Control blood glucose with these uncommon ways
Strategies beyond diet and sleep from self-experimentation and scientific literature
Hi,
I’m Ismail and I have a confession to make…
I take sauna baths… a lot of sauna baths.
Some days, I also have a sensor stuck to my left arm.
Other days I prick my fingers.
What do these things have in common?
Well, apart from them sounding like a form of self-torture, they’re also a form of self-experimentation with the same goal in mind: keeping blood sugar levels under control.
But why care about glucose?
To keep it short, if you want to perform better physically and mentally or just want to feel great, regulating blood glucose is among the 20% of things to focus on that give you the 80% of the outcome. For example, a study published in the Diabetes Care Journal found that during acute hypoglycemia (low blood glucose): speed of information processing, working memory and some aspects of attention were impaired. On the other hand, during hyperglycemia (high blood glucose) the subjects were significantly more dysphoric, had reduced energetic arousal, and had an increase in both sadness and anxiety. So, if we truly care either about feeling good, limiting negative feelings and increasing both mental and physical performance managing glucose swings seems to be not just impactful but necessary.
So who’s this post for?
I strongly believe that the protocols mentioned in this post are worth a closer look as upgrades in the toolbox of a lot of people, from elite athletes to those of us who want to perform better, or just feel better, during most days.
It could also be useful if you want to perform beyond your current level. For example, improving glucose variability can help athletes break through their endurance threshold (a lot of which would dramatically call the “wall”) by enabling them to use less glycogen from the muscles.
The goal of this post is to go through strategies that go beyond just diet, sleep and exercise to do that.
A word of caution:
I am not a doctor nor an expert of any kind so please don’t be dumb and consult with a health care professional before doing anything described in this post (full disclaimer at the bottom of the page).
This post will talk about the benefits of sauna bathing, it is good to know beforehand that heat can be seriously dangerous and people can die from excessive heat. Sauna use during pregnancy may carry some health risks to a developing fetus. Please take the disclaimer at the bottom of this page seriously.
Why go beyond diet sleep and exercise?
You just cannot beat diet, sleep and exercise.
Although the goal of this post is to go through uncommon methods for controlling blood glucose levels, we cannot do better than: eating well, sleeping well, and exercising regularly.
While it is clear how diet and exercise can impact glucose. Sleep still seems a little underrated. In my own case, a lack of sleep (especially for extended periods of time) seems to correlate with high morning blood glucose. Just like the example in the picture below, this seems to hold even when my diet is all under control:
Running a controlled experiment on this would not be a good idea, but this result is far from surprising. In a study that investigated the effect of sleep debt on metabolic and endocrine functions there was a clear consistent impairment of how the participants tolerate glucose when they were in sleep debt (the rate at which sugar was cleared, after injection, was about 40% slower in sleep-debt than in the sleep-recovery).
But what if we keep those above variables (meaning sleep, diet and exercise) under control and you want to go a step further? Even if those last variables are the 20% that give you the 80% of the outcome. Our goal here is to go beyond that and reach the final 99%.
Plus, some days you just want to have cake, other days you just have to wake up earlier. What can you do then to feel good and manage the day? How can you have your cake and eat it too?
So let’s get started.
1) Take a sauna
In general, heat is uncomfortable. After all, cooling fans disappear from supermarkets during hot seasons and people take refuge in air conditioned shops.
That said, it appears that increasing your core temperature for short bursts is good for general health. More than just aiding with glucose control, heat stress can also drastically aid performance, increase muscular hypertrophy, endurance and cognition.
When it comes to saunas I might be a little biased. I usually take enough saunas during the week to get comments such as: watch out, you’ll end up like a dry sponge at some point.
At some point though, I tried wearing a continuous glucose monitor during sauna sessions. I noticed the following:
— my glucose levels seem to rise during the sauna usage.
— after the session is done my glucose levels stabilize to a lower value than they were before.
Note that it is possible that this spike is caused by a problem in the sensor’s measurement due to the heat or dehydration. Even if that were true, the levels of glucose seem to stabilize to a lower level than usual. A study on dry saunas, published in the British Medical Journal, showed that: taking a sauna accelerated the uptake of insulin (a hormone that regulates glucose). This uptake, also favors skeletal muscle, which gives an explanation to the raise in hypertrophy with the use of saunas. A study on mice suggests that the reason muscle tissue is favored, instead of adipose tissue (or fat), is caused by an increase in the expression of a type of transporter known as GLUT-4 (responsible for transporting glucose from the blood into skeletal muscle). This is also possibly one of the reasons why heat acclimation has been shown to reduce the usage of muscle glycogen by about 40% to 50%, in addition to the increased flow of blood to the muscles.
