Anybody know about hypoglycemia?

[Mitra]

A few weeks ago I bought a blood glucose monitor, just out of curiosity. The readings all seemed to be boringly between high 70s and low 90s, but the last couple of days I've felt tired and groggy a couple of hours after lunch, so took a measurement and found 3.6 (65) yesterday and 3.7 (67) today. That seems a bit lower than it probably should be :(.

I'll start doing some journalling again :rolleyes: and control my carbs a bit more tightly, but I wondered if anyone who has experienced hypoglycemia has any helpful ideas - either what's helped you, or good sources of info.

Before I started PP, flaking out by the end of the afternoon was so normal I hardly noticed it any more, but I thought all that had gone! Maybe my system's still a bit out of whack from all the carbs last week, when I was away on a course being fed brown rice and lentils.

[deirdra]

Maybe my system's still a bit out of whack from all the carbs last week, when I was away on a course being fed brown rice and lentils.I think that could be it; it takes my system about a week to get back in the groove (and that is after a course where I ate only ~20 extra carbs per day) and only produce as much insulin as I need. This is the premise of the CAD - the body gets in the habit of producing X amount of insulin. So last week the rice & lentils told your body to produce more, and it needs to figure out that less is needed now. Likewise, once you are in low-insulin production mode, a single meal with extra carbs is not enough to signal the body to produce more.

Also, what did you have for lunch those days? The best thing to do is to test 30, 60 and 120 minutes after lunch. If you only tested when you felt groggy, you may have missed a spike soon after lunch that preceded the drop. It is a also a good way to detect hidden carbs in foods prepared by others.

[Mitra]

Thank you - I was sure there'd be someone here with some relevant experience!

I won't be testing tomorrow because I'm going to London for the day, to an art exhibition and lunch (at a restaurant belonging to a chef who's written a low carb cookery book, so even though it's not a low carb restaurant, there should be some suitable choices). But I'll try your suggestion on Friday. I don't want to go back to feeling groggy every afternoon! It didn't happen while I was away, but that's probably because they fed us some more carbs before we had time to crash!

[SherryJ]

Mitra, you may want to pm "Choubear"/Julie, as she's fought this for a long time...

Sherry

[Mitra]

Yes, I remember that, Sherry, thank you. Maybe after I get back tomorrow - when I'll be around to read her reply.

I've just noticed your new ticker :cool:

[Mitra]

I had a fairly quiet day today, so time to take some readings. Lunch had 15g of carb. My readings were:

30 mins: 5.9 (106)
1 hour: 4.9 (88)
2 hours: 5.1 (92)

So, nothing approaching hypoglycemia there! Either I'm getting over last week's carb-fest, or the carbs at lunch were low enough for me to deal with. I'll keep watching though, because it's obviously something I'm prone to if I get things wrong, and it would be helpful to know what the triggers are.

[paleogirl]

Hi Mitra,

I've been dealing with reactive hypoglycemia recently (well dealing for over a year, just didn't know what it was until recently!) Feel free to email/PM me. One thing I'll mention now though is that my worst symptoms coincide with a really FAST drop in blood glucose, but not necessarily a drop to a hypoglycemically low number (although I have those also).

For example, I reacted to something last week. My level was stable in the low 90's (93 at 9:25pm). I ate the problem food (a supposedly low glycemic sweetener), and tested myself immediately after eating it as I felt a bit weird and dizzy and got a 140 (at 9:35pm). Right away I had sudden, intense nausea in which I craved something sweet - felt like only something sweet would stop me feeling sick - but I resisted and tested again and got a 92 (at 9:40pm), and within an hour it was 88, so still dropping but not crazy low. But I felt like the rapid rise/drop was the bad part, the part that made me feel the worst. Before I was diagnosed I would sometimes get really intense out of nowhere nausea in the middle of eating a meal, and I'd feel like only sugar would stop it - I'd run to the kitchen and have a slug of Red Bull or a teaspoon of honey or something, and the nausea would stop right away. I never understood what was going on, but now I do and I know how to mostly avoid it to begin with, or if it happens, to just ride it out, or maybe grab a fat/protein combo like a spoonful of almond butter that will not spike my levels again.

My more regular symptoms were/are an out of body 'dreaming' feeling (google 'derealisation'), accompanied by irritability and serious need-to-sleep-now fatigue. Urg, horrible! Anyway, thanks to a regular feeding schedule :D and the right combinations of foods, I haven't felt that way in a about a week. I had a little of the 'dreaming' feeling briefly this morning - think I hadn't eaten enough bacon before I ate my (delicious, sweet) tomatoes :( ... but it's all experience and I'll know better next time.

One thing that confuses me also is that sometimes a protein-only snack will plunge into the 70's, which is apparently hypoglycemia territory. But when this happens I feel fine! If I eat the same protein snack with a little fat, the levels stay normal. And also, my drops and symptoms happen really quickly after eating, not in 2 hours like I've heard other people say.

I still have a lot to figure out! :confused:

[miralin]

Hi Mitra,

I've been dealing with reactive hypoglycemia recently (well dealing for over a year, just didn't know what it was until recently!) Feel free to email/PM me. One thing I'll mention now though is that my worst symptoms coincide with a really FAST drop in blood glucose, but not necessarily a drop to a hypoglycemically low number (although I have those also).

