Celiac And Hypoglycemia

[Rick1254]

I've found that hypoglycemia will trigger my vertigo attacks just like Gluten. Does anybody here with celiac disease also have a problem with hypoglycemia?

Rick

[guppymom]

wow

too wierd.

Yesterday I was fighting vertigo all day. I hadn't eaten much because i hadn't felt hungry at all, but I was falling over and trying to correct myself when I felt like falling over but wasn't actually moving at all. It was very strange and I came onto the board today to ask this very question...

so no answers from me, but I 2nd the question.

Teresa

[tarnalberry]

I wasn't formally diagnosed with hypoglycemia, but my doctor did note that many of the symptoms I mentioned did fall in line with being borderline hypoglycemic. I'd get a headache, nausea, crankiness, and just really felt like crap. As long as I make sure I don't each a bunch of carbs, and balance things out with enough fat and protein, though, I'm fine.

[outthere39]

I personally am borderline and like others I make sure I keep enough protein in my diet. My mother, however, has had for a long time. She would fall down at least once every couple of days.

Richard

[Karina]

Hi,

I have not yet been diagnosed with celiac disease--I had one positive antibody on the Celiac panel and yesterday had and endoscopy, and I do fit many of the better known celiac disease symptoms--so we will see. However, a few years ago, I WAS formally diagnosed with hypoglycemia through a five hour glucose tolerance test. My doc said just to keep the grains down (which is hard for me), and always keep fast sugar on hand in case I have an attack. Through my own journey, I found that coffee actually can trigger and attack for me--I mentioned this to the doc and she said it made since because caffeine drives up your blood sugar and in my case my pancreas dumps insulin when the sugars are high. Anyway, this is interesting because celiacs have problems with simple carbs which tend to be high in sugar--so now in my way of thinking, it sort of makes sense that celiac disease and hypoglycemia could go hand in hand.

Just a thought,

Karina

[seeking-wholeness]

I'm not formally diagnosed with either celiac disease or hypoglycemia, but since I went gluten-free last Halloween my hypoglycemia symptoms (headache, nausea, extreme irritability, brain fog...) have pretty much vanished. Before I went gluten-free, I was managing the symptoms by eating LOTS of protein (and about four meals and two snacks a day), but now that I am gluten-free I am finding that I don't have to do anything special at all. I do still make it a point to eat protein at every meal, just so my body can heal itself. In fact, now I can actually get hungry (even VERY hungry) WITHOUT becoming hypoglycemic at all! This is very exciting to me. I hope going gluten-free has a salutary effect on your hypoglycemia problem as well!

[tarnalberry]

seeking_wholeness... isn't it amazing, after the hypoglycemic responses, to actually feel what hunger feels like to normal people?!

It perplexed me when I first felt it, and - being in the car - I turned to my husband and said, in a most shocked and surprised voice, "I'm hungry!". He asked if I had any food with me or if we needed to get home, and I said "No, like, I feel hungry, not crappy!" I haven't found that going gluten-free completely solved the problem (I can't snack on nothing but fruit and veggies if I'm hungry without having symptoms pop back up), but it is significantly better than it had been.

[Lintner]

I was diagnosed Hypoglycemic at age 20 now almost 46. It does improve with diet. Staying away from the gluten-free has helped as in decreases the carbohydrates and forces me to eat more protein. I would kill for a regular bagel!

[tammy]

Hi,

I am not officially diagnosed with hypoglycemia but I sure possess a lot of the symptoms. I find that eating a very small amount of carbs helps. I make sure that I also eat a lot of veggies and protein with my carbs. I never have the symptoms in the early morning but usually in the afternoon and evening.

[wwebby]

Oh, yeah. I am definitely hypoglycemic. I'm not sure about my Celiac diagnosis yet (tests upcoming) and I've never had a glucose tolerance test, but I really don't need one. I absolutely cannot eat a carb loaded diet. I have to eat protein and some fat at every meal, I never eat sugary soda and I get really really cranky if I have simple sugars without anything more substantial to balance it out. I'm not sure of a connection to Celiac. There is a diabetes connection. Could our bodies be causing an autoimmune reaction against our insulin receptors? Making us more insulin resistant? Insulin resistance is a condition that leads to diabetes and the symptoms are very much like hypoglycemia. I think it goes something like this:

Receptors are insulin resistant

Body pumps out more insulin to try to get rid of sugar in the blood.

Body pumps out too much insulin, so the sugar clears the blood to quickly and we are left with the shakes and irritability.

Anyone else have any theories?

[jen-schall]

my doctor calls it "hypoglycemic episodes" which are brought on as a result of celiac disease. I think they're supposed to go away as my body heals. pretty fun to have in the middle of class, though! I practically had to "borrow someone's Coke" the other day!

[travelthomas]

Hi Rick,

I also have hypoglycemic attacks. It does make it a bit harder to identify the gluten accidents. Sometimes I can

[Guest jhmom]

I have been gluten-free since Sept 03 and started having these "faint feeling" spells in January. I talked to my family doc about these spells a couple of weeks ago and she thinks it "could" be Hypoglycemia. She suggested that I eat a little something every 3 hours and try eating peanut butter since it was loaded with Protein. Before some of the spells I noticed that I had eaten chips and drank a coke, she said the carbs and sugar spiked my sugar levels up and that over a time period of a couple of hours it would drop quickly and in turn would feel as tho I was going to pass out. Also when it happens my BP gets very low, the last time it was 92/58 (usually mine is 98/68).