If your blood glucose is high due to too many carbs, and you take less insulin, will the excess sugar pass through the urine? Can you keep off excess weight by not having the insulin store the excess carbs as body fat? I know that having high glucose levels in bloodstream is unhealthy and damages just about everything in the body. Also, I think it is a myth that you don’t need insulin to shuttle protein into the body cells.
I welcome any thoughts!!!
@Amethyst8 Hi Michelle,
no and yes.
there is a barrier, meaning you only pass sugar through your kidneys when your blood sugar is higher than 250 mg/dl… some pass earlier - like 200, others much higher, well into the 300’s.
it won’t drop below that, and those number are really bad, further, without insulin, your body must burn fat and muscle to make energy for your brain, your heartbeat, etc. Breaking down those things creates ketones, a byproduct of metabolizing fat and muscle. Ketones, without insulin, buildup in your blood, can change pH, and can ultimately kill you without treatment.
high blood sugar will also dehydrate the heck out of you, as you are not only passing sugar, but key electrolytes and massive amounts of water will spill out. This is not only damaging to your organs (high blood sugar) but damaging to your kidneys and can lead to your kidneys not only passing water and sugar, but protein as well and early kidney failure, which is a bad thing.
so it isn’t a good idea, at all, to do it on purpose, it’s bad enough when it happens to us by accident, also, you can keep off excess weight by taking a little less insulin and taking a 15 minute walk. The exercise can make your insulin work 2x as hard, so you will be able to take less insulin… AND have good blood sugar control
Hi Michelle @Amethyst8 , a couple of things stuck out in your posting, one being “excess Sugar” and “excess weight”. Does this mean Does this mean that you are eating way much more than your body and your activity level require? And this leads me to offer as reminder that good diabetes management requires that we, you and I and all others with T1D, figure out how we can best balance our food intake and activity level with the proper amount of insulin - NOT an easy task and it does necessitate that we avoid excess. I paid for my excess last night; after tuning up my bike I checked it out by riding too long and too far without reducing/stopping the insulin flow from my pump - I didn’t think ahead.
And as @Joe said or implied, it isn’t so much the level of glucose in the bloodstream that causes us problems but rather the glucose our tissues and organs “eat” that will interfere with their function over time. I’m paying now for the way I ignored and neglected taking care of myself during the 1950’s and 1960’s - although I’ve lasted into my 7th decade of diabetes I’m the “Poster Boy” for lousy diabetes management. Happily, around 1970 I changed my way of living.
Hi Joe,
I thought that without insulin, the body would breakdown fat, not muscle and I understand that ketones are produced with insufficient insulin.
I am well aware of the dangers of high blood sugars. Already have been hospitalized for diabetic ketoacidosis .
Sometimes my blood sugars run high because of a bent cannula in the infusion set, after removing it to replace after 3 days. Other times, if eating foods that I don’t know the carb content, will cause a high BG.
Please don’t think I’m someone who sits around doing nothing, I go to the gym 4-5 times a week, work out with heavy weights and do cardio after.
And thanks for your feedback!!!
As I replied to Joe, the reasons for excess sugar are in my reply to him. I don’t know if you can see my reply to Joe.
It’s advisable to disconnect from your pump before exercising. That’s what I do, and my workouts go from 1-1 & 1/2 hours. Then when I’m done, I reconnect the pump. I make sure my BG is at a reasonable amount before exercise and either the exercise lowers it too much or drops it down to 140 mg.
I hope you take better care of yourself and make sure not to ride too long!
Thanks for your feedback!!!
your body will breakdown whatever is available to keep your heart beating… muscle included.
anytime you are losing weight… literally every time… you will make ketones. they are not dangerous at all unless caused because you don’t have insulin or don’t have enough insulin… then they’re dangerous
never thought that at all… just concerned that you, or someone reading this, might think that a high will work itself out by peeing it out… it won’t,
Cheers
I know that a high will NOT go away on it’s own. Never thought that.
I know the body requires insulin to get the sugar into the cells.
And good looking out-for someone reading this that think a high will work itself out by passing in the urine!!!
My last endocrinologist told me that protein doesn’t require insulin to get into the cells. I think she is dead WRONG!!!
My reason is that before I became diabetic, I was eating everything, going to the gym, working out with heavy weights, not gaining muscle but losing muscle mass and fat.
Hi Michelle, U did not want to sound too harsh in my earlier reply, I can tell from your words that you are trying hard to manage your diabetes. I’ve been doing well since the mid 1960’s and have volunteered my body for several trials; I was just posting a warning to others not to let self-care slide.
One thing I have found is that we need insulin even if we do not eat. I had to prove that to a doctor several years ago by following his orders to NOT take any insulin before surgery; I arrived in surgery early with a BG of about 100 mg/dl and at surgery time three hours later I was 300+ and surgery had to be delayed.
For gym and exercise = I go most afternoons every week. I have set a pump [t-Slim] profile that has a 0 [zero] basal rate for 3.5 hours and that helps. I do mostly do aerobic exercise and avoid heavier weights because of a restriction due to recent [successful] sight restoration surgery. Also, working weights with heavy resistance for ne becomes anaerobic exercise which tends to drive up BG bike racing does that to, and thankfully I; too old for that.
I certainly agree with you that proteins need insulin, especially when the protein is anything more than minimal. And sometimes, especially for a “prime” - a large, thick juicy steak - cut of meat the carb intake may have a delayed impact on BG.
Hi @Amethyst8 (love your screen name, by the way). You sound like your pretty knowledge and are working to increase your learning.
In your response to Joe you made mention of unknown carb counts, so I just wanted to let you know about an app I found called MyNetDiary. I’ve tried a few diabetes apps and preferred this one by far - so much so that I paid the annual membership after the initial trial. It has a huge database of foods and I’ve found it very helpful in tracking carbs as well as other nutrients based on portion size, and you can pull up menu items from many chain restaurants. If you don’t find what you need in their database but you find it online elsewhere, you can add the food yourself for future use. You may have to correct for hidden ingredients in Grandma’s custom dish, but I find it a great tool to use. And since you sound serious about fitness it tracks daily calories and let’s you plus in BP, heart rate, etc. Just thought you might like to check it out.