Latest / The Healthy Diabetic / #387: What Happens to Your Blood Sugar When You Get Sick?

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#387: What Happens to Your Blood Sugar When You Get Sick? · The Healthy Diabetic

• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is episode number 387 of the Healthy Diabetic Podcast.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Coach Kin.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't know much about my story, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 25 in 2007.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm the founder of Simplifying Life with Diabetes, a diabetes health coaching company that bridges the gap between your medical team and the daily complexities that you face every single day living with this condition between your doctor's appointments.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: I truly believe that every single one of us living or caring for someone with type 1 diabetes only has one job, and that's to figure out what's going to work for you.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for new perspectives and new ideas on how to live with diabetes, you've come to the right place.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: As always, before we get started, please remember that nothing that you hear on this podcast should be considered medical advice or otherwise.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Please always consult your medical team before making any changes to your diabetes management.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, solo episode today.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Graham is not with me today.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you can hear, I don't know if you can hear it.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm actually not hearing it in the headphones, but I'm pretty sick right now.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought this would be a really good opportunity to kind of just share what I've done over the last really 24 to 48 hours with my blood sugars, with my dosing strategy, how I kind of what I did to kind of lead up to the last 24 to 48 hours because I did feel a little, you know, back in the back of the throat.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Just uh I could feel myself getting sick three, four days ago.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I did kind of do some stuff before the symptoms really hit me about 24 or it's well, now it's 48 hours ago.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: So wanted to make this really quick episode for you guys.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, sickness is a is a tricky thing.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I say that because let me just give you some clarity.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: So typically, at least for me, when I'm sick, my insulin needs dramatically need to increase.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: I obviously have the symptoms of whatever virus, I'm, you know, virus, bacteria, whatever it is, really virus that I'm trying to fight off.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: So you get all these symptoms, and you're weak, you're tired, whatever the symptoms might be, but your insulin needs really change, and it's predominantly because of inflammatory response.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: So remember that when we talk about insulin sensitivity versus insulin resistance, insulin resistance is caused by a variety of different things.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the big things in diabetes, or just in general, that really causes insulin resistance is inflammatory response.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're sick, what happens?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Your body becomes inflamed, your immune system jumps in into action, it's protecting itself, and your system is inflamed, whether it's like you got a lung infection or whether you got a sinus infection, whatever, your system is inflamed, and that dramatically increases insulin resistance.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: The interesting piece is I always I mean, ever for the last 20 years really, I've always noticed that yeah, I need a little bit more insulin.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: But for some reason, and I'm not 100% sure, for some reason, this time this time that I've been sick, my blood sugars have been freaking fantastic.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't I've I've almost really reduced the amount of insulin I'm taking because when the symptoms really hit me, today's what?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Today's Thursday, uh October 1st.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, welcome to October, everybody.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Today's Thursday, October 1st.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: The symptoms really started hitting me like Sunday, maybe Monday, or actually the symptoms hit me Monday night.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I was sick most of the day, Tuesday, most of the day yesterday on Wednesday.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, I I was better today, but wasn't I'm not 100%.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you can kind of hear it my voice.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of hearing it in my voice in the headphones.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, the the symptoms really hit me like Monday, they're really Tuesday, Wednesday.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: But the interesting thing, like I said, is like I I noticed on Tuesday that I I didn't I was like going low for like some of the foods that I wasn't eating.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have a big appetite, so it's not like I was eating my normal amount of food or my normal carbohydrate ratio or amount of carbs that I usually consume.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: But even the the little things that I was eating, like I was taking a normal dose, one to ten is my insulin to carb ratio, and I was going low.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Over the last three nights, I've like been battling with low.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Some of that is CGM.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: I just had to freaking, of course, this is so stupid.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: I had to, of course, change my CGM this morning after only being on the last one for five days because last night at 1019 p.m.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: 1019 p.m.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: I lost the signal and it still hadn't come back when I woke up to go into the gym this morning at 5.30.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like I still didn't have a signal, and I didn't have a signal all morning long when I was training people.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was like, well, this sucks.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I just went into the app, requested another CGM, and yeah, and just changed it.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: But it was just that was interesting.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: So the lows that I've been having, according to the CGM, according to the DEXCOM, might have been inaccurate, but because I really didn't feel super low.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think a couple of times I was like 46.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, there's no way I'm 46.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I could have been like 60s, I could have been low 70s, I don't know.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I was too lazy to get up and actually do a finger stick and check.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I was dealing with lower than usual blood sugars.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I was taking the same amount of basil, right?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: 24 units, 12 in the morning, 12 at night.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: I've been doing the same thing.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that's even keep taking me low.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I reduced that.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: I reduced it by four units a day.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And now I'm like stabilized a little bit.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it'll be interesting over the next 24 hours as I get better, is my insulin needs going to increase again.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just it's an interesting thing.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think that diabetes is so challenging because it's not always the same.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: We we've we I've heard for years from the doctors, from all of you in the community, from other podcasts, from other people that I talk to.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've I've heard so many, so many times that when you get sick, your insulin needs increase.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I've experienced it for 20 years.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden now, like, nope, you you uh you actually needed less insulin.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And this is probably why.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: It could be because Monday, as the symptoms, you know, started getting a little bit, a little bit more intense, but not crazy.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I played like three and a half hours of basketball.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I I go hard in the paint when I play basketball.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm burning like close to a thousand calories.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like my my average heart rate's like probably in the 140s.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's it's a it's a grind because that's just that I love that's what I love to do.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And because it's so high intense, my insulin sensitivity skyrockets, which it's been really cool to watch over the last two or three weeks because now I'm playing basketball two to three days a week.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm getting that unreal amount of insulin sensitivity increase throughout the week.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I only played Monday this week because I couldn't play Tuesday, and I'm not gonna play tomorrow on Friday.