Running with Diabetes

By: Andrea Romie, guest contributor

Andrea posing after finishing 8th

overall at the Race for a Cure in Plano, 

TX.She finished the 5K in 22:03, a

personal best!

I’ve been running for years – in fact, I started by accident.  You see, I wasn’t gifted with that natural athletic ability to throw, shoot, kick or catch anything with ease. Despite the odds against me, I joined every sports team in middle school to simply maintain my social butterfly status.  So, after being diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in the 7^th grade and finally gaining my strength back, I noticed that even though I ran suicides practically the whole basketball practice (due to my innate inability to make a free throw), I kept up with the girls who only had to run one or two.  Feeling that I found my niche, I went out for track my 8^th grade season and haven’t looked back since. 

Besides being the one and only athletic activity that I’m skilled at, running has always been my magic trigger when it comes to diabetes.  When I’m running consistently, I’m less stressed, I maintain a healthy weight and my blood sugars are more manageable.  Since my magic trigger isn’t wine tasting, shopping or international travel, I have to push myself mentally and physically to maintain a regular exercise schedule.  I’ve found that next to anticipating an endocrinologist’s wrath at an upcoming check-up, my best motivation is scheduling a 5K every now and then to inspire me to keep up the good work.  It’s a race that requires endurance, but only a reasonable amount of training to finish at a good pace.

As we all know, heightened activity levels can lead to low blood sugars.  I have been extremely lucky not to have serious issues with lows due to cardio, but I’ve always been cautious.  I spent many years running with glucose tablets in my socks and am very conservative with my carb ratios before a run.  When I was on shots, I would have to back down my nighttime long acting insulin to almost nothing to avoid nighttime lows during my heavy running seasons.  Recently getting on a pump, I’m still working out what basal rates work best for me when a race is coming up vs. periods when I’m resting my legs. 

I have to admit, I was extremely nervous about lows when I first got hooked up to my Omni Pod. Yet, after the first couple days, I found that I needn’t be any more afraid of the Pod compared to the shots I had known for 14 years.  The most important thing for me is listening to my body, checking my blood sugar before a run and having lots of snack on hand during heavy running periods.  I know that I will have good days and some “bad” days, but I have the ability to learn and correct for the future.  For me, running can be rewarding, enjoyable and maybe even your magic trigger. 

Blame it on the Sugar?

Last Spring, the CBS television program 60 Minutes aired a story titled Is Sugar Toxic? Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California-San Francisco, argues that the consumption of fructose is the cause of increased rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome that have occurred over the last thirty years. In 2009, Lustig gave a lecture called Sugar: The Bitter Truth that has since been viewed by more than 2.6 million people on YouTube in which he gives his reasons for calling fructose poisonous. His lecture, which you can access by clicking here, is quite academic and perhaps a bit esoteric if you have not studied organic chemistry or biochemistry. However, you can find the crux of his argument in the 60 Minutes piece below.

You may be wondering at this point what you are eating that contains fructose. The short answer is that if you have adopted the so-called Western diet, it’s in everything! Table sugar (sucrose) is actually a disaccharide composed of two simple sugars – glucose and fructose. If you put a few scoops of sugar in your iced tea or down a couple cans of soda, you are consuming fructose. Check the labels on most of the processed foods you purchase at the supermarket and see if they contain the ingredient high fructose corn syrup.  Fructose and high fructose corn syrup are found in almost all the foods we eat including cereals, breads, soft drinks, chips, and even peanut butter. Do you put chocolate syrup on ice cream? Double whammy. The real problem is not that we are consuming fructose; rather, it is that we are consuming processed fructose that lacks fiber. To be clear, fructose occurs naturally and you consume it if you eat any type of fruit. However, fruit is replete with high amounts of fiber that protect your body against the harmful of effects of fructose.

Ok, so what’s the big deal? Why is processed fructose that lacks fiber so bad? The answer, according to Lustig and University of California-Davis researcher Dr. Kinder Stanhope, has to do with the liver. When you consume glucose, your liver can convert it into glycogen, which can be used for energy at a later time. Fructose, in contrast, gets turned into fat and some of that fat is in the form of LDL cholesterol. If you are confused by the difference between HDL and LDL cholesterol, an easy mnemonic is to think of the “H” in HDL as standing for “healthy” and the “L” in LDL as standing for “lethal.” LDL cholesterol is associated with increased atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and risk for heart attack. You can read the article published by Dr. Stanhope and her colleagues reporting the findings from their study by clicking here. In short, consuming processed foods that contain high fructose corn syrup is tantamount to eating foods high in saturated fats.

