I have a friend who suffers from the same condition[sup]1[/sup]. She needs to be grazing the whole time. If she goes a few hours without food she gets really shaky.
That’s a bad situation to be in, you being the fit one, and not sure what to do.
This may help.
This subject is very very complex, so, this is quick rule of thumb assessment of one small part.
All the your cells in the body need glycogen (blood glucose) to do work, or they just die.
When you haven’t eaten for 6 hours or so, the blood just flat lines, at or about level 4
At levels above 9 glycogen is toxic, and destroys proteins in the body, this will kill with time.
So,the body must keep the level of glycogen within these two parameters at all times.
Look on the cells, as little cars that have to top up with fuel at regular intervals.
We eat glycogen begins to be released into the blood.
The body monitors this and begins to release insulin.
This is vital it helps the cell-wall to open up and so absorb the glycogen.
The ideal is, a slow rate of increase; then a peak; then a fall at the same rate; over two hours.
Then the liver extracts the surplus insulin from the blood, job done.
When thing go wrong; this can happen in young and old,
Insulin resistance: the same thing happens but the cell wall's don't open.
This is a delay, from 15 mins to 4 hours.
Now this is where your friend comes in.
New research has found that just a bad nights sleep.
Can cause a delay of up to two hours.
This may explain when a top athlete “has a bad day”
The result is, the body has a panic attack, releases far to much insulin, and other chemicals.
Now you have been hit with a double wammy, high insulin and glycogen levels.
This affects you thinking and coordination; next the cell walls open suddenly causing a big fall.
Panic again 6 adrenalines are released to stop the fall, now you go into an oscillation, of low and high glycogen levels.
This is why you feel like shoot, best way to deal with it is to lay down, don’t eat (just have a nibble) and drink lots of water.
For two hours your heart may beat like a slow sledge hammer, don’t panic it's all good fun.
It may take 8 to 12 hour for recovery so best call it a day.
This is why I always recommend taking a sleeping bag and small light tent when going into the wilds.
Because it's better to live were you are, than die attempting to get out.
Best if you do it this way because next day after breakfast you will be OK to ride all day.
Now my problem; the condition go’s back to when I was kid, and has a big environmental input.
I always felt better after a good ride, so I put myself on regular constant training, mainly swimming during the winter
I still can still swim 2 miles on 3 toasts, being just a bit blistered at the end.
HCA is Hydroxycitric Acid is used to lose weight, so I am going to run an experiment.
I will see if it can stabilise my glycogen levels for longer????
Will let you know the result Zoof.
