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[RC] Glucose curves and bonking - Ridecamp GuestPlease Reply to: ti Tivers@xxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ========================================== I am fairly well adept at managing my own blood sugar during exercise. Lots of practice. Oversimplified, I should be managing my horses diet during training as if he were diabetic also? But since he is not, a higher bloodsugar is less likely to cause an issue than the possibility of a drop in bloodsugar? Like eating glucose tabs on extended hikes. April, Byhalia MS> I'm diabetic, too. We both know what happens to us when, if we either overdose insulin, or don't ingest enough carbs to support exercise, blood glucose drops below even a set point that is higher than the regular human norm. First you get tired, then, as glucose continues to drop, you get washy-and maybe a headache, then you get shockey, then you drop into a nice, peaceful coma. When I choose to die, that's probably the way I'll go. On the other hand, an elevated blood sugar is normal after the ingestion of carbohydrate/sugar. Insulin responds and slowly moves the glucose into various organs, mainly muscle in exercising individuals. then, at set point, insulin stops and, hopefully, carb intake, or stored liver glycogen release, during exercise maintains that level. However, if exercise goes on and on and on, blood glucose continues to drop, eventually to dangerous levels. Before those dangerous levels are reached, you hit the "bonk". But if it's the horse hitting the bonk, the rider may not understand what is happening--thinking the severely reduced performance requires more water or elytes. Exercising past the bonk is dangerous, particularly in the horse--because the gut needs glucose to operate properly. So does the brain, but the gut will shut down before the brain. This is one reason why the concept of "winning by finishing" can be very dangerous. Those that are going for a win, on a horse capable of a win, will typically pull their horse if it bonks--no need to punish a valuable horse that is having a bad day for whatever reason. Those that think finishing is winning will go on, even if they have to get off and drag the horse behind them. You and I, as diabetics, know that it's not easy to die from extremely high blood sugar--long term, it'll kill you via a dozen kinds of complications, but today's extremely high sugar probably won't--I've had sugar readings in the 500s after corticosteroid treatments. You don't feel great, but you don't die--at least I didn't. There are some horses that exhibit some kind of glucose problem--I've never encountered a diabetic horse, but evidently Eleanor has. The problem horse's I've encountered are those that, no matter what you feed, the blood sugar sits steady 10 to 20 points below norm--70s and 80s. Eleanor figured out that chromium helped these come to normal parameters and responses--but you'd have to talk to her if you run into one like this. Typical equine resting/fasted blood sugar ranges from 85 to 95 mg/dl. A grain meal will cause a gradual rise and then a recovery in blood sugar--in 1 1/2 to 2 hours it might go as high as 135 and at 6 hours is usually back to the horse's normal set point. With a dose of a GL-like product, the curve is essentially the same, but shorter--maybe a peak at 1 1/2 hours and a return to norm at 4 hours. In young, unfit horses, both curves can be even shorter than that. My best guess is that bonking in the horse will occur with blood glucoses below 70. But a decrement in performance may be seen as soon as the animal hits 80. Below 60 you're in big trouble. Below 50, life-threatening trouble. That's why IVs containing glucose can turn around a very sick horse very quickly. Hope this helps you zero in. ti =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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