Just Curous...

[tarnalberry]

Just curious about the statistics of those of us on the board on this topic.

(It came up because my breakfast this morning - which I'm always careful to "engineer" to play nice with my blood sugar - threw me for a loop. It was quinoa flakes with rice bran (for extra fat/protein) with cinnamon (helpful in balancing insulin a bit) with only a bit of agave. Maybe it's because I didn't have time to finish all of it, but typical hypoglycemic symptoms popped up two hours later and I was surprised.)

[skbird]

Tiffany - I totally play scientist with my breakfast! I have been fairly unstable recently so I have cut out the maple syrup in my yogurt and today I even skipped the agave but had stevia instead. Plus flax meal for fiber and stability, plus almonds (fiber and protein) and cinnamon to help with insulin. Ha!

Before I went gluten free I was having feelings a lot from my stomach that I was hungry even when I wasn't. Sort of an itchy hunger, if that makes any sense. That was part of why I decided wheat was bad for me. Well, now it's happening again. Could be from residual glutening from a few weeks back but it is coupled with low blood sugar episodes so I have been trying to go back off sugar again. There is progress - my mood has improved. But it's still difficult trying to figure out what is causing the problem now.

For lunch I am eating a hamburger patty with cheese and avocado (good fats and protein), and some steamed veggies with flax oil, sea salt and black pepper. I know I will want a cookie or fruit or something after but I have to skip for right now, until I get this weird hunger feeling out of my system.

Stephanie

PS I'm a formally diagnosed hypoglycemic who is not pre-diabetes (first choice on your poll).

[steve-o]

I've been gluten-free for a little over 2 weeks, and I am having sooooooo many hypoglycemic symptoms, it's not even funny. I've had these symptoms for the past few years, but it seems like they've become much worse since going gluten-free.

I bounce back and forth all day long, between feeling (relatively) good, and feeling dizzy/shaky/lightheaded. Sometimes I get so sleepy that it's tough for me to continue my day at work. It seems to get worst after I eat. I also notice that I feel my best in the late evenings; a couple hours after dinner, and an hour or two before bedtime.

I've paid carefull attention to what I eat, in order to try and find some correlation between certain foods and my hypoglycemic symptoms...but I just can't seem to find any particular food that consistantly sets me off. It does seem like foods high in sugar are particularly bad, but there have been times when eating a handfull of mixed nuts, or meat & cheese will give me a reaction too. Very frustrating and confusing!

I recently had a fasting glucose test, but the results came back normal. Maybe I need a glucose tolerance test instead, since it seems like I may have "reactive hypoglycemia"?

[srdover]

For the first few months of the gluten-free diet, I had a lot of trouble with my blood sugar dropping. Lots of shakiness leading to lethargy. Particularly frightening was the day I couldn't quite get my hands to get food to my mouth. It took me a while to develop a meal pattern that I could count on keeping me comfortable.

[plantime]

I haven't voted yet because I don't know how to vote. My doctor said my blood sugar levels are normal, but my insulin levels are high. Then she told me to lose weight. Period. Nothing else, no guidance on what and when to eat, or how I would feel if I needed to do something. I don't know if it hypo, hyper, or borderline glycemic. Is it any surprise that I don't trust doctors!

[skbird]

I'm not a doctor but I've learned a lot about hypoglycemia. I would say that you are reactive hypoglycemia. The thing is when your insulin levels are high, that means the second you get carbs/sugars in your body, your insulin sweeps it away out of your blood, which results in low blood sugar episodes. Many people who are diagnosed as hypoglycemia (if they are fortunate enough to get an official diagnosis) are diagnosed just by that information. Unfortunately, most people who get a glucose tolerence test don't get their insulin levels checked and therefore never find out that is the reason they go low (of course this is not their fault but their doctor's for not requesting that info from the lab). So if you know your insulin is high, you're one up on a lot of hypos.

That can mean a couple of things. It can mean that your insulin is running high now and will go low later, meaning you could be prediabetic. Or it could mean it just runs high. If you have gained some weight or have a hard time losing some weight, the high insulin could also be to blame, being that when the sugars are in your diet, your insulin overworks to clear it and stores it away as - fat.

I never found out if my insulin was high or not (didn't do the GTT - glucose tolerance test) but think this is what happens to me because when I eat sugars, I crash and I gain weight. Anyway, in any hypoglycemics case, it's better to eat fewer sugars and processed carbs. When I went on a low carb diet after learning about my hypoglycemia, I lost 40 pounds that wouldn't leave under any circumstance! And lately with all the gluten free goodies I've been indulging in, I have gained nearly 10 pounds back and have started having regular blood sugar crashes so I am sadly parting ways with most of the carby stuff I've been chowing on. (loved those Kinikinick donuts!!! )

Hope some of this helps...

