I was hiking today in the foothills above Colorado Springs and after about 90 minutes my legs began cramping. I often get leg cramps and my endo. says she doesn't think it is related to diabetes. Anyone have this problem
Also, when I am hiking my blood sugar usually drops dramatically in first 30 minutes. I lower the basal rate on my pump, eat a snack before I begin, but still need to eat more. Not sure how to manage this more effectively.
I have had a lot of cramps running, sort of hit or miss. Sometimes they "fire" and sometimes they don't. I've tried all sorts of things, no coffee, compression socks, stretching, yoga, eating lots of potassium, salt pills, etc. but they keep lurking in my calves. Anything > about 10 miles seems to have the potential to light them up and then the rest of the run is utter misery. I ran through them for about 4 miles in a 1/2 marathon in the spring and was on the DL for a month, no running. The things that seem to help the most are running smoothly, not overtraining, squats and lunges for xtraining and maybe the dietary things.
Re BG dropping, I try to clear out any bolus insulin before I go and then have 8-12G of carb/ 3 miles which is usually 25-30 minutes the way I run. I'm training to run 9:00 miles in a November 1/2 but we'll see how things go!
Yes, I also have had problems with leg cramps. When I was in dka and immobilized, I suffered a dvt in my left leg, then I had a blood clot in my left arm and symptoms of a clot in my right leg also, after I was on warfarin, although that one was not confirmed with ultrasound there is now damage to veins in the left leg and blood flow in the right. My symptoms at the time after dvt diganosis were a lot of pain in both my legs, the left one being much worse. I wore compression stockings for a year as is recommended. After going off warfarin when the clot had dissolved, I was having recurrent symptoms of bad cramping in the left leg. I haven't had a really bad one for a while and I have noticed that the last few weeks I can go for a 1-2.5 mile walk without cramping! knock on wood. I notice my cramps seem to get worse when I have low bg, there is a direct correlation. I was waking up also with a severe cramp in the left leg and my bg was low. I increased potassium, calcium, zinc magnesium and drank tonic water. This seemed to help. I'm no longer wearing the compression wear and I don't do stair stepping much now as that seems to bring on cramping. My endo said to do stretching at night before sleeping. I found pushing my heal to the ground will stop the severe spasm. I have been on losartan which can raise potassium so I'm not supplementing potassium for now.
Maybe you can raise your bg and make sure you're well hydrated before and during the hike? I think the magnesium helped me a bit too, but I've stopped that because it gives me the runs a lot.
I have severe cramping in calf muscles at night. Pickle juice arrests them in an instant.
Gosh Lisa,
I hear the flooding is there in Colorado Springs. I sure hope you guys are alright.
Not sure about the cramping after 90 min, because I have bad feet and 60 min is my limit. Long story. Typically I would say to have a blood test for all of your electrolytes, as well as iron and B12, but if those are your problem I think it would hit earlier than that.
About the bg, For every 30 min of exercize, without changing my basal, I am good for about 20 min, but then it starts dropping, and continues until about 30 min after I finish exercize. What Acidrock23 said sounds about right for me, too, and I am a 5'2" female type 1. I cannot exercize more than 20 min without adding glucose.
ooh, I haven't tried pickle juice!
It's probably dehydration, honestly. Very few people, diabetics or not, actually drink enough water. I cramp when I run as well.
Just another thought- What do your vitamin D levels look like? Might want to check that out.