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, that also could be part of this, right?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because they say that, you know, the research, the research seems to say that you have a heightened amount of insulin sensitivity.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: You have the benefits of exercise for two to three days, like 48 to 72 hours.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: So your insulin sensitivity is heightened, as long as you're not putting on all the other things that are going to tip the scale in the opposite direction to insulin resistance, right?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Bad food, not enough sleep, not staying hydrated, being sick, maybe, you know, things that are going to, you know, inflame the system and increase insulin sensitivity.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a really interesting thing.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that we, I think people that aren't advocate exercisers don't realize the impact that exercise has on the system and has on your body and it has on your blood sugars.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's insane when you really look at it.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And when I actually follow to a T what I'm supposed to be doing, which is doing multiple strength training at sessions a week, multiple low intensity exercises, moderate to low intensity, multiple high intensity, getting good rest and recovery, like being able to work within all four quadrants of exercise, as we talked about before.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: My insulin sensitivity is insane.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's insane.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's freaking insane.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: So not only is your insulin sensitivity increased, but you don't have to work as hard, right?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's so much easier to bring down those sticky blood sugars.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's so much easier to compensate for maybe a missed dose for a meal maybe that you went out to eat and you weren't 100% sure, and maybe you just didn't give yourself enough.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of protein and fat.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you didn't dose for that.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like, exercise is gonna make diabetes so much easier because it heightens your insulin sensitivity.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that that might be one of the reasons why this sickness really hasn't affected me in my blood sugars in like the high way.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've had a little bit of lows, but not like crazy ones that I've had that I've felt.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: But according to the CGM, there were there were some lows in there.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's an interesting thing, and I wanted I just I wanted to take you know 10-15 minutes here and and just give you that perspective of sickness can be a challenging thing, just like anything with diabetes can be challenging.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: But the faster that you can recognize something, and this is why the CGM is so powerful.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: I know I've talked to a lot of people, and if you're on the DEXCOM G7, this thing is man, I don't know what's going on with the Dexcom G7, but it is it is way more than not.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Way, I'll just say way more than it used to be, it is super inaccurate.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: That first 24 hours, you're gonna have inaccurate blood sugars in the first place.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you might have to calibrate a couple times, but at the end of the day, like, you know, it's not supposed to be completely off by 30, 40, 50 milligrams per deciliter almost every single day.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: So always having a backup is important.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like my backup is always like I always have my blood sugar meter, and if I don't believe it, then I'm testing my blood sugar.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: It takes 10 seconds, but at least I can get an accurate reading of like what is this thing, is this thing actually accurate?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, sickness is an interesting thing, and it's been really interesting watching blood sugars because it's it's out of the norm for the what's really happened when I've been sick over the last 20 years.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm curious what your thoughts are.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if you if you need insulin, like if your insulin needs need need if you need more insulin when you are sick, I'd love to hear that.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't, if you don't really have to change anything, that's happened to me also before, I'd love to know that.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Make it comment in on this episode.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let me know what you know what happens when you're sick.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: What what do you find yourself more often than not having to do?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Increase insulin, insulin stays the same, decrease insulin.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Again, this is the first time, to my recollection, that this has ever happened, and I've needed to decrease the amount of insulin that I'm giving.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: And again, it might just be because insulin sensitivity is heightened a little bit because of basketball and because of exercise, but I've also been playing basketball for a while and still been sick and exercising on a regular basis and still getting sick and not having this happen.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: So the last thing I want to leave you with is if you if you feel like that your blood sugars are not stable, your mental health is not where you want it to be.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Your confidence and trust in yourself and making decisions is not where you want it to be.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: I implore you, implore you to find support.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And this might this is a controversial statement.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like it's a controversial statement.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why it is, but it is.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Your doctor can't help you with that.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, they just can't.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't heard this statement from me, there's five hundred and twenty-five thousand and six hundred minutes in a year.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: You get fifteen to twenty minutes for the most part.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Some people get more than that.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: But for the most part, on an average, you get fifteen to twenty minutes every three to four months, if you're lucky.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's no way that you can learn everything there is to know about managing diabetes, all the factors, all the variables, all the situations, how to compensate and navigate all the situations, how to manipulate your blood sugars in those situations.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's no way you can do that in 60 minutes.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if you see your doctor for we'll just say 20 minutes four times a year, it's just about 60 minutes.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: So find support wherever that is.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to help you.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you guys know if you've been listening to this podcast for a long time, it's it's it is it is at the heart of everything that I believe in is coaching because I've been a fitness coach and a nutrition coach since 2008.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: I've been a diabetes coach since what 2021, I believe, 22 is when I really started doing diabetes coaching.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just it's fun.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's fun to have conversations with people and navigate the challenges and come up with a solution and see the solution, see this, see this individual that I'm working with just start thriving.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people, I'm telling you, a lot of people, it's just a couple adjustments.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's just thinking about the way they're thinking about diabetes and their management differently than what they were taught.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Teaching them a couple different things that, you know, they've never learned before.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm here for.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so I am I encourage you to look into coaching if you're someone that just doesn't feel like their diabetes, like your diabetes is in the right spot, that you want it to be better, that you want your blood sugars to be better, you want to be able to trust yourself.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: You you know, like don't wait.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: I really wish that I knew someone when I was first diagnosed that could help me through all of the all of the situations, all the day-to-day, the mental health issues, the constant up and downs, the constant roller coasters.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: I really wish I did.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: And again, if you there's a lot of diabetes coaches out there.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of really good coaches out there.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're not driving with me, like go please go find somebody that can support you in the day-to-day because the doctor can't, your doctor can't support you in your day-to-day.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Just it's just the system's not set up that way.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much, everybody, for listening.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope this was impactful, and I will see you next time.