We all know that when our blood sugar runs high or low, it can make simple tasks a little more difficult. For kids with Type 1 diabetes, an errant blood sugar level can have a profound impact on their athletic performance, according to a new study from York University.
The study, as reported in an article on the site DLife, showed that kids with low blood sugar levels saw a decline in their cognitive abilities. Of course, exercising while managing diabetes can be difficult. Certain types of exercise and sports cause blood sugar levels to rise dramatically. Other kids of exercise make it drop quickly.
For the study, researchers monitored children ages 6 to 17 around the clock, even when they were sleeping. They were fitted with a glucose monitor for their week-long stay at a diabetes sports camp at the university last summer. They will conduct a similar study this year. The study concluded that the kids’ skills were the best when their blood sugar levels were within the target range. When their readings were high, they experienced slightly diminished performance, although the degree to which the performance declined varied greatly depending on the individual. With low blood sugar levels, performance varied – some kids were way off, while some were slightly off.
Because symptoms of an errant blood sugar are often masked by exercise because they have similar results – sweating, increased heart rate, fatigue. One way to identify a low blood sugar is to look for performance that is really out of the ordinary, like a free throw in basketball that is so far off, or a serve in tennis that is suspect.
However, researcher said they found no evidence to show that a low blood sugar reading at night decreased the kids’ performance the next day.
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Although we did not find that low blood glucose during the night prior to testing caused a decrease in performance it’s unlikely this would be the case in a real competiton. The participants were asked to perform tasks that usually took approximately a minute to perform, while in true sport, competition can last hours. The reduction in sleep/quality of sleep would likely reduce performance if the measures were more sensitive to mental and physical stamina.