Low Blood Sugar Levels, Anyone Else Dealing With This

[Clark Bent as Stupor-Man]

I'm as symptomatically hypoglycemic as just about anybody, and when I was testing myself with a bg monitor a few years ago, I didn't get any results that really stood out from the norm... lowest I tested was 68 and highest was 120, I was mostly in the 70s, which is normal anyway... my endo was thoroughly confused as my numbers came up within range yet I had all the blood sugar symptoms..

despite my normal levels while self-testing, I clearly am symptomatically very hypoglycemic and have tested as having both reactive hypoglycemia and impaired glucose tolerance (a pre-diabetic condition) during my only OGTT about 5 years ago... my results were:

Fasting 1HR 2HR 3HR 4HR 5HR

...88.....242..159..50...63...77

in your case, there doesn't appear to be a blood sugar issue from your numbers, but that doesn't mean that your body isn't responding as if there is anyway... my self-testing never indicated a problem (though my GTT did), yet I've needed to eat meals with protein frequently every day for years to control my hypoglycemia and limit my crashing symptoms...

if you feel that you are having issues tied to blood sugar, it can't hurt to rule things out with an endo... assuming all your results are normal or relatively normal through testing with an endo, you still have to listen to your body and if you find that eating something prevents a headache, dizziness, whatever, then stick to it anyway... there is something I think is called functional hypoglycemia, in which a person is symptomatically hypoglycemic despite normal blood sugar levels...

also, you could have something else contributing to the blood sugar reactions and symptoms such as what Vydorscope mentioned with certain nutrient levels in your body, only being gluten-free 3 months or something else entirely.. however, if you feel that controlling your diet and eating at certain times makes you feel better, then I'd advise still doing so until you find out these other answers...

[aikiducky]

I'd forgotten... I did eat a very protein oriented diet in the beginning and that really helped. Nowadays I can tolerate carbs better, I don't know why. Though I still like to at least have a little protein in every meal, otherwise I find I get hungry much quicker, even though I don't exactly crash any more. Even now, I very often will have meals of just meat & veg and skip rice or potatoes all together. I didn't even mention it because I'd forgotten that this isn't actually how everybody eats, I've gotten so used to it.

Pauliina

[Nancym]

I was doing this diet and going great re the RH. Then Celiac was dx, and then dairy free. I used to live on butter & cheese.... Since then ( 2 months ago) I have added more gluten-free cakes I guess. And fruit juices. I am in a spiral now...Now I can't face the fat or protein. My body screams for sugar. Would you believe I have gained 5kg in a month ?

I use coconut flour nowadays. it is low carb, tons of fiber. I make a delicious muffin and microwave it in the bowl I mix it in. It is great stuff!

You're definitely doing bad things to yourself with all the starches and sugars you're eating.

I've read that the hypoglycemic symptoms that people get with reactive hypoglycemia is because of the quick relative drop, not because you ever actually get into <70 numbers. And I read the best advice for solving it is to not give into it by eating more carbs.

Here's something worthwhile to read: Open Original Shared Link

And a snippet from that

Why Do I Feel Shaky and hypoglycemic When I Achieve Normal Blood Sugars?

If you have had high blood sugars for a while even only moderately high blood sugars you may find that you feel shaky and even downright sick when you bring your blood sugars down into the normal range.

There's two types of hypglycemia, one shortly after eating which is called Reactive Hypo, the other long after eating, called Fasting Hypo.

[georgie]

There's two types of hypglycemia, one shortly after eating which is called Reactive Hypo, the other long after eating, called Fasting Hypo.

What happens if a person has both ? This is what was confusing my Endo. I barely was able to have the 5 hour GTT done, as I had so many Fasting HypoG symptoms. The nurses called the Hospital Dr and he checked me before they proceeded. Before surgery - I can barely make an overnight fast. Before a 12 hour fasting blood tests - I am very symptomatic. But I also get like this 2 hours after eating as well ????

