Glutened = Very Low Blood Sugar?

[ravenwoodglass]

I got glutened a couple days a go. Naturally brain fog and extreme tiredness have set in with all the wonderful joint pains etc... When I got up this am I tested my fasting sugar, (which is now in the 90's most mornings) and it was 64, I've never seen it this low. I had a banana and some nuts and went to the store. When I got home I had a hard boiled egg and some more nuts and 1 gluten-free cookie. I did a 1 hour after eating read and it was 158 but the 2 hour read had gone back down to 77. I have never had readings this low since I was diagnosed. Does anyone know what is going on and should I be concerned? Should I have some sugar today? Should I have some extra carbs? I feel like crap from the glutening, I assume. I should note I do not take meds, I refused them prefering to try to control with diet and excercise.

[CarlaB]

I don't know much about blood sugar, but I do know when I get glutened it's a big problem for me. Sometimes I'll even be incoherent and not able to understand even the simplest things said to me. I'll also have problems in the morning if I've had a lot of sugar the night before. I've never been tested for anything with this, I've just payed attention to what my body's telling me, so I don't know what all the numbers mean ...

[skbird]

I can give you a hypothesis. I am reactive hypoglycemic and while I don't go up past 130 usually, I have been known to drop pretty low pretty quickly. I have not had nearly the problems with my blood sugars being unstable since I have been gluten free - in fact I rarely have many hypoglycemic symptoms or episodes now.

I think being glutened taxes the system to the point it can't keep up with regulating blood sugar. Maybe not across the board, but if this is a weakness for your body, then maybe it's one of those things that goes haywire. I know the liver is what is supposed to signal the release of stored sugars when your body goes too low (like when you drink alcohol - your liver is so busy processing the toxin of alcohol it can't handle also making sure to release glycogen in order to level out your blood sugar). Maybe when we get glutened, the liver is so busy trying to handle getting the gluten out of our systems, or maybe it's dealing with some secondary issue, like inflammation due to antibody reaction, etc, that it can't deal with the drop in blood sugar.

Anyway, I'm not a scientist but I do have a decent understanding of why low blood sugar happens and it seems that info could be applied to glutening. I know it seems to be true for me!

Oh yeah, and to recover from low blood sugar, some carbs, balanced with protein, fat, and fiber are good, but don't go nuts. Try to avoid outright sugar - that will only perpetuate this cycle.

I hope that helps!

Take care and feel better.

Stephanie