Hello everyone! Today I'm answering an important question
that I get all the time, is that
Why is my blood sugar going up or why does the blood sugars
spike during exercise?
So that's a common question especially in my athletic patients or patients who
are trying their best, trying to get their heart rate up
trying to do some intense or increasing the intensity of exercise and they end up finding
themselves with high blood sugar.
That's been more common of a problem, because people started noticing that
when they started using their CGMs like Libre or DexCom,
and that became a common question.
So I'm Doctor Ahmet Ergin, I'm an endocrinologist practicing in Florida.
Today we are going over the reasons for blood sugar spike when you exercise.
Let's get started.
So, basically, today we are talking about why sugars are running high when you're
exercising.
Well, couple things. You need to know some other hormones other than insulin that
deals with the blood sugar levels. Now, what are these other hormones?
We have cortisol, right? We have adrenaline. These are the two major
stress hormones, that do not they along with your insulin.
Not that they aren't getting along, they are made for a reason.
The cortisol's job is to provide glucose to your body in the time of
stress.
Because you may not find food, it may not be readily available to you.
Your body doesn't really know that you're in Himalayas and climbing a mountain
versus you are at the gym in a comfortable AC condition.
You know that you're just trying to run, something, you know, do some exercise.
So your body is trying to get that cortisol running to you,
to make sure that you do not run out of sugar.
Now, when you're insulin resistant, the cortisol's effect is doubled or tripled,
and then your poor insulin trying to catch up with it.
It's probably not going to be able to do a good job, just because
there's a lot of cortisol in your system.
Your muscles are trying to eat up a lot of sugar, and your body is trying
to create a stress response.
If your body is creating more sugar than your muscles are picking up,
you are going to end up with a flood of glucose,
coming from your liver, primarily due to gluconeogenesis.
Due to this cortisol.
Same thing happens with adrenaline.
Again, adrenaline is the "fight or flight" response with your exercise.
Again, your body doesn't know if you're running away from
a lion or you're just running for fun.
So in any case, you're creating a lot of adrenaline.
Now, the problem is the adrenalin and the cortisol.
When they get together, they become a badass team.
They can really spike your blood sugar, as a result,
when you are at the gym or doing something outside and you're
under stress under sun or something, sometimes, those triggers,
anything that's stressful, you are going to see if you end up sticking a finger stick.
Or if you're just monitoring your blood sugar on your CGM.
You're going to see that your blood sugar is climbing.
Unless it was, kind of, on the very low side to begin with.
But it tends to climb, especially with a high-intensity exercise.
Same thing with growth hormone.
Growth hormone also kicks in, which is good in the long run,
because growth hormone will help your body to burn fat in the long run.
But in the short run, during acute stress, even growth hormone
kicking in will create the blood sugar elevation.
So, guys, I hope that helps.
But the good thing is the good thing.
After all, the stress is over, your body learns to deal with stress.
This short episodes of stress to your body is a good thing, but the chronic stress
is not a good thing.
The short episode of stress teaches your body to prepare for the future.
So now your body is going to handle your blood sugars better.
After a few hours, you will see that your blood sugars are going down.
Now, actually, you have to be watching the low blood sugars,
especially if you are on certain medications, like insulin
or insulin-producing agents.
You may have to watch out your blood sugars down the road.
And the effect of that exercise can last up to 24 hours.
So you have to be careful in terms of, you know, like,
"my blood sugar went up to 250.
I will not worry about this, this is already high."
No, you may find yourself being down to 50 in a few hours.
Guys, I hope that helps.
And if it does, please give a thumbs up, share and like this video.
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