I am casein intolerant I think. I am still testing, and Dr seemed to think I may heal a little in time. Also I appear OK with goats cheese. Its just that we don't have a shop that sells it for 100 miles...so we often don't have any in the fridge when I need it.

Thanks everyone for the motivational talks ! I have fallen off the wagon big time here ( gained another kg yesterday) so need to change my ways. I have used peanut butter quite a bit before as a snack and that helped stabilise me - before being gluten-free that is.

[VydorScope]

Goergie... does not matter what label you put on it, you treat it the same way. Its just like the silly debate over "gluten intolerance" vs "celiac disease", in both cases you need 100% gluten-free diet. Same applies here. Call it what ever you prefer, its handled the same way, the way you ALREADY know works because you used to do it.

[dally099]

hi there, i dont know how you could stand to have your levels so low, ug. i ate a late b/fast this morning and this is what i wound up with today for numbers, i had b/fast about 1030am, hubby let me sleep in

at 1:15pm- 4.9 (88) then i ate lunch, ham sandwich and a flavored water

3:15pm-10.3 (185.4)

4:13pm- 6.3(113.4)

5:15-4.3(77)

6:15-4.2(75), now eating a plate of pasta and meat sauce (gluten-free of course)

felt pretty lousy this afternoon, this sucks because i run at night and typically at about 7:30 pm i would eat an apple with peanut butter and a bottle of water and then go for a fun 1/2hour later, but not feeling great today so we'll see. thanks for all your help

[VydorScope]

hi there, i dont know how you could stand to have your levels so low, ug. i ate a late b/fast this morning and this is what i wound up with today for numbers, i had b/fast about 1030am, hubby let me sleep in

at 1:15pm- 4.9 (88) then i ate lunch, ham sandwich and a flavored water

3:15pm-10.3 (185.4)

4:13pm- 6.3(113.4)

5:15-4.3(77)

6:15-4.2(75), now eating a plate of pasta and meat sauce (gluten-free of course)

felt pretty lousy this afternoon, this sucks because i run at night and typically at about 7:30 pm i would eat an apple with peanut butter and a bottle of water and then go for a fun 1/2hour later, but not feeling great today so we'll see. thanks for all your help

Umm if you really got a 185, then I take everything I said back. Get to a doctor and tested for diabeties and hypoglycemia ASAP. 185 is a big red flag. Bring your readings with you.

[georgie]

Wow. Those readings are not good. I second - get to a Dr. Your 1.15 pm test was not a true fasting test to start with.

This is a site with HypoGlycemic graphs.

Open Original Shared Link

[dally099]

this is very interesting, i will post my readings for the day and tell me if im right out to lunch on this or not:

1:15-88.2 (started eating lunch)(ham and cheese sandwich)

3:15-185.4

4:13-113.4

5:15-74

6:15-75.6 (started eating supper)(pasta, tomatoe and hamburger sauce)

7:15-117

8:18-95.4 (pre-run getting ready to go out and run)

9:44-90 (just got back from my run, getting ready to have a snack-muffin, apple, oatmeal cookie, flavored bottle of water(sweetened with splenda)

11:54-104.4 (now going to bed)

one wednesday i had a big spike as well, i didnt run on that day but we ate dinner at 7:00pm(chicken stirfry) and the reading was 99 and at 10:00 the reading was 180, and at 11:00 when i went to bed it was 158.4, i didnt run cause i felt lousy. when i woke up the next morning i was at 95.4.i am a very healthy eater i run long distance and am training for a race right now, i eat roughly 5 small meals a day, allthough the last few days ive been eating more traditional 3 meals a day. i eat protien with every meal and watch my sugar intake as it is because when you run sugar is a lousy source of energy dies out pretty quick a healthy meal before hand is way better. today was the first day in a long time that i have had those flavored waters, thought that i would give them a try. i get lots of sleep, feel soooo much better since going gluten-free, gained the weight back that i lost. so this is very fustrating for me, i hate going to the doc and until i got sick over xmas and we realized it was celiac i would go once a year for a pap smear and thats it. i sure appreciate all the feedback that im getting. my doctor is happy that i found a website with lots of support.

