International experts have put together a landmark set of guidelines for how people with diabetes can use contemporary glucose monitoring tools to help with safe exercise.
Approved by a collection of diabetes experts and organizations, the guidance, which was announced in a press release Thursday, was compiled by a team that included U.K.-based Swansea University’s associate professor of sports science Dr. Richard Bracken.
It was published by the European Association for the Study of Diabetes and the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes in the research journals Diabetologia and Pediatric Diabetes.
The new guidance reviews the results from glucose monitoring technology, which helps manage glucose levels during exercise but can be hard to interpret. Using that information, the guidance has a foundation for clear direction for exercise in patients with Type 1 diabetes. They include adults, teenagers and children.
Additionally, the guidance includes the areas of carbohydrate consumption and safe glucose thresholds. It will serve as a tool that provides initial direction and health care professionals can tailor it toward an individual patient.
“This guidance is a landmark agreement which could end up making a real difference to people with Type 1 diabetes," Bracken said. “It is built on years of research into the strengths and limits of modern glucose monitoring devices. On the basis of that evidence, we can now recommend how to safely use these devices and support people with type 1 diabetes. It will help them to obtain the health benefits of exercise, whilst minimizing wide fluctuations in their blood glucose level.”
Type 1 diabetes is not curable, but exercise is among the ways patients of all ages can manage the disease.
Yet it can be hard to predict the blood sugar response as exercise sometimes raises the risk of falling blood sugar levels and hypoglycemia occurs. Other times, it causes blood sugar to build. As a result, glucose levels must be watched closely.
Hypoglycemia can lead to dizziness, disorientation, anxiety and other symptoms. The fear of it is a main reason why people with diabetes are hesitant to incorporate exercise into daily life, according to the press release.
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