Symptoms of Hypoglycemia ? Posted: 03-30-08 10:35am
Hi everyone, i am a 22 year old male
currently in university.
About two weeks ago, i seem to have
progressively become unable to intake my
typical dinner, which was about 5-6
servings of rice and meats/vegetables. At
its most serious, after 1 hour of taking
in the food, i immediately became
disorientated and had to lie down, at
which point i will fall asleep.
One of the stranger days, which i thought
i was completely cured (before learning of
hypoglycemia) i devoured a serving of
french fries with gravy without any
visible effects for 5 hours. During
dinner, i had yet another large plate of
rice and assorted foods and had no
problems until i slept, which was 4 hours
later. However, after sleeping 30
minutes, i woke up with very bad
palpitations and even numbness throughout
the hands.
I am thinking that this is very strange,
since i had no symptoms with the starchy
french fries and the problem with the rice
did not appear until much later.
Anyways, the family doctor suggested that
i may have low blood sugar in my prior
visit so i began to visit websites and
removing refined sugars from my diet.
Yet another strange thing happened that
seem to contradict what i read to seem to
be prevalent in most hypoglycemics.
After a few days of adjusting, i was able
to eat whole wheat grains as well as
mashed potatoes and pasta (not alone) with
only minor anxiety an hour or two
afterwards. This was markedly different
from the dirorientation and fatigue a few
days prior. After two days on this diet,
i had no mind fogs or fatigue throughout
the day and slept well. The only issue
was the slight bouts of anxiety.
I typically had 2 slices of whole wheat
bread, whole grain cereal with milk and
ham/lettuce in the bread for the morning.
For lunch i had some salad sometimes with
protein, and a side of either mashed
potatoes or vegetable pasta (white wheat
probably).
I did not typically have a mid-morning
snack, but rather ate a fruit between
lunch and dinner.
For dinner i had half a chicken breast
with about 1 serving of carrots and 100g
buckwheat noodles in a soup.
Most websites i visit state that it takes
weeks for hypoglycemic symptoms to die
down, and i was reduced to only slight
anxiety after i eat within half a week.
Is this normal for hypoglycemics or does
it suggest something else?
I've visited the doctor again for blood
works, and as many people mentioned, they
do not seem to understand hypoglycemia.
It is such a pain. However, he did a
blood test on me and here are my results:
Fasting: 82.8
1:20 after ham sandwich (2 slice wheat
bread) + milk: 75.6
Although 75.6 is within normal range, i am
thinking that i did not take a sugary
enough meal after the fasting to truly
test for the effects. As well, would the
mere dropping below fasting mean
hypoglycemia? Or might this be a milder
case of it. I understand these results
are very poor compared to OGTT, so it is
ok if a result cannot be found from it. I
will be attempting to request a OGTT on
wednesday, and i hope that goes well.
This seems to also contradict reactive
hypoglycemia, which is what i may have.
Waking up to symptoms and the symptoms not
dying down even if i ate? Could the
vitamin be the problem, or maybe the brown
rice staying in the system too long?
I am greatly confused about my symptoms,
and it has really taken a toll on my
mental and physical health. I live alone,
far away from my family for school so it
is a bit more difficult to cope than usual
as well. I feel very painful sometimes.
I acknowledge that i may have written too
much and nobody here is probably a trained
doctor and i should probably not be
expecting too much in terms of replies.
However, any thoughts or comments would be
greatly appreciated from people who have a
great deal of wisdom on hypoglycemia.
Thank you very much for listening as well,
and perhaps taking the time to reply to
this post. I greatly appreciate it.
|
Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1620 Location: ,
Posted: 04-02-08 23:08pm
You're wrong! Let me explain a bit why,
it always seems strange with the symptoms
because stuff can happen up to FIVE DAYS
after you eat it, it depends on the food,
type of carbohydrate, level of
carbohydrate, speed at which its absorbed
and so forth. If you took a few days
'off' and were eating better, than it
makes sense you would feel at least a
little better. The main problem people
have with this is that they don't seem to
get that you won't correct it immediately.