[VydorScope]

Get to a doctor, get tested. Those high spikes are worrisome.

And you will need to get on the same high fat/high protein/low carb diet we been talking about in this thread to control it.

[georgie]

I noticed your flavoured water was sweetened with Splenda. Folks with Reactive Hypo tend to react to artificial sweeteners the same way as sugar. It raises your Insulin too much. Like Vincent says - get to a Dr and get tested.Make sure its the 5 hour GTT, with readings of Glucose and Insulin. Reactive Hypo is something that needs careful management. It would not be wise to do the further testing using a sugar drink, on your own, without medical help available. Have you seen this site? Open Original Shared Link

[dally099]

hi everyone, yup it seems weird, if i look at what is normal im pretty normal except i tend to go up and down really quickly and i suspect this is when i feel crappy, my reading 1 hour after breakfast (pancakes and syrup, my kids made it for mothers day) was 162, i was feeling not great, course im not used to eating syrup i tend to put yogurt and fruit on mine, i will call my docs office tomorow and get in for some testing. then it seems weird cause sometimes my reading dont change at all after a meal, is that normal? thanks so much

[VydorScope]

hi everyone, yup it seems weird, if i look at what is normal im pretty normal except i tend to go up and down really quickly and i suspect this is when i feel crappy, my reading 1 hour after breakfast (pancakes and syrup, my kids made it for mothers day) was 162, i was feeling not great, course im not used to eating syrup i tend to put yogurt and fruit on mine, i will call my docs office tomorow and get in for some testing. then it seems weird cause sometimes my reading dont change at all after a meal, is that normal? thanks so much

Reactive hypoglycemia is defined as a sudden drop in blood sugar FOUR HOURS AFTER the start of a meal.(remember all times are typical averages, not exact measures) It takes time for the food be converted in to glucose, and more time after that for the insulin production to kick up and start impacting you blood sugar levels. The sugary the food , the faster the high spike will come, and hence the faster the crash following the over production of insulin (the underlying cause of hypoglycemia is an over achieving pancreases...)

Those high spikes of yours are very very very BIG RED FLAGS, and you will need the Oral Glucose Tolerance test (or what ever they call it in you area) where you basicly drink sugar water and they monitor you for AT LEAST four to five hours.

Good luck and post back when you get your results.

[dally099]

yup, my 1hr after breakfast reading was 162, and 2 hrs after eating breakfast was 124.2, i just feel like crap. oy im getting whiney. oh well i hope everyone is having a great mothers day, my kids made me stuff at school so that was a nice treat. i tried those waffles that come in the kit, that you pour them in the molds and microwave them and then you toast them, they were really good, my oldest daughter ate one and she couldnt tell the difference and she is fussy. ,my hubby said they were really simple to make so i would highly reccomend them.

[VydorScope]

You are going to have to cut all that sugary crap out of your diet if you want to get better. No matter what comes of the testing.

[dally099]

You are going to have to cut all that sugary crap out of your diet if you want to get better. No matter what comes of the testing.

oh i agree, im a tad of a control freak so any issues that i have i tend to deal with head on, like the celiac, i pretty anal about not eating gluten, and im allergic to soy so im pretty fussy about that one as well, so any issues with my blood sugar i will deal with head on. i did a reading again at 1230 cause im feeling lousy it was 75.6. my reading at 1130am was 124.2, does that seem like a steep drop? sure feels like one, could i eat the steak and mashed potatoes that were planned for tonight? with a salad? no dessert obvouisly, thank goodness this is a rest day in terms of no running tonight.

[VydorScope]

oh i agree, im a tad of a control freak so any issues that i have i tend to deal with head on, like the celiac, i pretty anal about not eating gluten, and im allergic to soy so im pretty fussy about that one as well, so any issues with my blood sugar i will deal with head on. i did a reading again at 1230 cause im feeling lousy it was 75.6. my reading at 1130am was 124.2, does that seem like a steep drop? sure feels like one, could i eat the steak and mashed potatoes that were planned for tonight? with a salad? no dessert obvouisly, thank goodness this is a rest day in terms of no running tonight.

Yes steep drop.

NO POTATOES! Steak and salad excellent choices. Leave off any sugary steak sauce though. Desert could be full fat, low carb ice cream if you can find it. Remember its the carbs that do this to you and the fat and protein that prevent it.

[georgie]

then it seems weird cause sometimes my reading dont change at all after a meal, is that normal? thanks so much

Not at all. It looks like perfectly 'normal' Reactive Hypoglycemia to me. As you learn more, you will find keeping a food diary helpful as everyone with RH reacts slightly differently to carbs. You may find - for eg - that a pasta meal with lots of protein works well for you but a meal of pasta without protein sends you off the scale again. Fruit is really bad for me.

My mistake was being dx as Celiac and forgetting that I was still RH. After being on the RH diet for a year or so 2 years ago - I had healed a little and wasn't as careful. Like Vincent says - this is lifelong. Being Celiac as well just adds another dimension to it....

Vincent - any breakfast ideas apart from scrambled eggs ? Now I am dairy intolerant as well - does that mean I HAVE to stay off butter ? I seem to remember reading here, that somebody coped with butter but can't have milk. On my RH diet I coped really well with my breakfast fave of toast - by having lots of butter and peanut butter on it. Could even have a coffee with that. That's how well it stabilised me. I am wondering what's more important right now - give up the dairy free and stabilise my RH ????

[Nancym]

hi everyone, yup it seems weird, if i look at what is normal im pretty normal except i tend to go up and down really quickly and i suspect this is when i feel crappy, my reading 1 hour after breakfast (pancakes and syrup, my kids made it for mothers day) was 162, i was feeling not great, course im not used to eating syrup i tend to put yogurt and fruit on mine, i will call my docs office tomorow and get in for some testing. then it seems weird cause sometimes my reading dont change at all after a meal, is that normal? thanks so much

185 is VERY high for 2 hours after a meal. You're probably in pre-diabetic range at least.

Here's an interesting discussion of what normal glucose numbers should be: Open Original Shared Link

People think of eating too much sugar when they're thinking about blood glucose but in reality starches can be just as bad if not worse. On the glycemic scale things like white rice and white bread are actually worse on the glycemic index than sugar. That doesn't mean sugar isn't bad but it does mean you have to consider that all these starchy bread substitutes are probably worse for you (on your insulin) than wheat bread was. At least wheat bread had a fair amount of protein in the gluten, some of these replacement products are made with tapicoa starch, white rice flour, etc which is far, far worse than wheat.

[Nancym]

What happens if a person has both ? This is what was confusing my Endo. I barely was able to have the 5 hour GTT done, as I had so many Fasting HypoG symptoms. The nurses called the Hospital Dr and he checked me before they proceeded. Before surgery - I can barely make an overnight fast. Before a 12 hour fasting blood tests - I am very symptomatic. But I also get like this 2 hours after eating as well ????

I am casein intolerant I think. I am still testing, and Dr seemed to think I may heal a little in time. Also I appear OK with goats cheese. Its just that we don't have a shop that sells it for 100 miles...so we often don't have any in the fridge when I need it.

Thanks everyone for the motivational talks ! I have fallen off the wagon big time here ( gained another kg yesterday) so need to change my ways. I have used peanut butter quite a bit before as a snack and that helped stabilise me - before being gluten-free that is.

RH tends to be associated with pre-diabetes. Fasting hypoglycemia tends to be due to problems with the glucagon release or really nasty diseases that are pretty rare. Google "fasting hypoglycemia" if you want to scare yourself. If you've got the sort where your blood sugars aren't actually low (which is defined as < 60), but you get the shakes, faintness and stuff, then your body just needs to adapt to lower fasting blood sugar. I posted something with tips on how to do that. If you are getting extremely low blood sugars then you can always take a bit of glucose to nudge them up, but this usually only happens to daibetics on insulin, or people with other issues. And if it is just that the numbers aren't truly into hypo range and you keep bumping them up with carbs your body won't ever adjust. Read that stuff I linked, it describes how to do it without too much pain.

