Hypoglycemic/blood sugar issues
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dylangrrrrl wrote: »Hi all,
Today I was right on track calorie wise, lots of small snacks the last of which was a chobani yogurt (high protein) at 3pm. At 5:30pm picking up my kids from school, I got another extreme case of shakiness/dizziness. If I listen to my body and eat say a cheesesteak for lunch it will hold me through but when I attempt to restrict calories, even carefully spacing meals/snacks I'm often left in a situation where I'm not safe to drive my kids. I've been told I am hypoglycemic but am not diabetic. Does anyone else experience these issues? I'm thinking load up on high protein snacks at 4pm and have a lighter dinner? This is difficult since I eat whatever dinner I'm making for my family. Does anyone have any recommendations for high protein/low calorie snacks? MFP has put me at 1340 daily goal.
Thanks for reading MFP friends and good luck with your journeys!
Who told you you're hypoglycemic but not diabetic?
You need to take this to your doctor, because you said you are not safe to drive when you have one of your dizzy/shaky spells.0 -
SLLRunner: It was my doctor who said I am hypoglycemic years ago. My blood sugar always tested normal but was never tested during a shaky/dizzy episode. She determined this only based on my description of the episodes. The strongest symptom is shakiness/sweating/desperate feeling like you need food now. You know if you just eat something like a candy bar or peanut butter crackers, etc. and sit for about 20-30 minutes you will be ok. I've called my husband to pick up the kids before when I don't feel I'm ok to drive. I should go back to the doctor but was trying to improve my diet and see if that could resolve the issue. Thanks for the feedback.
Thank you all for the information! I'm recording in my diary everything I eat to hopefully gradually tweak my diet to lose weight and not get the shakes. I truly appreciate all your feedback!
I also neglected to mention I have PCOS which I believe may have been the reason I was taking Metformin but it seemed to help reduce my crashes which I feel are related to meals/food intake/carbs.0 -
OK, so why don't you get a glucometer and test it when you have these incidents?0
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aylajane: Thank you so much for the information! I'm definitely going to focus on small snacks with both carbs and protein. For me I think it's reactive since it is 90% of the time in the afternoon and never in the early morning or night time when I have these symptoms. I also think your comment on large meals is interesting. As I mentioned if I have a cheesesteak ~650 calories for lunch, I'm usually ok until 6pm. I will also try large lunches and see how that goes. Again, thanks for the info!0
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midwesterner85: Thank you for your feedback! I will definitely get some glucose tablets to have on hand. I've never tried these. I definitely get that fast acting carbs are needed for an emergency low and more protein to prevent such lows from happening. Also I could definitely exercise more. Good luck on your journey and thank you for sharing your experience!0
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I've had type 1 diabetes for 29 years and I have lost 20-30lbs twice in those years. if you take insulin it important to adjust it according to your diet and exercise, talk to your doctor if you don't know the correct way to do this. Even doing this you still might have some lows but they should be less. Usually say if my blood sugar was 38 I would have @ 4 ounces of Orange juice and a spoonful o reduced fat peanut butter, then give your body time to raise your sugar because it's easy to over compensate. Anyways that works for me and water does not effect your blood sugar directly.0
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dylangrrrrl wrote: »midwesterner85: Thank you for your feedback! I will definitely get some glucose tablets to have on hand. I've never tried these. I definitely get that fast acting carbs are needed for an emergency low and more protein to prevent such lows from happening. Also I could definitely exercise more. Good luck on your journey and thank you for sharing your experience!
I would start with a gluco meter to test. If you are low, how low are you? Also, as another user pointed out, a fast rise with reactive hypoglycemia will likely cause another low. But seriously... get a glucometer and test. If you find you are not low, that is important. If you find you are barely low (60's), that is important too. 60's is not an emergency. I don't think you will ever go as low as someone like me who is on insulin, but I felt slightly low once after driving to a trailhead to hike, tested, and was 20 mg/dl. You are describing symptoms of an extreme low, and you really should be testing to see how low it is, or if that is really what it is at all.0 -
midwesterner85 wrote: »dylangrrrrl wrote: »midwesterner85: Thank you for your feedback! I will definitely get some glucose tablets to have on hand. I've never tried these. I definitely get that fast acting carbs are needed for an emergency low and more protein to prevent such lows from happening. Also I could definitely exercise more. Good luck on your journey and thank you for sharing your experience!