In addition, sugar may actually be addictive. That’s right! What you nonchalantly called a sweet tooth may actually turn out to be a full-blown addiction to sugar. In 2010, Dr. Eric Stice and his colleagues published an article in Behavioral Neurobiology of Eating Disorder that explained how the consumption of sugar causes the reward region of the brain to release dopamine. Whenever dopamine is released, it makes us feel good. The first time you take a bite of chocolate cake, your brain releases dopamine and you feel terrific. However, if you want that same sensation again the next day, you have to eat even more chocolate cake because you build up a tolerance for sugar much like a drug addict. Consuming more chocolate cake means you are consuming more sugar (fructose), which means you are storing more fat and increasing your LDL cholesterol, which means BAM! We have a serious health crisis on our hands. With strong scientific evidence suggesting fructose is toxic and addictive, it’s no surprise that we have seen rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome skyrocket.

What can you eat and drink if fructose is so ubiquitous and yet so harmful? The short answer is that you should avoid processed foods. Eat whole grain bread instead of white or wheat bread. Eat oatmeal or shredded wheat instead of sugary cereals. Put down the glass of apple juice and bite into an apple. Substitute natural peanut butter for classic Jif and Skippy peanut butter. Drink water instead of soda. Making these small but substantive changes will have a long-term positive effect on your health.


So, what do you think? Is sugar to blame for the obesity epidemic and our subsequent health crisis?

Remove Every Obstacle

I love the attitude of Team Type 1, a team of professional cyclists comprised of type 1 riders. They don't just compete, they win. Their victories come not only on the racing circuit, but also through their advocacy by engaging others in the fight against diabetes. The group doesn't see diabetes as an obstacle. Instead, the disease fuels them. You can check out their website by clicking here. Remove every obstacle.

The Story of Olympic Champion Gary Hall Jr.

Since getting underway, most U.S. Olympic swimming fans have been enthralled by Michael Phelps’ pursuit of 19 medals, the stellar performances of Ryan Lochte and Allison Schmitt, and the rise of Missy Franklin. As we enjoy the amazing feats of all of our Olympic athletes, I would like to tell readers about one of my favorite Olympians, Gary Hall Jr., who is a decorated former U.S. Olympic swimmer with type 1 diabetes.

Swimming runs in Gary Hall Jr.’s family. His father, whom he was named after, competed in the 1968, 1972, and 1976 Olympic games, and his uncle Charles Keating III also competed in the 1976 games. Gary Jr., like his father, competed in three Olympic games (1996, 2000, and 2004), and they are the only father-son duo to accomplish this feat!

At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Gary Hall Jr. medaled in four events. He earned gold medals in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay and the 4 x 100m medley relay and silver medals in the 50m and 100m freestyle. After his performance in the 1996 games, his future in the sport appeared to be very bright until he received the diagnosis.

Gary Hall Jr. at 2000 Olympic Games.
Source: CNN/Sports Illustrated

In March 1999, Gary Hall Jr. was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Initially, his doctors told him that his days as a competitive swimmer were over. Gary explained in a 2004 interview with Diabetes Health that he went through the usual stages of depression and anger following the diagnosis before finally accepting that he had diabetes. Despite being told by doctors that his career was over, Gary Hall Jr. was determined to keep swimming. He met Dr. Anne Peters Harmel, an endocrinologist from UCLA who encouraged him to continue his training regimen. Her impact on Gary and his swimming career cannot be overstated. While other doctors were telling Gary to give up swimming, she helped him understand that he could manage the disease and continue to pursue his dreams of becoming the best swimmer in the world.

Gary competed in two Olympic games with type 1 diabetes and earned six additional medals. He won two gold medals without diabetes. He won three gold medals with the disease. In 2004, he made the U.S. Olympic swim team at the age of 29 and was the oldest person to make the team in eighty years. Gary started the Gary Hall Jr. Foundation for Diabetes, which provides support for cure-focused research. His story is truly inspirational for all persons with diabetes especially those who love to compete in sports! To hear Gary Hall Jr. tell his story, check out the video on the right side of the blog.