[VydorScope]

Vincent - any breakfast ideas apart from scrambled eggs ? Now I am dairy intolerant as well - does that mean I HAVE to stay off butter ? I seem to remember reading here, that somebody coped with butter but can't have milk. On my RH diet I coped really well with my breakfast fave of toast - by having lots of butter and peanut butter on it. Could even have a coffee with that. That's how well it stabilised me. I am wondering what's more important right now - give up the dairy free and stabilise my RH ????

It depends on what part of dairy you react to. Lactose or casein? If it is lactose, you might be able to have some dairy products still, if it is casein then you pretty much can not.

As for breakfast... stop thinking in the box! I had left over meatloaf yesterday for example. Another day I might have bunless cheese burgers, or latly I have been eating a sloppy joe mix, with out any bread.

[VydorScope]

People think of eating too much sugar when they're thinking about blood glucose but in reality starches can be just as bad if not worse. On the glycemic scale things like white rice and white bread are actually worse on the glycemic index than sugar. That doesn't mean sugar isn't bad but it does mean you have to consider that all these starchy bread substitutes are probably worse for you (on your insulin) than wheat bread was. At least wheat bread had a fair amount of protein in the gluten, some of these replacement products are made with tapicoa starch, white rice flour, etc which is far, far worse than wheat.

Yes, which is why I try to use the term CARB in place of sugar. It sounds more general to people. For all practical purposes carbs = sugar = starches. IMO, it is much better to differentiate between a complex carb and a simple carb then to use possibly deceptive terms like starches.

I think you need to check your index again. Pure sugar is what the index is based around. You can not get worse then pure sugar (which is part pure glucose). But yes white bread is horrible.

[dally099]

ah yes me again, i will deffinately be calling my doc tomorow, i had left over pasta for lunch, at 1:30pm when i started eating i was 86, at 3:35 i was at 118.6 feeling like crap. i went from 124.2 at 1130 to 75.6 at 1230 ugh. thanks again for all the advice, i will eat my steak, im learning to enjoy spices, as a lot of bbq sauces have gluten and soy in them, i love salad, no potatoes i guess, thanks again

[georgie]

As for breakfast... stop thinking in the box! I had left over meatloaf yesterday for example. Another day I might have bunless cheese burgers, or latly I have been eating a sloppy joe mix, with out any bread.

Whats a sloppy joe mix ? And I think I am casein intolerant which means no cheese burgers ...

My fasting Blood Sugars are normal high - I just get a severe reaction. I had minor surgery last year and the only way I could get to the op was to stay in hosp o/night and have a drip put on. Its weird - and would like to know why. Endo did touch on subject of Insulinomas but my 5 hour graph was not 'flat' enough.

Dally, Good luck with the Dr tomorrow. Some Drs don't understand all this. I have had Drs give me diet sheets for 'pre diabetes' that are LOW FAT and heavy on CARBS ! Go figure ! I argued that a diet like that would GIVE me diabetes. Then I saw that the diet sheet was written by a drug company that SELLS diabetes meds .. hmmm......

[VydorScope]

Whats a sloppy joe mix ? And I think I am casein intolerant which means no cheese burgers ...

Well there is a product here called "Sloppy Joe" or "Manwhich" you can buy, but I do not do that. All I do brown up some chop meat in an electric pan. Onces it is completely cooked I add some low carb/gluten-free spaghetti sauce. I use around 1/2 a big jar for around 2.5 pounds of meat. I mix it throughly and let it simmer a while. When its done I put it in a big bowl to cool, and later transfer 1/2 pound or so at a time in to individual containers and toss them in the fridge. I just grab one out and nuke it when I want it. Takes like 60 seconds. Makes a great meal at work.