What goes on to make my blood glucose levels high or low? Inside the body What goes on to make my blood glucose levels high or low?

What happens To make my blood Glucose go high or low? It all starts when you eat carbs or sugary foods. These foods get digested or broken down in your stomach and intestine, and the glucose goes into your blood stream. This is why if you eat a lot of food you can go high, or if you eat no food or small amounts it can low. The other important thing is if you have insulin in your body. Insulin is needed to move the glucose from your blood stream into cells. Without insulin the glucose cannot pass into the cell and will stay in your blood stream. This is why if you have too much insulin with food you can go low, or if you have too little insulin with food you go high.

What is blood glucose used for? when it moves into the cells It is energy for our bodies This energy is needed to do usual daily activities When you increase your activity levels you need more glucose as you need more energy If you are inactive you need less glucose because you need less energy This energy also helps with growth and cell repairs inside our bodies It is also essential to make our brains and important organs work properly

What happens if I am not very active? If you are not active, and you eat carbs and sugary foods, the glucose will be digested the same. Once it goes into the blood stream, the cells will only take in as much energy as it needs. Any “spare” glucose that we eat will be stored in the Liver. The liver always keeps an emergency supply of quickly available glucose. This is important as your blood stream must always contain glucose for energy otherwise the cells will starve. without this energy supply you will become unwell quickly and eventually die. If you don’t eat enough food your liver will provide a supply of glucose for energy. When the supplies of glucose in the liver fall, they will be replaced as soon as possible. When the liver has reached its full capacity to store glucose, any more spare glucose will be stored in fat cells. This is why if you are very inactive and eat too much food you can gain weight.

What happens when I exercise or increase my activity levels? When you exercise you need more energy otherwise you will struggle to cope with increased demands on your body. You will be tired and have no energy. Your body realises this, and will move some stored glucose from your liver into your blood stream. This is where your insulin levels are important. If you have too much insulin in your body you will go low when you exercise as insulin will keep on moving your blood glucose into the cells. But if you have too little insulin, the extra glucose from your liver will not be able to move into the cells as there is no insulin to do it, so it will stay in your blood stream. You might find this happens in the morning if you have a delayed or no breakfast. Once you get up you start moving, which needs energy to do this. You might move spare glucose from your liver, but if you have little or no insulin in your body, your blood glucose will rise. This is often confusing if you exercise when you get up i.e. cycle or walk to work before having breakfast - you would expect to go low with the exercise. However you have liver glucose in your blood stream but no insulin to move it into the cell.

So how can I lose weight by exercising? If you exercise, once you have used up your liver stores of glucose, you will then go on to get stored glucose from your fat cells. If you exercise regularly and stick to a normal diet (or enough calories for your body to work properly), you will start o lose weight by breaking down fat cells for glucose and energy.

Why do different types of exercise have different effects on my blood glucose level? This is because different types of exercise need different amounts of glucose: Day to day = low levels (you need a constant supply of energy and if you increase your activity levels you need more glucose) Short and sharp (squash, sprinting, ) = high glucose levels (You need glucose for energy fast and so you move spare glucose from your liver and fat cells, and you might not have insulin to move it into cells, so it will stay in your blood stream) Moderate/intermittent for up to 1.5 hours (classes, jogging, swimming, team sports) = high and/or low (this depends if you have insulin in your body – you can go high like in short and sharp, or you can go low if you have insulin in your body and you exercise for over half an hour) Endurance over 1 hour (running, cycling) = low (you use your stored liver glucose then start using glucose stored in fat cells. However you cannot replace the spare glucose that you have used from your liver, as you are still exercising and using any glucose for energy).

What about hypos after finishing exercise? This is very common and can happen up to 24 hours after finishing exercise. What happens is that your body needs to replace all of the stores of glucose in your liver, and so moves glucose from your blood stream into your liver. This can cause hypos as it will move all of the glucose as it is essential the liver has a constant supply of glucose for emergency situations i.e. periods of starvation or increased activity.