Once again, saunas and heat exposure come with risks. Please read the disclaimer at the end of this article.
How to implement this:
—Most days when possible because saunas are awesome.
—In the morning after a night of non-optimal sleep
— After having had a large meal, waiting two hours or more to avoid going there with a full stomach.
2) Go for a walk, use a standing desk
As simple as the title suggests, especially after having a meal with my co-workers I would usually:
- Go for a walk.
- Use a standing desk.
I wish I had a treadmill desk so I could do both in the same time.
Note that this is not just about reducing glucose through the energy demands from standing or walking. It’s about keeping those levels stable. For example, in an office-based study published in the journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, working in a standing position seems to reduce spike in blood glucose by about 43% (compared to sitting for the same amount of time).
That said, some days I do sit for a long time either because I am focused on something, because I am on a meeting or just because I straight out do not want to. The key here is making sure those days are the exception not the rule.
How to implement this:
—Going for a walk after lunch at work, or after dinner.
—Using a standing desk during the day, when possible.
3) Eating bitter plants, herbs and spices
Of all the previous advice this one is probably the easiest. And the reason is because it tastes good. Before meals, including things such as: cinnamon, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, or bitter melon can also be a way to keep stable levels of glucose. And if it is still early enough, green tea before or after meals can also increase insulin sensitivity and the uptake of glucose into the cells. That said, I have not done any controlled experiment to verify if these actually have an impact on how my glucose levels fluctuate.
But here’s the thing: there is enough evidence to support those compounds and they’re tasty anyway!
Ceylon Cinnamon, for example, is not only tasty but also seems to increase insulin sensitivity, and getting more glucose from the blood into cells. The other good news is, taking about 2 teaspoons a day would be enough you and do not need to ingest a whole cup or go through the cinnamon challenge to get those benefits. For example, In a randomized controlled trial, healthy individuals supplemented with either 5g of cinnamon or 5g of placebo. Consuming just 5g of cinnamon seems to reduce total plasma glucose responses to glucose with effects lasting up to twelve hours. A meta analysis shows that cinnamon also improves fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides and other biomarkers. So no need to wait for pumpkin spice season to use cinnamon.
Another plant extract that is worth mentioning is Berberine. When it comes to reducing blood glucose, a large number of studies suggests that the usage of berberine rivals oral hypoglycemic drugs such as Metformin in its effectiveness. Berberine seems to indirectly activate an enzyme known as AMPK while inhibiting PTP1B. As a result, this would increase the uptake of both carbs and fats into cells from the blood. However, I have not used Berberine myself because I am still skeptical about how it works on the molecular level and because most of the evidence comes from studies targeting individuals with type 2 diabetes. Please note that Berberine is known to inhibit the activity of certain enzymes which can lead to a host of drug interactions and that high doses can cause cramping and running pants.
I’ll personally stick with my Cinnamon on this one.
How to implement this:
—Adding bitters with food or before having a meal.
—Drinking green tea if it’s not late yet.
4 ) Using exercise throughout the day
By this I mean:
- exercising in a fasted state, before having any food.
- Taking small exercise breaks throughout the whole day instead of one hour of exercise (usually referred to as greasing the groove).
A study on the effects of fasted exercise (exercising before breakfast) suggests that exercising in a fasted state is better than exercising in a fed state in improving the tolerance to glucose and insulin sensitivity, in addition to facilitating muscle adaptations.
On the other hand, taking small exercise breaks during the day not only allows you to become proficient at certain movements (such as pull-ups, squats or dead-lifts), it also keeps your metabolism elevated throughout the day and frees you from the need of setting time for structured workouts.
Thanks for reading, if you found it useful hit that clap button. It would mean a lot to me and it helps others see the post
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Important Disclaimer:
This post is for informational purposes only.
The content of this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. You must consult with a health-care practitioner, before undertaking any of the exercises, habits, protocols, techniques or otherwise described herein.
This blog does not constitute the practice of medicine or any other professional health care services, including providing medical advice. The use of information on this post is at the user’s own risk. The author expressly disclaims responsibility for any adverse effects that may result from the use or application of the information contained herein.
