Driving my Insulin needs as low as they can go with some Muay Thai help
When you first start any sport or physical discipline as a diabetic there is some apprehension . I first wanted to do muay thai for a month or two but I have since just kept going, eventually finding my stupid self into the ring to get my ass kicked.
I was diagnosed as a teenager with type 1 diabetes which means I am insulin dependent. I have a history of it in my family and it has been one of the biggest crosses I bear, one that has brought me as close to meeting the reaper as I could possibly get.
Living with any medical condition means you make it part of routine, for those with diabetes it is a condition you have to manage versus one that can be outright cured.
When it becomes routine there are times when you stop thinking about it and just take your medication. Diabetes impacts what you can eat because insulin is the hormone your body needs so it can use the sugar in your blood stream.
The danger for anyone with diabetes is a double edged sword where one side are lows and the other is highs. Lows can lead to you to passing out from lack of energy and could lead to death, trust me it has happened to me a lot. The other side are the highs which can lead to long-term complications if your blood sugars are regularly high and not managed.
So what the hell does this have to do with muay thai? When I first started training I had to be careful of lows because I was training twice a day, 6 days a week. I have never been an athlete or have done regular exercise but with muay thai I was determined to try, to see how far I could push it.
I never intended to fight and how I am heading into my 7th and that alone no matter the outcome is so beyond who I thought I could be. I never thought it would have so much impact on my diabetes because I had done it before and it had remained like it always had, I’d be taking about 30 units of fast acting insulin in this case novorapid a day, now its a third of that.
Every once in awhile I would have a low during training but because of my history I wasn’t able to recognize the lows. In the first few years after I was diagnosed I would be constantly low because I was paranoid of the highs and would overcompensate often. This was a regular occurrence and is medically known as hypoglycemia.
It’s a bitch, I would be fine and then my body would crash and crash badly. This was so normal for me that even today I still can’t tell when I am low without checking my blood sugar. I don’t have symptoms until the last minute while I do have symptoms when I am high which are being dehydrated and having to go to the washroom a lot more.
There are some people that use insulin pumps which help to moderate their insulin levels but as someone who does muay thai and has been overseas for several years it just isn’t practical. I also don’t like the idea of having a catheter attached to me most of the time.
I know that I am supposed to check my blood sugar regularly but there are many days when I don’t (like most). Being a traveler and especially doing muay thai has meant I have stretch my supplies to their limit. Stripes for a glucometer are not cheap if you are checking 4 times a day or switching needles after every injection so I don’t.
Basically diabetes is expensive as hell and that mean’s it’s a pharma cash cow cause the majority of type 1 diabetics don’t have a choice. Someone on the verge of type 2 diabetes could change their lifestyle to help prevent becoming diabetic or delay it’s onset but for many of those at risk its a matter of when not if.
Then over the last few months a few things have changed. I was away from muay thai for close to a year and a half because I was living and working in New Zealand but a really bad low in Malaysia. I was on Langkawi Island and went for a run in the morning and thought nothing of it. That night me and my mate were having drinks and I crashed and crashed hard.
I ended up in the hospital for until morning, I didn’t really know what happened. I thought I had just taken too much insulin. After that I went back to Thailand so I could get back into the ring.
When I got back I started running and training again and during the first week I was constantly low. While I have had lows while training before it was never to this extent. Eventually I discovered that when I ran, my insulin sensitivity was much higher, meaning I only needed a third of the insulin than I did before.
I know that normal muay thai training even though it can be intense wasn’t the cause because if I didn’t run I would have to take my normal amount of insulin.
Just a few weeks ago I decided to see how far I could stretch my insulin. I decided to minimize my carbs so I could decrease the amount of insulin I eat. I usually just eat 2 meals a day, and rarely drink anything with a lot of sugar which is hard in Asia because it feels like everything is laced with it.
A single pen cartridge of novorapid which is my fast acting insulin has 300 units. A single vial would normally last me anywhere from a week to 9 days taking 25-30 units of insulin a day, 10 -12 per meal with the remainder used to cover highs or if I had snacks.
With my last vial, I decided to limit my daily intake of novorapid to 20 units and I was able to stretch how long it lasted to 3 weeks, which meant I was taking less than 15 units of novorapid a day.
I saw an article on the New York Times that talked about the benefits of a low carb diet for type 1 diabetics. When I read it, I was already doing it to a point even if I wasn’t aware of it. It was when I started a new vial that I decided to see how low I could go in how much insulin I could take.
The study wasn’t randomized and while if focused on children I agree with Dr. Bernstein’s assessment that argues “that the fewer carbs consumed, the easier it is to stabilize blood sugar with insulin.” It is just common sense that even just doing it for a few weeks have allowed me more control and more importantly less risks of low blood sugars which have been an issue for me since I was diagnosed.
If I have a coffee, or chips my blood sugar will skyrocket and I’ll have to adjust accordingly but if I just do that occasionally I can stay under 10 units of novopraid a day. So I avoid most of of that sort of food, I keep it simple, I only eat twice a day and I run regularly, which I think have helped me to drive how much insulin I need to take so low.
I am just seeing if I can keep this up for this vial, if I can that would mean, one vial, which used to last me just over a week could last a month. That is insane because just 8 months a go I was taking more than three times that amount.
I don’t myself on a diet or anything its just about moderation and being disciplined enough to avoid temptation most of the time because well there are some days when I just want cake LOL sugar be damned.
I don’t eat as much as I used to but I think it has meant my body has gotten more efficient at handling what I do eat. I now maintain a weight of 60 kilos or just under.
All these steps together will help me to live a better and longer life than I would if I never changed my approach to diabetes. It will also help me lower my costs by allowing me stretch how far I can take my insulin.
I never thought I would get to a point where I would be taking 3 units a meal and have stable blood glucose levels, I just didn’t think that was possible but now I know it is and it is because of doing muay thai, even if I’m not good, even if I’ve been hurt before this knowledge will help me for years to come.
I also never thought I would get into the ring, but here I am doing both and it is amazing and makes me thankful and hopeful that maybe I can significantly mitigate the ominous risk of lows that have hanged over my daily life.
This is what has worked for me right now and I expect it will change with time. I know that each person is different and that this wouldn’t be applicable to other people but it does show me and I hope it shows others that we can all do something to help manage this damn condition. We don’t have to live in fear of a low or under the constant risk from the highs.
I know people use pumps to get a constant flow of insulin so that its regulated more like how the pancreas would normally function but I love that I’ve found a way to make my diabetes work with minimal amounts of tech.
The fact that I can manage my diabetes through a sheer force of will, discipline and the fitness and abs muay thai has given me is a gift. I like the fact that I can do this with minimal technological assistance gives me hope for all of those who deal with diabetes and those that will face the balancing act in the future.