I would start with a gluco meter to test. If you are low, how low are you? Also, as another user pointed out, a fast rise with reactive hypoglycemia will likely cause another low. But seriously... get a glucometer and test. If you find you are not low, that is important. If you find you are barely low (60's), that is important too. 60's is not an emergency. I don't think you will ever go as low as someone like me who is on insulin, but I felt slightly low once after driving to a trailhead to hike, tested, and was 20 mg/dl. You are describing symptoms of an extreme low, and you really should be testing to see how low it is, or if that is really what it is at all.
Exactly. Unless you test your bgl during these episodes with a glucometer, there is really no way for you to know if it is hypoglycemia at all. There are many causes of feeling shakey, dizzy and/or passing out, most of which have nothing to do with glucose. Honestly, if that was all your doctor said (especially after normal glucose tests in office) and they have not reccomended any other testing, I would find another doctor.
Causes for the symptoms you decribed that are not attributed to glucose:
-heart arrythmias (only way to know is to where a monitor for a period of time)
- panic attacks/anxiety (an actual medical condition, not just "in your head" as people think)
- Brain abnormalities/tumors
- Drug interactions
- Caffeine interactions
- Neurologic disorders
And the list goes on and on. Don't be so quick to accept the first answer your doctor gives you.0 -
My wife has hypoglycemia. Slower digesting carbs(whole grains) tend to help her. She also carries around glucose tablets and uses them when her blood sugar gets really low and she starts feeling funny.0
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I know everyone keeps mentioning the glucose tabs for a quick fix, but like I said - it is not the same as for a diabetic... In a diabetic, their sugar is high "normally" and only taking insulin is what is forcing it down. The sugar provides a quick counteraction to the extra insulin and their "natural" body reaction is to be high, so it wont drop immediately back down. For a hypoglycemic, your "natural" is low to start with (not tanked low, but like 60-70 range. If you take a glucose tab, it will spike it up quickly but your body will try to go back to its "natural" state not long after and it will tank hard and fast.
These sugar fixes set hypos up for a roller coaster... If you do take one, be sure to get some protein or other "normal" slow digesting food in at the same time so that when the initial spike from the tab wears off you do not tank.
Think diabetic - blood sugar of 200, you take a little more insulin than needed and it drops to 20-30, you eat glucose tab and get it back up to 100... and like always your body will drive it back up to 200. For hypo - blood sugar of 70, you eat a small meal and it spikes up to 80 but your body released a little more insulin than needed so once the meal is digested it drops to 40-50 (not usually as low as a diabetic would). You take a glucose tab and it spikes up to 100.... and like always your body will drop it back down trying to get to your "normal" of 70... but that is a huge drop now and it can go too far and be right back down to 40-50, so you get the symptoms again. Rinse and repeat.
Oversimplified and probably scientifically wrong, but do some checking on medical sites and they will explain better why glucose tabs for hypos is not the best solution unless it is a real, true emergency (i.e 10-30). Otherwise, slower acting is better and will raise it back up to your 70 normal naturally, instead of spiking and lowering.0 -
Hi gang, thanks again for all the info. Any recommendations on which glucometer to get?0
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Elphie754 and midwesterner85: You have an excellent point. I'm thinking my doctor's explanation made sense since it appears to be food related. ie if I eat what I want to, large lunch with meat/snacks it doesn't happen. Where as it seems if you have a brain tumor or other problem it would occur at various times/conditions. I'm no doctor however and appreciate your advice and will definitely purchase a glucometer as soon as possible, cut out afternoon snacks and then test.0
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I'm not sure that you necessarily need to cut out afternoon snacks... just test when you have these symptoms. I realize everyone is different, but I did not have such extreme symptoms even at 20 mg/dl. Then again, there is evidence to suggest that people "adapt" to hypoglycemia if low often. I'm noticing myself that I am starting to develop hypoglycemic unawareness. But then that brings up the same point with you... if you are low that often, then you should be adapting anyway. So even if your symptoms are stronger than for most of us, they should be becoming weaker over time. That is, if the symptoms are caused by hypoglycemia.
