Strange Happenings

So I am continuing on my fruit-free journey and it's been over a week. I've still been taking my blood glucose readings in the morning when I wake up and decided it would be interesting so see what my blood glucose reading was after I went running. I got up both yesterday and today and took my blood glucose readings.

Yesterdays was 101 and today's was 103. "Normal" is 70-99 but give or take for error I am pretty much in range...

I didn't eat anything before I hopped on the treadmill and ran for 2 miles yesterday and 3 miles today.

I took my blood glucose readings immediately after getting off the treadmill and both days it read 148. I took multiple readings with a minute of each other so I know it's accurate.

The strange thing is that you would think my blood sugar would be lower after exercising than before since I was using fuel as I was running.

I researched this on the Internet and found someone else who had my same experience:

I'm asking this for both myself and my wife actually. We're both Type 2, although mine is more controlled, with readings between 90-125 on average. We've both recently started individual exercise programs, and she's frustrated with her blood sugar. I wasn't with mine until this morning. I woke up, went to the gym right away, worked out for 90 minutes, had plenty of water, and my blood sugar read 126. (fasting). 

Can anyone point to any information on the web about this? By the way, my morning blood sugars have been pretty decent for the last week, hovering between 100-120, so, this higher reading was surprising, especially after a decent workout. I'm trying to get information that's informative for my wife as well. So links specific to this topic would be great. Thanks!

The answer was:

Sometimes blood sugars go up with exercise. Especially after strenuous exercise. This may happen because you are excited and are releasing a hormone called adrenaline. This is a normal response in people with or without diabetes. The adrenaline causes sugar to be released from stores in the muscle and liver and raises the blood sugar for awhile. This usually happens in the first hour of exercise. 

Wait a little longer (20-30 mins) to test. You should should notice a significant difference.

And this:

Exercise causes the liver to release more glucose to fuel your body. The rise is only temporary - so I wouldn't worry unless your level remains high for several hours afterwards.

And finally this:
"When you exercise, your muscles need sugar to supply energy, so the liver increases the amount of sugar it releases into the bloodstream. In order for your muscles to be able to use sugars, they need insulin to ‘unlock' the cells and let the sugars in. If you do not have enough insulin available, your blood sugar levels will increase."

To exercise safely, consult your physician before starting any exercise program. Also, check your blood sugar before and after working out. Do not exercise if you have ketones and your blood sugar is over 250mg/d

What's really interesting about this "experiment" is that due to my endometriosis, I had to really cut back on my running because about 1.5 to 2 miles into running I would usually have to stop due to the pain. Something about the exercise actually triggered the pain, almost like it brought on inflammation or, as my gynecologist described it: "It's almost like you're having a heart attack in your pelvic region".

When I read that high blood sugar caused the blood to thicken, which is exactly the condition that sets up for heart attacks, is when I decided to do this glucometer experiment. Thick blood can also cause capillaries to not get circulation and thus Raynaud's?

At any rate, if my blood sugar is indeed higher when exercising than before, that would explain perhaps (if my blood is thickening when it's higher) why the exercise would bring on the endometriosis pain or "cause a heart attack in my pelvic region"?

Since I've cut out fruit, I've had no endometriosis pain even while exercising. However, if I started my morning with a blood sugar reading of 130 like I did when I was eating fruit regularly, what would my blood sugar have elevated to while exercising back then? 180? That would indeed be considered high blood sugar and could possibly have caused my symptoms. The only way to find out would be to go back to eating high sugar fruits in volume which I am reluctant to do besides the fact that I want to honor my commitment to my 90 day challenge.

I have been also eating Brazil nuts with regularity and have suffered no ill effects.

As an aside, over the summer I had drastically curtailed fruit and dramatically increased my legume and green intake. I had had some toenail fungus for a couple of YEARS that would not go away and I wanted to see if the white spots on my toe nails would clear up if I ate more protein.

As of today, all of my toe nails look completely normal for the first time in 2 years (about the time when I started my high fruit eating).

Plus, the dry skin on the back of my hands is also starting to go away.

This is all very interesting to me and I wanted to chronicle my journey here for you all to read about if it resonated with anything that you are a friend or loved one may be experiencing.

I want to get some buckwheat and sprout it and make some brazil nut milk and make me some homemade granola and see how my body handles that.

I am playing with some new recipes for some more variety. I am regularly drinking coconut water as it's now my new favorite treat. I absolutely LOVE it, it is so addicting.

In the DVD documentary "Raw for 30 Days" it took one gal also named Michelle, a little longer than the rest to get her blood sugars down naturally. Since it's only been a little over a week, I think it will be interesting so  see how all of this plays out as time goes on...

Stay tuned. Until then, I am enjoying being able to run pain-free now. :)

And a laugh for your today with some tough love from a doctor:

DOH!