keto and hypoglycemia
sadsongkrysy
Posts: 65 Member
Hey everyone, I was wondering if anyone knows the effects of going keto when you have hypoglycemia? Does it help or hurt? My husband has reactive hypoglycemia, he's ok if he doesn't eat but once he does he has to eat something every 4 hours or his blood sugar crashes. He's a carb junkie but has recently cut back drastically and stopped drinking soda, he has about 2 tablespoons of sugar a day inhis coffee and maybe some Triscuts here and there, other than that he's been eating the same as me (I'm on keto). The thing is since he's cut back he's been having more blood sugar issues than when he ate and drank a bunch of carbs. He wants to go full lchf but I'm worried how his body will handle such few carbs. Any input is appreciated!
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Check out this article http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/reactive-hypoglycemia.html Basically take it slow until insulin levels start to drop but all in all keto sounds like a good treatment option to get hypoglycemia under control.2
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sadsongkrysy wrote: »Hey everyone, I was wondering if anyone knows the effects of going keto when you have hypoglycemia? Does it help or hurt? My husband has reactive hypoglycemia, he's ok if he doesn't eat but once he does he has to eat something every 4 hours or his blood sugar crashes. He's a carb junkie but has recently cut back drastically and stopped drinking soda, he has about 2 tablespoons of sugar a day inhis coffee and maybe some Triscuts here and there, other than that he's been eating the same as me (I'm on keto). The thing is since he's cut back he's been having more blood sugar issues than when he ate and drank a bunch of carbs. He wants to go full lchf but I'm worried how his body will handle such few carbs. Any input is appreciated!
Eating the carbs is what causes this to happen.
Hypoglycemia happens because of insulin resistance.
1. You eat fast acting carbs
2. Insulin responds
3. Cells are resistant
4. More insulin responds
5. Cells finally allow the glucose in
6. Now there's too much insulin in the blood
7. Blood sugar crashes
8. Eat more carbs to bring it back up
9. Start at step 1 and repeat every 4 hours
He NEEDS to eat lchf to prevent the inevitable T2 Diabetes that will be in his future.
He can eat without causing this to happen of what he eats doesn't require insulin.
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I should add that treating reactive hypoglycemia the way her doctor told her by eating carbs to correct it is how my sister is now a T2D with an A1c of 9.5 and she's still convinced that she's supposed to eat carbs all throughout the day.3
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I agree with the above. The less carbs the better for this but of course he might feel badly as his body adjusts. I used to be the same way...too long without eating and I'd be shaky and weak and nothing but pure carbs would make it better. I'd eat half a bag of chips or cereal straight from the box until the shaking stopped. Now I never, ever feel that way no matter how long it's been since last eating.3
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If they cycle of crashes doesn't start until he starts eating for the day, I myself found it helped with my hypoglycemia to first get used to 16/8 intermittent fasting. My reactive crashes got way less severe. But I've honestly found keto to be a blessing for this. I no longer go crazy if I don't eat every 2 hours. Now... sure. I'm hungry if I don't eat for a while. But it's not like I feel like I'm dying.3
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Reactive hypoglycemia occurs due to an excessive insulin response to blood glucose (BG) spikes. Get rid of BG spikes and that should stop hypoglycemic occurrences.
It may be difficult at first, but I would suggest focusing more on limiting the amount of carbs per meal rather than in total per day. Instead of limiting to 60g per day, for example, limit to 20g per meal (with each meal at least 2 hours after the prior meal). Eating 60g of carbs in a single meal and 0g of carbs for the rest of the day is still going to put someone with reactive hypoglycemia at risk just as much as eating 180g of carbs in a day (and 60g at each meal... though that makes the risk happen 3 times per day rather than 1 time per day).5 -
Update: I just want to thank everyone for your input, after reading all your replies plus independent research my husband decided to jump on the keto band wagon, we bought glucose tabs just in case but it's been 5 days since he stopped eating over 30 net carbs a day and he hasn't had a single sign of his hypoglycemia. He's pretty happy as his reactions to even small bits of sugar were causing him to have pretty severe symptoms that were becoming scary. This has been awesome and makes shopping and food prep so much easier on me since he made the switch. Again thankyou to everyone for your advice!!11
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sadsongkrysy wrote: »Update: I just want to thank everyone for your input, after reading all your replies plus independent research my husband decided to jump on the keto band wagon, we bought glucose tabs just in case but it's been 5 days since he stopped eating over 30 net carbs a day and he hasn't had a single sign of his hypoglycemia. He's pretty happy as his reactions to even small bits of sugar were causing him to have pretty severe symptoms that were becoming scary. This has been awesome and makes shopping and food prep so much easier on me since he made the switch. Again thankyou to everyone for your advice!!
Just food for thought... When my blood sugar gets very low my mouth
gets very very dry. I can't swallow tabs or gel, I rely on liquid glucose.
or 
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I'd take the advice of @dmariet116, and start maybe a bit more gently with him again, our bodies need time to adjust. I think rushing into keto is probably not a good idea (probably for anyone, I'm just now starting to heal from three weeks' straight of daily bathroom troubles). I think about the years of damage I've put on my body and while I've been blessed to lose a fair bit of weight awfully quickly, I keep thinking about how it took 20 years or so for me to put all this weight on me, and I wish I could have taken it a bit easier.0
