugar drop.

PREVENTATIVE MEASURES

A good way to prevent low blood sugars while playing sports or working out is to test before starting your activity. Before every soccer practice in middle school and high school, I would test my blood sugar to make sure I was in a comfortable range to be physically active. This range varies for each sport, and I will discuss specific sports later in this chapter. Generally, you want your blood sugar to be a little higher than normal when engaging in a sport. In chapter 3, “Those Darn Low and High Blood Sugars,” I discussed that the sweet spot for your blood sugar is between 70 and 150. Before physical activity, however, you want your blood sugar generally between 150 and 200.

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