Just switching to whole grain bread or
whatever won't do it, it takes WEEKS and
sometimes months to get anywhere, and you
can expect a variety of fluctuations,
feeling great one minute and then like
death the next, with apparently no
connection to what you just ate, but there
is. It always appears that way until
you're stable and see what the bad food
does to your body when you slip up. Any
level dropping is a sign of sensitive
insulin response, though typically it's
not considered 'bad' until it goes below
70, but that's a pretty general statement,
doesn't necessarily apply to everyone
because not just the level, but the speed
of the drop matters, as well as how long
it takes it to occur (might be a really
slow, progressive drop where your level
seems normal at the 1.5 hour mark, but 5
hours later is quite low). When you're
getting on track, expect to wake up a lot
and feel like you've come out of the grave
in the morning with little change after
eating. I suggest you read my diet
(stickied at the top of this forum) to get
an idea of what you need to do, but it's
ultimately your choice what you want to
eat, I can only recommend what to do based
on the experiements I've done. Those
vitamins seem to be okay, but that's quite
an overload at one sitting, if you can cut
them into pieces, that's the best idea,
take three parts throughout the day, all
of that at once is pointless, most will be
flushed out or COULD cause slight,
temporary imbalances that could set you
off. Anyway, I can explain anything you
want, so ask away.
|
shawn604
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 30 Mar 2008 Posts: 28
Posted: 04-03-08 17:33pm
Hi Stan, thank you very much for your
reply.
In the last few days i have sort of come
to the conclusion that i am indeed a
reactive hypoglycemic. However, it does
not seem to be too severe.
As mentioned, i used to eat around 5-6
servings of carbohydrates (white rice) a
sitting with 2 servings of meat/vegetables
for 2 meals each day. I suspect that this
must have overloaded my pancreas and now
it is much more sensitive and secrete more
insulin.
Anyways, today i got my OGTT, a horrible 2
hours which they did not draw blood in
between, only in the beginning and in the
end. I felt fine throughout but around
1.5 hrs after drinking the solution, i got
more nervous and anxious.
Thank you for youre recommendation of diet
also. I have been adhering to my diet
these past few days and it seem these
bouts of anxiety are my biggest problem.
I usually take 3 servings of meat, 1
serving of vegetables, and 2 servings of
brown rice. Almost always after 1.5
hours, i get a chill in my heart
accompanied my anxiety and nervousness. I
may decide to lower my carbs per day by
half. (im guessing right now im about a
little under 200g a day?)
I am able to fast without great problems
up to 4-5 hours without any symptoms as
well, it is just always 1.5 hours after
eating. ALWAYS. I do not seem to get a
response from eating carrots, vegetables,
or meats, just only when i eat some
grain/starches with the meal.
However, recently it has also been really
troubling me that i am unable to sleep
soundly. I seem to crave carbs before bed
and frequently wake in the night. My
dreams have also become quite explicit and
i can remember them clearly. Might this
be what you mean by expecting to wake up a
lot? Is there any way to perhaps soothe
this problem?
My doctor doesn't think that anxiety is
tied to hypoglycemia (sigh) so he
recommended me some anxiolytics
(lorazepam) to stop the anxiety. I am
somewhat tempted to take it since that
seem to be my only problem. It also helps
with sleeping, but the downside is that it
is supposed to be relatively addictive...
During the day i seem to not be able to
think optimally as well, as if there is a
knot in my head. Sigh.
Anyways, I am also wondering about the
Atkin's diet. Is anyone familiar with it?
How is it? It seems to be a way of
removing the symptoms but i am concerned
about the potential hazards to the body,
the great shift to ketosis and possibly
future problems with eating whole wheat
again.
I am also a bit underweight though, 120
pounds and non-diabetic, which is quite
sad for this condition. So if i ever
decide to go for atkins, i am just
thinking of going for induction for 2 days
then quickly shifting to maintenance.
Thanks again anyone who is reading. Also
thank you Stan for your response. I
greatly appreciate it.
|
Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1620 Location: ,
Posted: 04-03-08 17:45pm
Don't bet on how severe it is, there were
days when I thought, 'this isn't that
bad', promptly destroyed the next day with
ridiculous obsessions and various weird
symptoms. Nice test, they totally didn't
do it right, supposedly to check your
sugar every hour at least. What a waste.
