Location: Lincoln Nebraska, United States Of America
Posts: 3
Muscle Lock Ups During Running
Hi, my name is chris and i have been a diabetic for 11 years. I was diagnosed with diabetes and life flighted to children's hospital at the age of ten. It was then that i went into a diabetic coma for three days and came out with brain damage. I am insulin dependent and have been for the entire time, but it doesn't bother me that much. Most of my life as a diabetic i have been in terrible control of my diabetes, however it is recently that i have been noticing abnormal effects on my body and wish to change them. One of the minor issues that i'm dealing with is running. I've been wanting to start running again lately because my brother is being a pain and running faster and better than me and it's getting really annoying. However when i start to run i get about 500 feet and my leg muscles start to hurt. In fact it's the reason why i stop running so much. I'm able to walk fine and walk long distances without much of a problem (1-5 miles straight). If i didn't have this problem i would probably have more stamina and be able to run more effectively. This just dawned on me on the way back from walking to the gas station and back when the clerk i like asked if i had been drinking enough water when i told her of these issues. It hit me. Water helps the heart circulate the blood through the body getting it where it needs to go. However when your blood is 300 plus for long periods of time, it can't circulate and you cause inability to circulate blood to certain parts of your body. What i want to know is since i have been in bad control most of my life of my blood sugar, would lack of blood circulation to the legs cause my leg muscles to lock up when ever i run? if this is the case what can i do the improve this situation and potentially make the problem go away? Anything would help. Please respond with tips or anything. Thanks. chris.
Hi Chris. Obviously, the first order of business is to get better control. This will help with many things. Cramping could mean many thing and you should talk to a doc and get some blood work done. It could be something as simple as an electrolyte imbalance (potassium or calcium out of whack) or something as critical as a problem with blood flow blockages in the legs. Keep hydrated is important as well.
Have you seen a doc lately? What is your a1c? Do you need to improve it and if so, what are you doing? Give us a few more details and we can probably give some good advice. I was diagnosed with T1 in 1966 and whle I've had some problems, I am still alive and kicking.
Location: Lincoln Nebraska, United States Of America
Posts: 3
Re: Muscle Lock Ups During Running
I haven't been to a doctor in forever due to the lack of control. I personally dislike doctors because growing up it seemed that it never mattered what they said, i just kept getting worse. also we could never afford them. my parents would go to them knowing that we couldn't pay them back and now because of it i am unable to go to certain doctors i want to. even now i still am in bad shape. at one instance without eating anything, in under 2 seconds it jumped 200 units and made me high. Another, i didn't eat anything with carbs all day and had high blood sugar at the end of the day. My personal impression of diabetes is a grim one and one day i will die early because of it and i accept it. however, i also believe that i should make the best out of my days and try my best to control my diabetes. but it always never seems to matter. so i just do my best. all i can do. also, my a1c is terrible. 11 i think last time i checked if not higher.
There's actually a lot of debate out there as to what causes cramps - and I'm assuming that when you state "muscles locking" you're talking about a cramp.
There was actually a recent study done in Australia (I think) where they tested groups of runners utilizing electrolytes versus placebos and found that those who took the placebos actually had fewer cramps. Where many sports medicine people are heading is that cramps are primarily due to over use of muscles that are not ready for it.
If this is the case, the best thing to do is to ease back into running slowly. There is a big difference in how your legs work between walking and running and it sounds as though the running is something you're just getting back into. Be patient with it.
Also remember that exercise can do wonders in helping to bring your BG ratings down - though you have to be careful with lows.
Running is a fantastic form of exercise but people tend to get injured because they go too hard too soon. Ease back in, let your brother enjoy the fact that he beats you now, because in a couple months he's going to have to get used to looking at you from behind!
For some reason, I think you're young. So, I rather doubt that you would have atherosclerotic lesions causing leg pain. I suspect, but do not know, that you might be experiencing a buildup of lactic acid within the skeletal muscle due to some metabolic syndrome.
The advice about emphasizing improvement of control is nearly always well taken. But here, I also suspect that you might produce an improvement by changing your training method. Get away from straight-out running for a while. Reduce the metabolic demand to walking. Build yourself up to walks of several miles. Then, after that's all well and food, throw in some intermittent running ("fartlek" or "interval training.") Increase the running portion of the exercise until you can run the entire course without a break. Perhaps that will be of help.
Muscle Lock Ups During Running 
