Caffeine and hypoglycemia

[paleogirl]

Hello :)

So there I was, thinking I'd got the whole thing nearly figured out... Eating every 2 hours, spreading out my 20 net carbs through the day... no hypoglycemic episodes since starting the plan a week ago. Woo!

Then this morning I go for my usual run and then have my usual veggie omelette with bacon followed by a cup of green tea and BAM! the worst derealisation/fatigue! :eek: It felt like it came from drinking the tea, as I had some more and it got worse. I reacted the same as I do to coffee - essentially just puts my brain and body into 'sleep' mode.

I waited it out and felt worse, not better. I ate some almond butter - no change. Waited some more. Tested my blood glucose 2 hours after breakfast (had to run out and get more strips) and it was 86. Ate a little sliced turkey, blood goes to 100 then quickly down to the low 90's. Aka all normal. Symptoms however remain.

This is really p---ing me off!! :(

Could it be that I'm getting even more sensitive to any and all blood sugar stimulants? This seems like the *opposite* of insulin resistance.

:confused: :confused: :confused:

[Gaelen]

Paleogirl, is there anything else that could possibly be going on? Anything at all?

Not all green tea is decaf, but the amount of caffeine stimulus from that should be pretty small...

[Pam O.]

Well I have found personally that too much clear liquids i.e. water, tea or coffee will make my sugars go low. Where as a piece of fruit will bring them up, like a few grapes, 1/4 banana, slice of apple so on. When you start peeing every 15 to 30 minutes look out cause your dropping or feel light headed.

Pam

[paleogirl]

I think I may have figured it out!... The only thing I did different this morning was, before I went for my run, I took one of my antihistamines, which contain pseudoephedrine! ("Use of pseudoephedrine may cause an increase in blood glucose levels....") I remember that the last time coffee REALLY messed me up (ie: all day long not just for few hours), it was when I had taken one. And it was much like today - only took a couple of sips and was instantly foggy/exhausted. Wow. Guess I just can't handle any caffeine on top of that stuff. :rolleyes: Still, I'm glad that's figured out! :tongue:

[miralin]

Great detective work!!

[Mitra]

That makes sense. I took pseudoephedrine once, a few years ago :eek:. That stuff is wicked. By the second day my pulse was at 120! As you might expect, along with that I felt shaky and couldn't sleep. All went back to normal once I stopped taking it. I have to watch out for it if I take OTC cold remedies.

[Gaelen]

I think I may have figured it out!... The only thing I did different this morning was, before I went for my run, I took one of my antihistamines, which contain pseudoephedrine! <snip> Wow. Guess I just can't handle any caffeine on top of that stuff.

Paleogirl, I also can't take psuedoephedrine at all. Although I used to take Sudafed(TM) daily, now it puts me into a whirlwind--my BP through the roof and makes my blood glucose go all over the map with just one dose.

OTOH, I can have caffeine every day with no effect on either BP or blood glucose...so of the two drugs (psuedoephedrine and caffeine), I'd drop the psuedoephedrine. ;) Low carbing and a loading dose of guifenesin (sp?) keeps my head clear without any of Sudafed's nastier side effects. It's sold OTC as Mucinex *without* decongestant; it's the sole ingredient in that and in plain nothing-extra-added Robitussin liquid, YMMV.

[meli58]

I had the same bp and bg problem with the pseudoephedrine in Sudafed(TM). Recently, to cut the production of meth, many states have restricted the sale of pseudoephedrine-containing products--as a result, Sudafed and similar products are now available in a pseudoephedrine-free formulation. I can take Sudafed PE (seems counterintuitive, but that's the name) with no problems. YMMV of course.

[deirdra]

I was taking pseudoephedrine every day & noticed that caffeine seemed to really escalate the symptoms of rapid pulse, dizziness, blurred vision to the point of scaring me to find the root cause of my daily Sudafed+Claritan need/addiction (grains, soy, dairy proteins, food additives). And I was only taking half a tablet, since I remembered from the olden days that a dose used to be 30mg but they increased the tablets to 60mg some time in the late 1980s.

