Hello everyone,
I think my girlfriend may have
hypoglycemia and but I need some help to
identify it. She craves sugary foods and
since she was little she has always woke
up in the middle of the night and had to
go to the kitchen for some chocolate. She
suffers from mild anxiety usual over money
issues...We never have enough! Her
anxiety seem to get better if she eats
chocolate. She is a smoker and likes to
have one beer every other night to relax
her. She also consumes a lot of caffiene.
She has had panic attacks in the past too
with palpatations. She gets really
dehydrated during the night. She suffers
from mild depression sometimes and has
nightmares most nights since she was
little. She really wants to get rid of
the nightmares. She gets irritable
easily. She also gets frequent headaches,
and feels tired a lot of the time.
My symptoms are similar apart from I
have more anxiety, don't smoke or drink
caffiene and never crave sugar. I get
eczema on my forehead and the sides of my
nose but it comes and goes. I never have
nightmares but I do get severly dehydrated
all the time. Sometimes I feel like i'm
out of my body, and get a impending sense
of doom. If I drink a lot of alcohol..The
day after my anxiety would be really bad.
Recently I have started martial arts and
the exercise has toned my anxiety down but
it hasn't disappeared completely.
My girlfriend thought she might be
diabetic because of her sugar craving but
we went many days without sugar while
living in the amazon jungle in peru and
she was ok.
We went to train with a peruvian
shaman to try to heal our anxieties a
couple of summers ago. During our healing
we went on a no salt, no sugar, no oil
diet for 8 days at a time. Our meals
consisted of plaintains...Which are like
bananas, fish, and eggs and water.
We did three 8 day diets in 6 weeks
as part of the purification and we felt
amazing afterwards. All our anxieties had
gone and she stopped having nightmares.
We felt wonderful. After getting back to
the western world and eating and drinking
rubbish again our with all the other
stresses our problems slowly came back.
After reading about hypoglycemia I
am starting to wonder whether it was the
diet we were on that stabilized our blood
sugar and made us feel wonderful. As our
jungle diet was similar to the
hypoglycemia diet.
Please let me know your opinions :)
I would greatly appreciate any help as we
are both sick of feeling like this :(
I am thinking of starting a low
carb/high protein diet with no sugar,
caffiene and very little alcohol and six
small meals a day. My only concern is
that I need alot of energy for my martial
arts classes are they are very strenuous
and I dont want to collaspe through lack
of carbs!
Thanks alot,
paul
|
Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1704 Location: ,
Thanks: 3
Thanked:0
Posted: 03-21-06 14:07pm
You won't collapse from lack of
carbohydrates. At first, it won't be
easy because your body will go through
withdrawal. What you mention sounds like
you both may have hypoglycemia, but
luckily a mild form. If you were able to
be stable on platains, I would guess a
mild form because more severe cases can
have no bananas at all, ever, until sugar
is stable. If you could handle them, it
seems you have a mild case. Let me know
what you're eating now. If you have any
other questions we can help. It's all
the diet, all the things you are avoiding
now you must avoid the rest of your life
(the major things, alcohol and so forth).
All of the symptoms you mention are
typical symptoms for a hypoglycemic,
nightmares, "out of body" (which is
techincally
depersonalization/derealization disorder)
and so forth.
|
greenpaulo
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 21 Mar 2006 Posts: 4
Posted: 03-21-06 18:44pm
Thanks for your help stan :)
the plantains we ate werent ripe
and contained no sugar at all. They were
extremely bland. The point of the jungle
diet was to refrain from the intake of
food containing salt, sugar, sweets, oil,
fats, or red meat. We did eat rice by the
way. Our diet now consists of basically
normal everyday diet. Breakfast - cereal,
toast and fruit or bacon sandwich. Lunch
- sandwich- tuna, meat, cheese with salad
or soup - vegetable, leek & potato.
Dinner - fish, chips and beans, pizza,
spag bol, vegetable curry, shepherds pie
and veg, vegetable chinese stir fry,
chicken fajitas.
Thanks again,
paul
|
Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1704 Location: ,
Thanks: 3
Thanked:0
Posted: 03-22-06 11:58am
Plantains, generally, contain around 22g
of sugar and 47g of carbohydrates, that's
why I found it odd. So unless they do
not possess these qualities when unripe,
which I doubt, you were getting quite a
bit. Considering this, it may be that
you were on a temporary high that would
have got worse in time. You must no
longer eat toast, bacon, cheese, potatoes,
pizza, pretty much every chinese dish you
can think of and definitely not fajitas.
What are your symptoms while you're eating
these things?
|
yukja
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Posts: 29
Posted: 03-22-06 13:12pm
Why is chinese food bad? I'm just
curious.
|
pegi
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 4 Location: UK
Dr. Says This Was a Hypo Attack Posted: 03-22-06 16:17pm
Woke up this morning and felt my heart
racing, was panicky about my husband going
to work, felt afraid of being alone,
couldn't think straight or concentrate,
vision affected.
It got worse and he stayed with me for a
while but I knew it was not
getting any better, he rang the dr and the
receptionist asked me to describe
the symptoms, then she had a word with
the Dr.
They told me to eat or drink something
very sweet which I did and asked
me to ring them back in 3/4 of an hour by
which time I felt a little
better , the Dr. Called to see me , bless
him, he listened to my heart
and said that was ok, racing a bit but ok
he said, now i'm going to have
a nurse calling in the next couple of days
to take blood samples ( i'm housebound
with severe agoraphobia ). Dr
says I had a hypo attack ( low blood sugar
) which is very similar to a
panic attack, or a hypo attack can trigger
off a panic attack he said.