Stephanie

[steve-o]

Stephanie,

Thanks for your reply....I have a follow up with my doctor next week, so I'll definately ask for a GTT and make sure he checks my insulin levels as well.

I wasn't aware that there was a separate test to check insulin, I just assumed they did this as part of the GTT? I guess this explains why so many people have a negative GTT result, when their symptoms are classic hypo.

I actually have the opposite weight problem...I'm really thin and underweight. So hopefully I won't loose weight as a result of all this. I was really hoping to gain some weight on the gluten-free diet.

[skbird]

Steve-o - another thing is the lenght of the GTT. Most of the time they are just 2-3 hours, mainly because they test for diabetes. But to have an accurate one for hypoglycemia, it should be 4-5 hours. Also, they should take tests of your sugar levels every 15 mins, not the 30 they tend to do. You might have to be pushy to get that, though. Also, if you have your own blood sugar tester, take it with you and monitor your results. Finally, if you can, have someone be there with you. Some people have really intense experiences when their sugar drops and since you won't be able to have anything to eat during that time, you might have them too. Especially emotional ones.

It's best if someone can accompany you and take notes or help you take notes of how you're feeling.

As I said, I haven't had an official one but have conducted one on my own with my blood sugar test kit - basically ate something sweet and checked my progress every 15 mins over the next few hours. It's a good thing to do if you have a lot of sugar problems and want to know how your body reacts to certain foods. The lower glycemic the food, the less of a reaction you should have.

I always tend to have lower blood sugars, and when I'd get too low my best cure used to be eating a sandwich on sprouted grain bread. That would get them up and hold them steady for 2-3 hours. But of course I can't have that now. I think part of my blood sugar problems recently is I don't have a good strategy for dealing with the lows so I am bouncing from one extreme to another too quickly.

I hope your test goes well!

If you have any more questions, please feel free to email me.

Stephanie

[Guest BERNESES]

Since going gluten-free in january (except for the biopsy in April) I have really been struggling with this. It seems to be getting better but I had an incident about a month ago where I was so hypoglycemic I thought I was going to pass out before I made it in the house. It was scary! B

[skbird]

I think one of my scariest times was when I got back from a trip to France last year. I didn't sleep right and because of the time change my food schedule was all out of wack. I was on the phone with my mom in the morning telling about the trip when I started to feel queasy. Finally I got off the phone, just as it hit me so badly I couldn't move. I was trying to yell for my husband because I couldn't even move! He immediately got me some juice and made me an egg on toast, which he had to force feed me because I couldn't even open my mouth right. It was so weird and scary. After about 10 mins, the food set in and I was able to get up and move around - 5 mins later I was like nothing had happened.

I have passed out before because of hypoglycemia. I had gone out drinking (back when I still drank) and woke to a horrible hangover. I made it through the day (I had to work) and the next day we got up and went to San Francisco for a concert in Golden Gate Park. All I had when we got there was a "Smart Drink" (this was 10 years ago, that kind of stuff was big back then - basically sugary juice with some herbal stuff in it that was supposed to make you smarter or something, like ginkgo). We got into the crowd, really close to the stage - maybe 20 feet - and I started feeling nauseated (like the story above). I started focusing on the person in front of me, staring at their backpack. There were about 10,000 people there - I wasn't going to make my boyfriend leave because I felt nauseated. Finally, though, I knew I wasn't going to be able to stand much longer and I had to tell him we had to get out. He was like, you're kidding me! Ziggy Marley had just taken the stage, next was Peter Gabriel and Sinead O'Conner. I said, nope, sorry! So he turns to start plowing the way out and I followed, but passed out cold! I would have hit the ground but for all the people. He threw me over his shoulder and carried me out - I vaguely remember this part, and my feet knocking into people on the way. When he got me out and on the grass, I was suddenly bathed in sweat. We watched most the rest of the show from a distance, and then, if you can believe it, to punish me for passing out he made me drive home!!! (We lived in Sacramento, close to 2 hours away). Jerk! Anyway, for the longest time I thought I had heat stroke but it was only 55 degrees out!

Hypoglycemia is no fun. Mine got a lot better after going gluten free, now it's getting worse again (8 months later). I was beginning to think I was over it. Bummer...

Stephanie