As for a glucometer, I really don't think it matters which one you get. Your doctor should be able to write a prescription in order to get insurance to pay for it, but they don't even require a prescription. Test strips are going to be the most costly, so you may as well just get a prescription for the whole thing: meter, test strips, lancets (meter will probably come with a lancet device and case, as well as a few test strips to start with). Just make sure it stores results so you can take it back to your doctor. It wouldn't hurt to make notes yet about what you did before, during, after to help identify patterns.
And @aylajane has a good point, but it comes down to how low you are for treatment. If you are only slightly low, then I can understand protein for your situation. Basically her point is that, if you are hypoglycemic because your body is releasing too much insulin in response to rising glucose levels (reactive), then by treating with glucose tablets, you are raising those glucose levels too quickly and you are triggering too much insulin to be produced... which will cause a recurring hypoglycemic episode. If you are too low, you still should treat with glucose tablets to raise it quickly, but then I agree to follow that right away with protein and fat to give yourself an extended fuel/glucose to counter the increase in insulin that comes next. That is IF you have reactive hypoglycemia, which isn't clear at this point.
Another suggestion: If this happens every week, try going gluten free for a week or two and see if it goes away during that time. I'm not saying don't eat carbs... just stay away from gluten and eat more fruits instead for your carbs. If that works, tell your doctor right away as they may want to run some additional tests.0 -
midwesterner85 wrote: »I'm not sure that you necessarily need to cut out afternoon snacks... just test when you have these symptoms. I realize everyone is different, but I did not have such extreme symptoms even at 20 mg/dl. Then again, there is evidence to suggest that people "adapt" to hypoglycemia if low often. I'm noticing myself that I am starting to develop hypoglycemic unawareness. But then that brings up the same point with you... if you are low that often, then you should be adapting anyway. So even if your symptoms are stronger than for most of us, they should be becoming weaker over time. That is, if the symptoms are caused by hypoglycemia.
As for a glucometer, I really don't think it matters which one you get. Your doctor should be able to write a prescription in order to get insurance to pay for it, but they don't even require a prescription. Test strips are going to be the most costly, so you may as well just get a prescription for the whole thing: meter, test strips, lancets (meter will probably come with a lancet device and case, as well as a few test strips to start with). Just make sure it stores results so you can take it back to your doctor. It wouldn't hurt to make notes yet about what you did before, during, after to help identify patterns.
And @aylajane has a good point, but it comes down to how low you are for treatment. If you are only slightly low, then I can understand protein for your situation. Basically her point is that, if you are hypoglycemic because your body is releasing too much insulin in response to rising glucose levels (reactive), then by treating with glucose tablets, you are raising those glucose levels too quickly and you are triggering too much insulin to be produced... which will cause a recurring hypoglycemic episode. If you are too low, you still should treat with glucose tablets to raise it quickly, but then I agree to follow that right away with protein and fat to give yourself an extended fuel/glucose to counter the increase in insulin that comes next. That is IF you have reactive hypoglycemia, which isn't clear at this point.
Another suggestion: If this happens every week, try going gluten free for a week or two and see if it goes away during that time. I'm not saying don't eat carbs... just stay away from gluten and eat more fruits instead for your carbs. If that works, tell your doctor right away as they may want to run some additional tests.
Excellent advice all around
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Thanks again for all the advice guys! On a different note, my husband experiences caffeine crashes around 3 hours after coffee if he doesn't eat so I'm cutting back my caffeine and artificial sweetners for good measure. Truth is I drink too much diet dr pepper, especially in the mornings and have always been meaning to cut back but find it difficult to cut back on everything at one time. I'll post back on any affects of drinking less diet dr pepper.0
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midwesterner85 wrote: »How did metformin help you with hypoglycemia? That seems counter-intuitive since metformin is intended to reduce insulin resistance.
