Hypoglycemia, Anxiety, And Night Eating - Help! Posted: 03-26-07 10:31am
hello all. i have a question about sugar
and sleep. here is my dilemma. first off,
i'm hypoglycemic, and also take medicine
(paxil - 40mg/day) for anxiety. i don't
follow a hypoglycemic diet, but i do try
to eat a good breakfast, lunch, and
dinner. here's where the trouble begins.
every night, about 4 or 5 hours after i go
to sleep, i wake-up very, very hungry.
there are only a few things that i want
when i wake-up. something sweet and with
lots of carbs + a glass of milk, or a
large bowl of cereal. usually i will eat a
bowl of cereal (or two - i could eat the
whole box). sugared cereal is preferred,
but something like chex will work if i add
sugar. i will scarf down a bowl of cereal
like i haven't eaten in days.
then i go back to bed and sleep like a
baby. and when i awake - i feel like i've
been hit by an 18-wheeler. i feel groggy,
like i can't wake up, slow, tired, and
anxious. i still feel like i am half
asleep. it's horrible. then, once i do
finally do wake-up all the way, i deal
with anxiety and feelings of being
overwhelmed for the rest of the day. it's
a vicious cycle. i try not to eat in the
middle of the night...but i wake-up so
hungry.
how much could this "eating in the middle
of the night" be contributing to my
anxiety? how much can sugar affect your
mood throughout the day? any insight into
this problem and what i can do to fix it
would be very much appreciated.
by the way, i am a 32 year-old caucasian
male, and weigh about 235 lbs. thanks
again, aj.
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Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1620 Location: ,
Posted: 03-28-07 10:28am
I wish you weren't even taking Paxil. If
you weren't you'd see how poor of
condition your body is now in. Eating
that at night is destroying your body. If
you ever wake up like that, the advice is
to always eat something containing
primarily protein, nothing else. Usually
the suggestion is one or two hard boiled
eggs. You better start learning to eat
right, otherwise you will eventually get
worse and may end up insulin depedant
diabetic.
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scleme1
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 27 Oct 2005 Posts: 5 Location: KC
Posted: 04-03-07 11:31am
how is the paxil keeping me from seeing
waht condition my body is in? it really
helps with the anxiety. is it hurting me
in other ways?
i will try to have some bacon or boiled
eggs ready for myself at night and see how
that goes. thanks!
|
Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1620 Location: ,
Posted: 04-03-07 14:41pm
Well, I don't really care for psychotropic
drugs. You should always try a natural
means before ever going about medication.
There are plenty of herbs out there and
supplements known for helping with anxiety
that you could have tried, but obviously
no one told you about them. Anyway, what
I meant is that the Paxil is just masking
the symptoms, that's it. It's not curing
the underlying problem, which is only your
sugar. You fix that and you won't need to
be taking anything. If you weren't on it,
obviously the anxiety would be worse, but
you'd also be more aware of physical
problems because of it. I see you don't
really know what to eat either. Eggs,
fine. I prefer organic, free range, but
that's up to you. Bacon, however, is
cured, so you'll get sick from eating it.
No bacon is uncured. You need to learn
what to eat and avoid. White sugar is the
first step, followed by white bread
products, anything processed (it all
contains sugar, look if you don't think
they do), anything that doesn't say 100%
whole grain on it (if not, it's
essentially total garbage, companies now
will have packages say 'whole grain' which
means that yes it does contain whole
grain, but in a totally striped form),
alcohol and certain fruits and vegetables.
A high carbohydrate diet, especially one
that relies totally on sugar as you've
been doing, will lead to diabetes in time.
I do not recommend stopping the Paxil,
however, so keep that in mind. If you
start to eat right, considering your
current diet and condition, you can expect
to feel much, much worse for at least a
month or so, maybe longer depending on how
long you've been eating like this.
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Gymrex
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 9 Location: New Jersey
Posted: 04-07-07 13:34pm
Schleme, you do not realize how good you
could feel if you change your diet,
exercise a little, and loose some weight.
I know because I've had a similar
experience to yours.
I also believe that medications such as
paxil are a big scam. The problem is
everyone wants an easy fix to their
problems. Popping a pill is easy. Changing
your lifestyle is hard. It takes time,
effort, patience, and discipline, but it's
worth it. Many psychological conditions
are caused by or made much worse by a poor
diet and lack of sufficient exercise.
Feeling healthy and energized when you
wake up in the morning is something no
pill will give you.
You would not have to change your
lifestyle if it wasn't for the fact that
most of the western world, especially the
US, has become poisoned with sugar and
refined carbohydrates. The human body is
not adapted to deal with the ridiculous
amounts of sugar in the typical western
diet. That's why diabetes is now one of
the top three most common diseases.
Your condition is not entirely your fault,
but you have to recognize it and recognize
the fact that you need to take immediate,
drastic, and permanent measures to reverse
it. If not you will develop diabetes - if
you don't already have it - and your
quality of life will continue to degrade.
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