Joined: 28 Mar 2007 Posts: 2 Location: Darwen, England
Advice Needed Posted: 03-28-07 09:57am
All,
Sorry for the long post. Im 25, male and
play football 3 times and week, and attend
a martial arts class once a week. I dont
usually have breakfast and have generally
had two meals a day, one at around 12ish
and one around 5 with no problems.
For the last 5 weeks ive been having dizzy
spells, loss of concentration, mild
headaches, and periods of what i can only
describe as mental slowness (ie if someone
was talking to me it would take me a
second or two to register what they have
said and respond). Off i trundel to my gp.
He checked my blood pressure which was
higher than it should be, and also thought
he detected a murmur on my heart. He
suggested trying eating breakfast, to see
if this makes a difference, and sent me
for a blood test when i have the symptoms
(the blood test was for glucose random,
thyroid, liver, kidney and bone). Had the
blood test and an ecg. On a couple of days
i actually had my sandwiches (normally for
dinner!), and felt better.
A few days ago i recevied a letter from my
doc, requesting i have more blood tests in
1 month, this time only testing kidney,
liver and bone, and in the other notes
section it said hypoglycemic?? Now
obviously i cant eat my sarnies everyday
for breakfast, so having done a little
research sugar is a non no if its
hypoglycemia, so opted for shredded wheat.
Ive cut caffeine and sugary drinks out of
my diet as well.
Dizzy spells have since more or less
dissapeared, but have been replaced with
very bad headaches, the pain generally
moves around my head and eye sockets, and
will fade when i eat, but never seems to
go away, unless im excercising.
I have a few questions
1. are the above headaches a knee jerk
reaction from starting to have breakfast/
cutting caffeine? am i eating the wrong
thing?
2. Is there anything else i can do to
relieve the symptoms, and does it sound
like hypoglycemia?
i dont want to make too radical changes if
i can help it until i know fully what im
dealing with.
Thankyou for your help, all advice and
comments are greatly welcomed
cheers
Paul
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Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1704 Location: ,
Thanks: 3
Thanked:0
Posted: 03-28-07 10:31am
If you're eating whole grains you should
be fine. Sugars are okay if coming from
fruits, but stay away from dried fruits,
watermelon and especially bananas.
Something like one apple a day is good.
Always make sure you're eating 100% whole
grain and it says that on the box or
whatever you're buying. If not, don't eat
it. Don't eat white rice, white bread and
so forth, that's pretty much like eating
sugar. Most vegetables should be okay,
but you might want to stay away from corn
(it's actually a grain) or potatoes
depending on how bad your condition is.
Anyway, the symptoms you're experiencing
are likely just your body adjusting to the
diet. These things happen and there is
unfortunately nothing you can do about it,
you simply have to wait it out and keep
eating right. Do not skip breakfast.
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pab006
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 28 Mar 2007 Posts: 2 Location: Darwen, England
Posted: 04-04-07 06:25am
hi stan,
thanx for your reply. Looking at the forum
your certainly a guru. Quick question. My
headaches and general symptoms seem to be
100% better if ive done some form of
excercise the night before, ie the day
after football. Now i know i havent been
diagnosed yet, so i may not be
hypoglycemic, but is there a link between
excercise and hypoglycemia, ie imoproves
symptoms etc?
Secondly, taking cod liver oil tablets
really seems to help my headaches as well,
are there any other supplements i should
be looking at?
thanks again
Paul
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Stan
Moderator
Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 1704 Location: ,
Thanks: 3
Thanked:0
Posted: 04-04-07 09:25am
Yes, there does seem to be a connection.
I don't know exactly why, but I've read
that exercise strengthens insulin response
and glucose regulation. I usually find
that if I don't exercise for a few days (I
do kung fu and heavy lifting), I feel
worse, sometimes pretty bad. It also keep
endorphins up which helps the entire body.
Again, not sure exactly what's happening,
but it definitely helps. Instead of cod
liver, find these capsules called fish oil
from a company called spectrum naturals.
They have a particular type that has a
picture of three little fish and which
says it's derived from wild caught small
fish. This is the kind you want and that
should help even more. You may also want
to try a nice, natural vitamin c tablet to
supplement, getting around 1g per day
maximum because you basically just pee out
the rest. This will help. Try that and
let me know. Here is what you need to
find:
