Category: Type 1 diabetes
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HbA1c
This results of test will tell me what my average blood glucose levels have been for the last 3 months. Keeping HbA1c low reduces the risk of complications. A healthy person has an HbA1c below 6% (pic 2). 6.5% is a good benchmark for people with T1D, although everyone is different. Glucose in the blood…
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Insulin 360
I was sheltering from the scorching midday sun on a beach in Italy when my phone pinged. It was an email from Jerry Gore, co-founder of Action 4 Diabetes. “Hey Dougal, have you done much mountain biking?”. Memories of catapulting myself over the handlebars and ending up in A&E came to mind, but worried that…
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Kayaking with T1D – from racing to adventure
Exercising with type 1 diabetes is challenging – blood glucose levels are hard enough to control at rest, and exercise is another factor that affects them. Generally, exercise reduces blood sugars and makes you vulnerable to hypoglycemia, since your body is burning glucose and exercise activates non-insulin sensitive glucose transporters. I’ve written in detail about…
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Dougal’s live blood sugar levels
What do the numbers mean? A healthy person without diabetes has blood sugar levels that remain between 4.0 and 5.4 mmol/L when fasting and rise no higher than 7.8 mmol/L two hours after a meal. Basically, the line stays pretty straight. For someone with type 1 diabetes, the line is a little more wavy. Why?…
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Factors affecting blood sugar levels
“Oh, you have type 1 diabetes! So you have to inject insulin every day?” If only living with T1D was as simple as just injecting some insulin every day, like taking a pill or watering the plants. Instead, injecting insulin is more like administering your own anaesthetic – too little and you suffer, too much…
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Glycemic Index in depth
What is the glycemic index (GI)? A bowl of chickpeas has the same amount of carbohydrates as a handful of jelly babies, but they have very different effects on blood sugar levels. This is what the GI quantifies. It’s a classification of foods containing carbs that ranks them by the effect they have on blood…
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Read this first! Type 1 diabetes in 8 questions.
What is diabetes? There are many different types of diabetes, but what these diseases all have in common is high blood sugar levels. This aside, they are all very different diseases, and many people think they shouldn’t share a name – it only confuses things. Aretaeus of Cappadocia, an Ancient Greek physician, used the term…
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Daily management of T1D
A few too many drops of insulin and you can go unconscious. It seems crazy then, that once diagnosed with type 1 diabetes you are bombarded with information and sent home, expected to self-administer insulin and manage your new medical condition. This is all the doctors can do though – although they’re always happy to…
