Hypoglycemia! (tips to help)

ahviendha

Hey all!

I'm hypoglycemic, and was wondering how many of us are out there on MFP.

When I first started losing weight and changing my diet, it was really rough trying to handle my sugar levels.

My body had become accustomed to receiving food every 2 hours and it kind of felt like my body was bullying me into eating more, that it wasn't satisfied with the small snacks I was giving it every 3-4 hours.

The key for me was black tea! Through my readings on weight loss I stumbled across an article about how black tea slows the release of glucose into your bloodstream. I started drinking black tea at work with lunch and snacks and I could really tell a difference in how long I could go without food.

Also, surprisingly, exercise has helped. On days I exercise I also can go for a longer period of time without eating, without feeling the sweats and headaches and anxiety coming on.

I'm thinking about trying to reduce my wheat intake, I've been eating whole wheat breads for a few years now, but recently switched to Ezekiel as it's a low glycemic food, and the difference is incredible. I thought whole wheat bread was better for me but after reading about sprouted grain I've changed my mind!

Anyways tl:dr later...haha does anyone have any other little tips like the black tea trick? Or has anyone gone low carb or no carb and how did it affect you? Does anyone do distance running with hypoglycemia? Sometimes I worry if I want to run a half marathon or 10k that my hypoglycemia will work against me....or is that baseless?

Thanks and have a wonderful Wednesday!

janesmith1

Hypoglycemia is awful. I have it too. I sent you a friend request, I think we hypos need to stick together.

I was up early this morning and started to feel the energy drain about 11 am. I think knowing what time your blood sugar levels go down during the day is helpful. That would make it about 5 hours after I go up.

I knew that I needed something, anything, I just pulled out a Quaker Rice Cake with White Cheddar - one first then both. I'm fine now. Blood sugar feels normal now. Phew. I'm going to have to get more of those. They also fill you up.

As far as "black tea", personally, I would switch to Green Tea. It doesn't give you the jolts as much and you don't crash on it. It has less caffeine and hypos need to be careful of caffeine masking our symptoms - it damages us much more than other people.

Black tea has 40 - 60 grams of caffeine in it!!! Danger danger danger! Chart at link.

http://askville.amazon.com/caffeine-white-tea-green-black-coffee/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=6188753

Green tea has 1/2 the amount!

"Caffeine in large doses causes similar side effects to hypoglycemia and may worsen symptoms."
http://www.livestrong.com/article/402727-hypoglycemia-caffeine/

"Caffeine should be avoided due to the caffeine magnifying the symptoms of hypoglycemia. Caffeine stimulates adrenaline in the same way hypoglycemia does. This leads to a compounding of the symptoms. For instance, the jittery nervous feeling of hypoglycemia can also be made worse with the addition of caffeine."
http://www.livestrong.com/article/30851-list-foods-avoid-hypoglycemic-attack/

"Raises Blood Sugar Levels

Even those without diabetes can be affected by ingesting caffeine. Since caffeine interferes with the ability to use insulin properly, "

http://www.livestrong.com/article/290594-the-effects-of-caffeine-on-blood-sugar/

Of course, do what you like, but I avoid caffeine as much as possible. The only caffeine I allow myself now is green tea, and even then, very rarely.

bjleader

I didn't know that about caffeine. I just drink one large cup of coffee every morning and that's it and by afternoon I'm getting headaches and nausea. Maybe that is what's causing it. I do have green tea that I drink some as well and will be drinking more of as well as at night before bedtime, as weather gets cooler.

Oh, and I was diagnosed to pre-type 2 diabetes just little while ago so I've been monitoring it off and on. I have also found that I think whole wheat is not best for you either. In moderation but very little at a time. I have been getting Ezekial bread whole grain because I'm not crazy about sprouted whole grain but I seem to do okay with that. I have been slowing down on sugar intake and carb intake as I was starting to feel that again in afternoons. I seemed to wake up with high blood sugar then if I ate good during day it would start to regulate, no medication. If I didn't eat good then it went up more. I'm just really starting to learn about what to eat and not eat and it's very hard. Dr basically wanted one meal with a starch/carb (low glycemic), in morning and rest of them low carb meals but I don't feel satisfied unless I have something so I've chosen the ezekial bread. Every now and then I'll have bowl of honey nut cheerios, whole grain and if I watch the amount it doesn't react too bad.

Any suggestions would help me greatly. Also been trying to look for good recipes to help get me satisfied with less starches/carbs.

janesmith1

Very interesting. My idea is that Hypoglycemia is the first stop on the Diabetes Highway use a metaphor. I do not have D yet.

Let me find an article for you about green tea, something about GT and you don't have the crashes that caffeine causes, probably due to less of a caffeine high.

I am not a big low carb advocate but due to your special diet needs - breads can make people with D not feel well. A lot of diabetic cookbooks advocate pasta and breads so it just depends on how it makes *you* feel.

I have stomach issues - IBS and I can't tolerate a lot of things. I'm not a big advocate of whole wheat and I can't stand regular oatmeal - BUT while I was in the UK recently I had something called Ready Brek which was soft oatmeal. I came back to the USA just the other day and bought Gerber's Oatmeal for babies and it was fantastic, exactly like Ready Brek in the UK. Soft Oatmeal, and I made it with skim milk. Delicious.