My more regular symptoms were/are an out of body 'dreaming' feeling (google 'derealisation'), accompanied by irritability and serious need-to-sleep-now fatigue. Urg, horrible! Anyway, thanks to a regular feeding schedule :D and the right combinations of foods, I haven't felt that way in a about a week.

I have reactive hypo as well, and this really accurately depicts my experience. I eat like a mad fool, and I have to really plan out those 6-8 meals else I end up grazing all day and not making good food choices.

Experience, though, has been my best teacher

[Mitra]

Most of the time (since I've been following PP) I do fine on three meals a day, but I used to have problems most evenings before dinner. Sometimes there'd be that almost irresistible sleepiness a couple of hours after lunch, but the main thing was that by the end of the afternoon I'd be feeling tired, cranky and depressed. It almost never happens these days, and I haven't quite managed to pin down what sets it off when it does - whether it's too many carbs at lunch, or some particular food, or rapidly absorbed carbs ...

[deirdra]

I had that irresistible sleepiness when I was still eating gluten, milk, yogurt, soy & MSG. Now I rarely get it, but when I do it is after eating something I did not prepare; LC, but probably containing minute quantities of MSG or other food additives.

[laughingW]

One thing that confuses me also is that sometimes a protein-only snack will plunge into the 70's, which is apparently hypoglycemia territory. But when this happens I feel fine! If I eat the same protein snack with a little fat, the levels stay normal. And also, my drops and symptoms happen really quickly after eating, not in 2 hours like I've heard other people say.

I still have a lot to figure out! :confused:
Paleogirl you might want to read up on the insulin index as well as the glycemic index. And if you haven't yet, the blood sugar chapter in Potatoes not Prozac.

There is a whole subgroup of people (me too) that is on the way far end of the bell curve, in how much insulin we squirt out relative to a certain intake of carbs. So if you are also way out on the bell curve, you would get a disproportionately high insulin response, and what that does is, drop glucose quickly, quickly, quickly. Like a rock. And as DesMaisons writes in PnP - we can have low blood sugar symptoms *just from the steepness of the drop* without getting low enough numbers to qualify as "hypoglycemic."

This also explains the response to protein too. If the kind of protein you ate, included grain-fed glycogen or those injected carbs, you will get that zippy insulin response to the protein, and then the blood sugar drop.

it is interesting!

[paleogirl]

Paleogirl you might want to read up on the insulin index as well as the glycemic index. And if you haven't yet, the blood sugar chapter in Potatoes not Prozac.

There is a whole subgroup of people (me too) that is on the way far end of the bell curve, in how much insulin we squirt out relative to a certain intake of carbs. So if you are also way out on the bell curve, you would get a disproportionately high insulin response, and what that does is, drop glucose quickly, quickly, quickly. Like a rock. And as DesMaisons writes in PnP - we can have low blood sugar symptoms *just from the steepness of the drop* without getting low enough numbers to qualify as "hypoglycemic."

This also explains the response to protein too. If the kind of protein you ate, included grain-fed glycogen or those injected carbs, you will get that zippy insulin response to the protein, and then the blood sugar drop.

it is interesting!

Wow, thanks LW. :nod: The protein I experienced this with (each time I ate it) was deli sliced turkey. It was Whole Food's in-house roasted, and I checked for added sugar/gluten etc. and it just listed turkey and salt I believe. Would it make a difference if the turkey itself was grain fed (as I know Whole Foods' poultry usually are)? :confused:

Re: the sudden drop, is that 'relative' hypoglycemia you are talking about? Apologies for the cross-post from the other thread, but I just read this last night and it describes what happens to me, except my 'rate of descent' (from 140) was 48mg in 5 minutes!! :eek:

"Type 1, Relative Hypoglycemia.
Following ingestion of glucose the blood sugar level rises unusually high (due to insulin resistance) and then suddenly drops. The rate of descent should be over 45 mg in any hour, or over 30mg in any 1/2 hour."

Source: http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/artic...t_is_hypo.html

How would one get tested for that? I'm pretty sure that with a standard glucose tolerance test with 30min readings my levels would be back to normal by the time they took blood. It's that first 15 mins that things get freaky!

[laughingW]

The protein I experienced this with (each time I ate it) was deli sliced turkey. It was Whole Food's in-house roasted, and I checked for added sugar/gluten etc. and it just listed turkey and salt I believe. Would it make a difference if the turkey itself was grain fed (as I know Whole Foods' poultry usually are)? :confused:
Well maybe but WF sliced turkey is as clean as it gets. By any chance was it light or dark meat? If it was dark (and I never see sliced turkey that way) maybe it was a reaction to the glycogen but also maybe not. Second thought: how MUCH turkey was it? 1 ounce might give a different result than 6 for example.

Re: the sudden drop, is that 'relative' hypoglycemia you are talking about?
yes.

Apologies for the cross-post from the other thread, but I just read this last night and it describes what happens to me, except my 'rate of descent' (from 140) was 48mg in 5 minutes!! :eek:
wow you are zippy! and doesn't that make sense that if you squirted a lot of insulin, that your blood sugar would go down quickly? if you were not too insulin resistant also.

How would one get tested for that? I'm pretty sure that with a standard glucose tolerance test with 30min readings my levels would be back to normal by the time they took blood. It's that first 15 mins that things get freaky!
don't know. It's not on any standard test I know of. Those only look at blood sugar. If you were a research geek, the place to look is in the diabetic literature and I think they call people like this, "carb sensitive".