RG1 5BS. Web View Mobile View. What Is Diabetes? Why Control Glucose? Diabetic Complications. Bibliography Useful Links. Home What's New? Channel Swimming. This uniquely British sporting feat is a monumental challenge, and we have someone with T1DM stepping up for it. Paddy Turner from Hampton, swam the Channel in August.
Paddy was diagnosed as having type 1 diabetes 2 years ago. He has been appropriately managed on Glargine and Novorapid and seems to be doing well on this. He has good control and very few hypos. He now plans to swim the Channel on the 14 August Advice Prior to Swim. This training will increase steadily over the next few months to 10 hours per day over the weekends.
He brought his home blood glucose monitoring with him, which shows substantial falls in blood sugars from mid-teens down to 8. On several occasions he has been relatively hypoglycaemic. He has been taking a commercial glucose polymer drink containing isodextran with vitamins and salts and he is taking this at 30 grams per hour. Given the endurance level of the training, he needs to be careful that we do not paralyse his intermediary metabolism with Glargine. He will need his free fatty acids and ketone bodies to sustain long distance efforts when his liver glycogen levels drop.
Glargine may cause him excessive falls in blood sugar. He should continue to take extra glucose but this should be in 2 forms: He should start his exercise with blood sugars somewhere between If his blood sugar is below this level, he should take 30 grams of glucose immediately.
He should then make every effort to check his blood sugars whilst he is swimming, and when his blood sugar falls below , take 30 grams of glucose per hour thereafter. IWould he be better on be better on Isophane insulin, this would give him very low levels of insulin in the morning when he is training.
