Cycling and diabetes?

"Steve Jay" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

G'day all, and thanks in advance for the bandwidth.

I've been a commuter cyclists for a number of years, with a bit of a
side interest in cycle touring when I can get the time, but in Feb this
year, after 6 months of feeling to much like rubbish to ride, I was
diagnosed with diabetes.

The medication I've been placed on, Amaryl, states in the literature
that comes with it, that "sustained exercise is contraindicated" and
this has been born out by taking the dog for long walk sometimes
dropping my blood sugar to pre-meal levels.

My question is, are there any cyclists out there with a similar
experience and tips for how to enjoy a normal cycling life (like going
on 50s and 100s occassionally, and training sufficiently for them) and
how to balance the medication. Also, atypical symptoms of losing weight
in the lead-up to diagnosis indicate possibly the so-called type 1.5
(adult onset auto-immune diabetes) so I can't afford to burn too much
fat as this contributes to a rapid rise in cholesterol.

My GP and diabetes educator know little about cycling and look at me
strangely when I ask this question - as if to ask why anybody would want
to do a 50, 100 or 200 ;-)

Feel free to reply by email (regarding the address: remove "undies"
first) and thanks for any help forthcoming.

Steve Jay

I've had the same problems with Amaryl - but I dont do the length of
exercise that you do. I changed to the older metaformin which is a twice
daily tablet and dont get the rapid drop in blood glucose that Amaryl +
exercise can induce.

I'm surprised that your doctor cant give you better advice seeing as
exercise and diet can control blood glucose far better than drugs can.

Try posting to the diabetes newsgroups as well.

--
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Roger Martin wrote:

....snip.....

Quoted message said:

I've had the same problems with Amaryl - but I dont do the length of
exercise that you do. I changed to the older metaformin which is a twice
daily tablet and dont get the rapid drop in blood glucose that Amaryl +
exercise can induce.

I'm surprised that your doctor cant give you better advice seeing as
exercise and diet can control blood glucose far better than drugs can.

Is there some indication as to who this works for?

My endo said execise wasn't a useful control method.

Quoted message said:

Try posting to the diabetes newsgroups as well.

Might get lost there,

Quoted message said:

Is there some indication as to who this works for?

My endo said execise wasn't a useful control method.

Sorry, I should have qualified that with type II diabetes.

I'm not sure about type I, but would have thought that moderate exercise
would not harm anyone.

Hello. After getting readings of 12-20 , I now ride everyday(10-20k) , this
gets me down to 4-6, much better(after a ride), the exercise helps the
circulation , especially useful to the feet ( a danger area for people with
diabetes) anyway bicyling and walking fromm what I have read is the best
exercise , just don't go to low ,below 4 , I sometimes take a coke
(softdrink) in the middle of the ride, bye for now WARREN
"Steve Jay" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

G'day all, and thanks in advance for the bandwidth.

I've been a commuter cyclists for a number of years, with a bit of a
side interest in cycle touring when I can get the time, but in Feb this
year, after 6 months of feeling to much like rubbish to ride, I was
diagnosed with diabetes.

The medication I've been placed on, Amaryl, states in the literature
that comes with it, that "sustained exercise is contraindicated" and
this has been born out by taking the dog for long walk sometimes
dropping my blood sugar to pre-meal levels.

My question is, are there any cyclists out there with a similar
experience and tips for how to enjoy a normal cycling life (like going
on 50s and 100s occassionally, and training sufficiently for them) and
how to balance the medication. Also, atypical symptoms of losing weight
in the lead-up to diagnosis indicate possibly the so-called type 1.5
(adult onset auto-immune diabetes) so I can't afford to burn too much
fat as this contributes to a rapid rise in cholesterol.

My GP and diabetes educator know little about cycling and look at me
strangely when I ask this question - as if to ask why anybody would want
to do a 50, 100 or 200 ;-)

Feel free to reply by email (regarding the address: remove "undies"
first) and thanks for any help forthcoming.

Steve Jay

Warren said:

Hello. After getting readings of 12-20 , I now ride everyday(10-20k) , this
gets me down to 4-6, much better(after a ride), the exercise helps the
circulation , especially useful to the feet ( a danger area for people with
diabetes) anyway bicyling and walking fromm what I have read is the best
exercise , just don't go to low ,below 4 , I sometimes take a coke
(softdrink) in the middle of the ride, bye for now WARREN

4 is a bit low. Try and stay in the high 4's, low 5's.

Thanks warren & ken (and others who emailed) for the heaps of useful info.

My specific concern was balancing the exercise with Amaryl's tendency to
drop the old BSL quickly with sustained exercise and I'm learning tricks
(ie the right number of jelly beans every half hour ;-) to deal with that
by the surprising method of mowing my rather large lawn (3 hours constant
walking pushing a large 4 stroke mower)

The enthusiasm everybody's exhuded has got me keen to get back into it,
and given me some good tips for the right issues to google, too.

There are excess dots in my addy if you're planning to reply that way

Ken Oaf said:

On Fri, 23 Apr 2004 17:57:57 +1000, "Warren" <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Hello. After getting readings of 12-20 , I now ride everyday(10-20k) , this
gets me down to 4-6, much better(after a ride), the exercise helps the
circulation , especially useful to the feet ( a danger area for people with
diabetes) anyway bicyling and walking fromm what I have read is the best
exercise , just don't go to low ,below 4 , I sometimes take a coke
(softdrink) in the middle of the ride, bye for now WARREN

Quoted message said:

4 is a bit low. Try and stay in the high 4's, low 5's.