Bayreuth (dpa / tmn) – People with type 1 diabetes should always be physically active. That has “extremely positive effects,” says the sports physiologist Prof. Othmar Moser. According to him, regular exercise lowers the risk of mortality, it is practically life-extending.
As a guideline, the same recommendation applies as for healthy people, i.e. 150 minutes of activity per week at least and, if possible, never more than a day’s sports break.
It is important that you adjust your blood sugar as perfectly as possible and keep an eye on it. Because the body is unable to produce insulin itself, it has to be injected – but if too much is injected, hypoglycaemia can result.
Climbing or paragliding only with a good sugar setting
“You don’t feel that much during sport, but it can lead to fainting,” says the scientist from the University of Bayreuth. In such a situation you can no longer help yourself. For this reason, Moser also advises that risky sports such as climbing or paragliding only be done if you have a good attitude towards sugar.
Otherwise, everything that is fun and can be safely carried out is allowed. “Most effective for people with type 1 diabetes is a combination of strength and endurance training,” says Moser. This has far more positive effects on the important HbA1c value, which indicates the level of long-term blood sugar, on mortality and the course of the disease than just strength or endurance training.
New guidelines for new measuring systems
Together with other researchers from different countries, Moser has developed new guidelines for glucose management in sport. The occasion is modern glucose measuring systems in which the glucose value is permanently measured by a sensor under the skin – and which therefore no longer require a finger sample to be checked.
According to Moser, these new systems show the current value in the tissue fluid – which is a little different from the sugar concentration in the blood. “The new measuring systems show the value with a little delay. Instead, you can see how the value was last and also where it will go, ”explains the researcher. That is a huge advantage.
With the help of the new guidelines that Moser and his colleagues have written for the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) and the International Society for Diabetes in Children and Adolescents (ISPAD), people with type 1 diabetes who Using the new measuring systems, you can better assess when you need to inject additional insulin or at which glucose level you should eat which amount of carbohydrates.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201208-99-617856 / 2
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