The Diabetes Football Community

Networks can be powerful things. The Inclusion Club is an example of an international online network of people with a common interest. We share stuff. We collaborate and good things happen.

Chris Bright is someone who also believes in the power of networks. So much so that he went ahead and created one specifically in his area of passion – football. Chris was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 8. He went onto play futsal for Wales. So he had to cope. He had to find ways to manage the condition and pursue his ambitions as a footballer.

He’s seen huge developments in the care for diabetics in that time but he always felt that peer support was something that could enhance his experience. In early 2017 he decided that it was time to change that and develop a support community which fills the void he always felt was missing.

Hence, the Diabetes Football Community was born.

If you take a look at the website you’ll see blog posts on ‘Type 1 Diabetes: A disability or not? How do you identify with it?’ and ‘The Psychology of a Diabetic Footballer’ and ‘Tips for Exercising with Type 1 Diabetes’. It’s all great work and intended to give users information, resources and support to help manage the condition while playing football.

I recently caught up with Chris via Skype to talk about The Diabetes Football Community. It’s the best way to learn about his excellent work.

You can see what a terrific initiative The Diabetes Football Community is.

Chris obviously knows a lot about exercise and diabetes. The tips below are taken from one of Chris’s blog posts and are applicable for all types of exercise  – just that Chris’s passion is for football.

Chris’s top 5 tips for exercising with type 1 diabetes

1. Testing

Testing is obviously vital to keeping diabetes under control but it becomes even more important when you’re trying to exercise. By increasing the number of checks you do before, during and after your exercise, the more likely you are to catch potential hypos or hypers which may creep up on you as a result of the exercise you’ve undertaken.

Tip – I test as often as I can, because ultimately I want to be able to enjoy my exercise and avoid any complications, so if I can spot a trend in my blood glucose early enough and use the appropriate treatment to correct it, I’m more likely to have fun. It’s vital to ensure you remain in a safe range to allow you to perform to the best of your ability; remain safe and most importantly, enjoy it!

2. Treatments

It’s so important to be well prepared with your treatments. Since I was a teenager I’ve carried around dextrose tablets in my pocket regardless of whether I’m playing sport or not in case I was hit with a hypo. It’s not just about hypos though as hypers can occur around exercise, so being able to administer insulin should your levels increase is also a vitally important treatment. You have to be careful you don’t overdo either a hypo or hyper treatment as you don’t want to move towards the other extremity, but ensuring you have your treatments easily accessible to you will hopefully make any precarious situations easier to avoid.

Tip – My go to hypo treatment is Lucozade sport as it’s an isotonic drink which ensures uptake is quicker, whilst it’s not as glucose rich as a can of coke, ensuring I don’t over treat my hypo and run with high glucose levels (Half a bottle normally sorts things out pretty quickly!). Whilst my hyper treatment is normally dependent on how high my levels are and the intensity of exercise, so it’s good to have an understanding of the expected outcome for your glucose levels as a result of the type of exercise. You can then use your insulin dose appropriately.

3. Routine / Preparation

“Fail to prepare, prepare to Fail!” This famous quote is never more apparent than with Diabetes control around sport. If you think you can just turn up, throw your bag down and have a swig of water before you start running around you’re so wrong and you will undoubtedly, in my opinion, suffer regularly with hypos and hypers during exercise.

Tip – For many years I’ve been preparing for games the night before, through the consumption of carbohydrate rich food and trying my best to keep my levels stable. I then would undertake the same morning breakfast and lunch on every single game day to ensure my levels were as predictable as possible to help with managing the game. I’ve used beans on toast as a regular meal prior to a game and tried to ensure my insulin was taken 2.5 – 3 hours prior to a game kicking off, to avoid insulin peaks. Everyone will be different and approaches will need to change for the timing of exercise but the key is to find a routine which you’ve found successful in getting your glucose levels within range, which allows you to enjoy the exercise and get the best from your body.

4. Post Exercise Nutrition/Preparation

The hours after a period of exercise, can cause you trouble. You’ve enjoyed a 2 hour session in the gym or a game of football and your levels were absolutely fine throughout it but you’ve now been hit with a hypo 3 hours later! The General rule is the longer the exercise or more intense it is, the more likely this is to happen (Very general!), so you need to take steps in order to avoid it happening.

Tip – You should eat a carbohydrate and protein fuelled meal post exercise, whilst reducing your normal carbohydrate ratio for dosing to help counteract this drop, but by how much should be your decision. It’s a phenomenon known to most sporty diabetics which if you prepare for and seek advice should alleviate the concern around post-exercise and night time hypos.

5. Mindset

I can’t stress this one enough. You can’t and won’t get your blood glucose levels right every single time you exercise, so please don’t think any of us do! Be prepared for it to go wrong and treat it, but don’t get disheartened by your inability to get it right 100% of the time. Identify the reasons why you think it might have gone wrong, learn from the mistakes and ensure the next time you come to exercise you’ve adapted. Exercise can add so much value to your life that it would be a shame to give up or reduce the number of times you do it, because it went wrong with your levels a few times. Remain positive and seek help! There’s no doubting that exercise is an important factor in diabetes control and has huge health benefits.

Tip – There are so many great resources and people with knowledge to support in the #GBdoc on Twitter, The Diabetes Football Community is something I provide support on, whilst runsweet.com or forums like diabetes.co.uk can support and guide you if you need it. Social support can be invaluable in encouragement and guidance surrounding exercise.

Summary

We know very well what a challenge it is to develop and maintain a network in the way Chris has set out to do. He deserves a lot of support so why not pop over to the website, leave a comment, share and support for the Diabetes Football Community.