How many times are you eating per day?
Fasting makes sense because, well, it's
simple, there isn't any food in your body
to cause any insulin reaction at all, so
good news for you, you don't have an
insuloma (insulin producing tumor, often
during treatment hypoglycemics will obsess
they have this, but you don't if you can
go without eating and experience nothing).
You're craving carbs because your body is
adjusting, quite natural. Yep, that's
what I mean by waking, and vivid, often
strange dreams are another typical symptom
early on in treatment. Your doctor's
might be wrong, don't listen to them until
you've gone through at least 4 months of
treatment and find no difference in your
anxieyt, only THEN can you consider the
possibility, but as the DSM-IV states, it
takes a few months of continuous symptoms
for this to be a reality, which is not
happening to you. Stick to the diet. The
medicine CAN help in that it will mask the
symptoms, but that's the bad part, you
don't know how sick you are and could
possibly eat things you shouldn't, get off
the medicine, and then find yourself in
hell because you weren't able to pay
attention to your body because it was
hiding behind medicine. Hmmm, to soote
the sleeping problem you can try making
sure you eat around one hour before laying
down and make sure it's more protein than
carbs, and no sugar. That should have a
little effect at least, but it may not.
As for Atkin's, I don't recommend it, my
diet is essentially higher protein, lower
carb, but not the way he thinks of it. He
does not stress quality of meat and asks
for large amounts of fat in the diet,
which is not good. Try my diet, it's a
modified version of it. There is no harm
to the body. Read this. http://www
.healingcrow.com/dietsmain/paleo/paleo.htm
l It's not the article I was looking
for, but it seems good enough to give you
an idea. If you look around you'll find
many respectable medical articles about
it.
|
shawn604
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 30 Mar 2008 Posts: 28
Posted: 04-03-08 18:42pm
Hi again Stan, thanks for the reply.
I am wondering if you can give an example
of what you would eat on a normal day
aside from breakfast? I am now noticing
that i am perhaps eating too much protein.
I have about 1.5 chicken breasts with 4
eggs a day on this diet i thought up,
which is perhaps too much. Almost 100g
alone i think.
Would anyone also have vegetable dish
recipes they would like to share too?
Perhaps something simple and cheap to
make.
Thanks again
Sincerely, Shawn
|
Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1620 Location: ,
Posted: 04-04-08 15:57pm
Did you read the diet? I pretty much
explain everything you want to know there.
Really, you can make anything you want,
just take out the ingredients you need to
avoid and that's it. Eggplant is good,
you can fry it up in olive oil with some
spices, tomatoes and onions and it makes
for a good dish. Butternut squash is
another good one, a little butter and
xylitol and it's awesome.
|
shawn604
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 30 Mar 2008 Posts: 28
Posted: 04-04-08 17:20pm
I looked at the calories in some of those
and these foods and they all seem rather
low. A person is supposed to have 2000
calories a day i hear. Wouldn't i need a
lot of vegetables then? Since i am about
55kg, 1.5 chicken breast will already
bring me up to my protein maximum and i
can't have too much carbohydrates.
|
Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1620 Location: ,
Posted: 04-04-08 18:30pm
Are you eating fruit? Drinking milk?
Eating yogurt? A slightly increased fat
intake will fix that. On THAT diet I'm
able to run miles, weight lift and perform
a ton of activities. Butternut squash is
high in calories.
anyways,
What would you suggest for a dish that is
good for this diet and a bit higher in fat
as you mentioned?
Sorry again, i was a very bad cook
previously, and I have about no kitchen
skills. Part of my problem with
transitioning into a hypo diet is that i
have no idea what to make haha. I have
been eating chicken with eggs and spinach
for the last few days..