Do you use a glucometer? If yes, at what level do you begin to experience symptoms?
As a type 1 diabetic, I've had trouble losing weight due to treating lows after exercise. I get it... you burn off a bunch of calories and then have to eat more back than what you burned in the first place. One day, I ate over 6,000 calories just to keep my blood sugar up and that was on a low activity day. My blood sugar was as low as 20 mg/dl during that time and only barely broke 100 once before crashing down yet again. I started to freak out because if I went to sleep, I would have to stop eating and would go low and die. So I stayed up eating cookies... after 2 boxes of cookies (1 of Oreos, another of Chips Ahoy), it rose high enough that I could confidently sleep without worrying about never waking. That was before I recognized that glucose tablets are a better option.
The lowest calorie and fastest working option to raise blood sugar is glucose tablets, so using these as a go to will help reduce calories from treating lows.
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I too am a Type 1 diabetic (have been for 23 years)and this has been my biggest struggle in weight loss. I eat healthy low calorie and exercise only to get low blood sugars and have to eat more. ..even if the "more" is not a bag of cookies. Lol. For me protein is not what brings my blood sugar up, it may make me feel full longer but small amounts of carbs is what I have to do.0
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Sharisunshine wrote: »midwesterner85 wrote: »How did metformin help you with hypoglycemia? That seems counter-intuitive since metformin is intended to reduce insulin resistance.
Do you use a glucometer? If yes, at what level do you begin to experience symptoms?
As a type 1 diabetic, I've had trouble losing weight due to treating lows after exercise. I get it... you burn off a bunch of calories and then have to eat more back than what you burned in the first place. One day, I ate over 6,000 calories just to keep my blood sugar up and that was on a low activity day. My blood sugar was as low as 20 mg/dl during that time and only barely broke 100 once before crashing down yet again. I started to freak out because if I went to sleep, I would have to stop eating and would go low and die. So I stayed up eating cookies... after 2 boxes of cookies (1 of Oreos, another of Chips Ahoy), it rose high enough that I could confidently sleep without worrying about never waking. That was before I recognized that glucose tablets are a better option.
The lowest calorie and fastest working option to raise blood sugar is glucose tablets, so using these as a go to will help reduce calories from treating lows.
Yes, I realize that now. When this happened, though, it would have still taken over 150 glucose tablets to get me the same number of carbs it took to treat the seriously long-lasting low I described.0 -
Almonds are my fav you van even get some that are chocolate flavor and only have one gram of sugar from Emerald brand or just plain raw and apple or banana.0
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I've had reactive hypoglycemia episodes. First time, in my 20s, when it was really bad, and then again recently towards the end of my weight loss phase.
I second taking meticulous notes of what you eat and drink and how you feel, and what your blood sugars are at several points throughout the day (before meal - after meal etc.).
I found that switching to decaf coffee (doesn't directly affect blood sugars, but can confuse what's going on and doesn't help) and focusing on more snacks with protein-carb balance resolved it for me. Oh, and avoiding oatmeal and cereals for breakfast. A bowl of oatmeal (the steel-cut kind, not instant) was guaranteed to trigger me about 2 hours later, even if I mixed it with protein. I always have a snack with me when I travel or workout. Specifically, a banana and 10g of almonds works for me, and I rely on mini babybels as well.
Meanwhile, good luck. I have had to pull over en route to picking my daughter up from school because I felt funny. It was heartbreaking and scary.0 -
I'm hypoglycemic and it's severe if I don't eat enough food or not enough carbohydrates. Too much protein sends me into the abyss. I've tried everything -- would give anything if I could follow a high protein diet but need sugars. I try to eat healthy carbos but I really appreciate midwestern's info re/eating the fast acting carbos not just ones loaded with fiber and sugar alcohols.
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