I'm going to have to watch my sugar levels
in he evening, that is the
longest I go without food ( 4 hours )
dr. Is going to ask for tests on my
sugar, thyroid and iron (
haemoglobin ). In the meantime i'm
watching my sugar levels with a sugar
monitor.
Any advise on what I should / shouldn't be
eating most welcome.
Thanks in advance
pegi
|
sandyallen
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 02 Feb 2004 Posts: 4580
Posted: 03-22-06 17:04pm
What about something like powerade or
gatorade or something similar, I am not
sure of the sugar amount but I know that
it is good for the electrolytes and the
ensure and of that of course you can
always go to a place like gnc or a natural
food place, they might be able to suggest
something. But I would suggest talking to
a doctor 1st.
Good luck
|
Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1704 Location: ,
Thanks: 3
Thanked:0
Posted: 03-22-06 21:49pm
You should pretty much only be drinking
water, no gatorade or powerade. If you
want to have an idea of what to eat, see
my thread further down that says stan's
diet, I have all the info in there.
Chinese food typically contains sugar in
the sauces, as well as foods made using
white flour. Some things may be okay,
but you'd be better off making it yourself
and substituting sugar for xylitol or
something. Of course, there's also msg,
which they started using again, and this
can cause severe reactions in
hypoglycemics.
|
Jennyflower
Experienced User , Rather EHEALTHy
Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 85 Location: london
Posted: 03-23-06 04:32am
Hey, here is my diet at the moment which
seems to b giving me a very gradual
improvement.
Breakfast - organic oats with soya milk
snack - 5 spoons of plain organic no sugar
added yoghurt with blueberries or
blackberries.
Snack - half a red pepper with humus.
Lunch - tuna with salad and a few baby
potatoes (not everyone can tolerate
poatoes tho)
snack - 3 rice cakes with tahini spread
snack - celery sticks with humus
dinner - free range chicken with a fistful
of brown rice and vergetables.
Before bed - 1 egg or 5 spoons of plain
yoghurt.
Hope this helps some - altho stan's diet
will speed things up more. Basically
none of my food is processed, there is no
sugar at all, and my carbs have been cut
by half compared to what I used to eat -
plus I stick to the same level of carbs
everyday.
|
pegi
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 4 Location: UK
Posted: 03-23-06 04:53am
Hi jennyflower and thanks
your diet sounds healthy.
What is tahini and humus please ?
I feel ' full' today, not hungry.
My sugar levels were 5.1 before bed last
night and 5.9 before breakfast this
morning. The taste of sugar makes me
feel sick after having to drink a very
sweet drink yesterday ( tea with 3 heaped
spoonfuls of sugar, yukk )
i have no yogurt or berries , will have to
ask my husband to get me some later after
he finishes work, I am housebound with
severe agoraphobia as well, rice cakes I
have.
I seem to have lost my appetite at the
moment as i'm so anxious
pegi
|
pegi
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 4 Location: UK
Posted: 03-23-06 04:59am
Hi stan and thanks,
i drink unsweetened camomile tea and
redbush tea ( no caffeine )
i have tried hard to keep away from
additives , don't feel much like cooking
at the moment.
I have to admit that my carbs intake was
huge over the winter months.
I don't know what I can eat today, haven't
much of an appetite
pegi
|
Jennyflower
Experienced User , Rather EHEALTHy
Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 85 Location: london
Posted: 03-23-06 07:58am
Hi there pegi,
sorry lazy spelling - its houmous, which
is made from chickpeas, olive oil and
lemon juice I think. U can get tubs of it
in sainsburys or tescos. The tahini
spread is basically just pulped sesame
seeds - I get mine at holland &
barratt health food store. It reminds me
of peanut butter.
What are your symptoms and when do u get
them?
|
Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1704 Location: ,
Thanks: 3
Thanked:0
Posted: 03-23-06 11:09am
You don't worry about appetite for now,
you eat by the clock, typically every two
hours.
|
pegi
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 4 Location: UK
Posted: 03-23-06 11:53am
Hi jennyflower and thanks
the symptoms yesterday in the morning
after eating 2 weetabix was a racing
heart, feeling cold and then hot, clammy
hands and feet, couldn't think straight
which led to terrible panic attack
feelings and shaking for a couple of hours
until I drank the sweet tea.. I was asked
by the dr to eat a mars bar or drink
lucozade, neither of which I had , so
drank a cup of tea with 3 sugars , yukk.
Was asked to report back in 3/4 hour
during which time the dr visited and by
now I was feeling more human. I am still
waiting to have a blood test done.
I had a bowl of porridge at 2.20 this
afternoon, I felt very hungry at 4.20, was
going to do a blood test and check sugar
levels but can't find the test strips
until hubby gets back shortly.
Maybe I have a wheat allergy ?
I used to be able to get sunflower seed
spread but can't seem to find it anywhere
now.
Stan
_____
thanks for your reply, I try to eat every
2 hours but it doesn't seem to be helping
at times and I keep running out of ideas ,
all I seem to have is carbs, bananas make
me feel even more hungry. Dr said carbs
are good but I have my doubts, he also
said cakes are good , very puzzled now
pegi.
|
Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1704 Location: ,
Thanks: 3
Thanked:0
Posted: 03-23-06 13:55pm
Your doctor is very wrong. Carbohydrates
are only good in the sense that they must
be 1. Complex and 2. You must find the
level of them for you that produces
little, reduced, or, if you're lucky, no
symptoms. Once you find this level, you
stick with it until symptoms disappear.
You should start eating around 60-100g of
carbohydrates. No more no less. Start
from there, some people may be able to
function on less, some more, but you need
to find what works for you. Don't listen
to this "doctor" anymore. If they really
told you to eat cake you need to find
another doctor soon.