Thanks again, Stan.
|
Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1620 Location: ,
Posted: 04-04-08 21:01pm
Using more cooking oil will fix that real
quick. Eggplant, for example, can be made
in the following manner. Cut up about
three cups of it. Then cut up some
garlic, onion and tomatoes (about two cups
of that stuff altogether total, not
including the eggplant). In a frying pan
or wok, heat up some oil (olive is best)
and fry up the onions and garlic until
tender (should look a little yellow). Add
the tomatoes and eggplant, a bit of salt
and a bit of black pepper. Add three
tablespoons of wine after stirring it and
cover the dish, letting it cook for about
10 minutes. Take off the top and mix it
up, add some fresh basil, stir again and
cook until the eggplant looks nice and
tender (it's easier if you peel the outer
skin off, but I like it). Try it. You
use about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and
that's quite a bit of fat. That feast is
way more calories than that site, I use
it, but since we don't use grams in this
country I don't know how much that is.
Look for an online converter and convert
it to cups.
|
shawn604
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 30 Mar 2008 Posts: 28
Posted: 04-05-08 19:38pm
Ah yes, olive oil. i tried your recipe
today, and it is pretty good! I checked
the calories from everything, and the dish
you describe, most of the calories are
from the olive oil and not from the
vegetables themselves, which is not a bad
thing. Olive oil can't really do you harm
unless you drown yourself in it.
110ml of olive oil is 900 calories
already!
By the way, has anyone known anyone who
recovered from Hypoglycemia? It is
probably extremely unlikely i guess, haha.
I currently only have mild anxiety after
eating carbs and the sleep disturbances,
but everything else is fine. Oh yeah,
these past two days i seem to be getting
some anxiety when i wake up too...
What are the chances of being able to eat
normally again afterwards? Pretty low
probably? Im sort of hoping that taking
multivitamins, fish oil and vitamin C will
heal my organs, since they dont seem to be
too bad right now.
Also, does anyone feel mild discomfort in
the pancreas/kidney/adrenal/liver line of
the abdomen when walking too long? Ive
been feeling a bit of it these last two
weeks and am wondering whats up with that.
It doesn't seem to be just once place
though so i imagine its not like cancer or
anything.
Oh yeah, what about V-8, the vegetable
juice? Raw veggies in a blender is
probably better but what are your thoughts
on it?
Also what about milk? I understand under
stan's diet it is to be avoided, but if
someone wish to take it what would be the
best kind? 1%? Homogenized? 2%?
Thanks again everyone.
|
Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1620 Location: ,
Posted: 04-05-08 22:09pm
Ha, yes, MYSELF. I recovered after a lot
of hard work and experimentation, which is
why I post on here for others. I didn't
have the knowledge that I do now, so I had
to figure all this stuff out on my own, so
I post here to save others months and
years of hardship. I'm actually set to
receive a really good government job and
am in the process of finishing my PhD
currently, so yes, you WILL get better.
As for eating 'normal' food, that may not
happen. I'm still unable to eat certain
foods, and it may be related to something
they haven't figured out yet, but I could
care less at this point I'm so healthy.
Feeling mild discomfort in the pancreas
area is the only true sign of hypoglycemia
that has been discovered. If you feel
that, you definitely have it. Don't know
about walking though, I'm sure you're just
reading into stuff a bit too much like
most of us do, and I did, when still sick
and in the process of healing. I suppose
V-8 is okay if it doesn't have anything
added (never looked honestly). I've been
on a cranberry (100% squeezed, watch out
because they add grape juice to most of
it) kick for a few weeks, mix about a cup
with about two cups of water. Yum.
Getting a juicer may be a good idea, and
you'd probably like it. I avoid milk, but
it's up to you, try it if you want, but
it's essentially a simple sugar because
it's a disaccharide, broken down quite
quickly. I would recommend goat's or
sheep milk if you can find it, but if you
must have cow's, organic is best, but
WHOLE. Need all that fat to keep it
slower.
|
shawn604
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 30 Mar 2008 Posts: 28
Posted: 04-06-08 17:27pm
Ah, i am glad that you are doing well! I
am also about to pursue my master's degree
soon.
Oh one thing, I am wondering why you
listed all beans as a thing to avoid. Do
they break into simple sugars quickly as
well?
|
Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1620 Location: ,
Posted: 04-06-08 18:03pm
They can be a trouble food for many people
because of the reaction they cause in the
body (insulin response I mean). They seem
to be pretty strong in this regard.
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