[paleogirl]

Thanks for all the med suggestions. :) I actually have my allergy pills compounded at the local People's RX, via a script from my allergy doc. They are a gluten/dairy/soy/corn/everything-free version of Allegra-D. However, I think now I will go and ask the allergy doc to prescribe me a pseudoephedrine-free version. It's the antihistamine part I need these days more than the decongestant anyway. My allergies are a LOT more under control these days, but it's nice to have something on hand for the days they kick me in the butt, ie: after rain.

Btw, I skipped the pill this morning and have been drinking green tea all day with no ill effects. On the whole recently though (even on med-free days) I have noticed that green tea gets me a little wired, whereas it never used to. And coffee is always WAY too much for me now (which sucks cos I loved it!). I mean, I don't even get wired, I just go straight to the foggy-sleepy-bad tempered part! :( Do you think there's a chance that the pseudoephedrine I have taken has built up in my system so that my caffeine tolerance has gone waaay down? I would love to be able to have coffee again, even just one small cup a day. Before all this happened I even roasted my own beans. Now my roaster sits gathering dust and the nearest I get is smelling the java I make for other people. :tear:

[Gaelen]

Paleogirl, I went caffeine-free for chemo...nearly 2 1/2 years of decaf after 30 years of drinking 2-4 cups of coffee a day. Before going decaf, my system had built up a tolerance to caffeine that enabled me to drink it right up to bedtime with no effect. :rolleyes:

I stayed decaf during chemo because caffeine was one of the things that obviously stimulated my blood pressure...but now that I'm off chemo and back to resting BP of 100/70 and resting pulse of around 66, I find that nursing one cup of caffeinated coffee starting at lunchtime through the afternoon gives me enough of a controlled boost that I can make it all the way through the day (tomorrow I'll have been back at work almost eight weeks, but they've been *very* long days....) Without the small hit of caffeine, I'd be asleep, exhausted, by 3 p.m. With one cup sipped slowly through the afternoon, I manage to make it until at least 9 p.m. And if I overdo the caffeine--drink too much or drink it too early in the day--I definitely speed and crash, which is not pretty.

I even get a buzz from other caffeine sources like tea, dark chocolate and expresso beans. :rolleyes: But the good news is that while I was extremely sensitive when I first came home from the hospital, I was able to start having small amounts of caffeine with a positive effect within a couple of months.

[paleogirl]

Thanks Gaelen. :) Yeah, I too could always drink it right before bed (in fact I could do that now as it puts me to skeep! :( ) I may try your technique of nursing one cup of coffee through the day... I'm a bit scared though as the reaction happens after a couple of sips. But perhaps if I kept on sipping things would even out. :confused:

I did actually give up coffee completely from mid-Feb to mid-August, so 7 months. In that time I drank green tea (no black tea) and periodically a can of Red Bull. But on the whole, fairly limited caffeine. The thing is, I did that only because I'd found I couldn't tolerate coffee. I actually thought I was allergic something in the coffee (not the caffeine), as it always seemed odd that I could tolerate Red Bull (80mg caffeine) without getting the same foggy-headed symptoms. In fact, that is actually the only thing I have found that can pierce the fog and lessen the derealisation feelings I get from either low blood sugar or food allergy reactions.

I can't understand why Red Bull wakes up my brain and coffee knocks me out. Perhaps the other ingredients in RB counteract the low blood sugar? It has a lot of taurine, and that's supposed to help keep blood sugar stabilized. And in fact the main ingredient in RB is taurine, followed by glucuronolactone with caffeine only the third.... :suspicious:

[atl66]

Hey paleogirl,this is my first time on this site. I thought it was very interesting how different meds and caffeine affects your sugar levels. I have the same problem. I have finally realized today how caffeine is really affecting me. Something else you might want to check out is the MSG in foods. I noticed my sugar falls and or I get horrible headaches. If your interested there's a web site called truthinlableing.org you can check out.