Causes And Risk Factors Of Hypoglycemia
For most people with diabetes, hypoglycemia is more complex than simply not getting enough glucose. Your medication may cause low blood sugar, for example.
If you have type 1 diabetes or if you have type 2 diabetes and take insulin to regulate your blood sugar levels, you can experience low blood sugar if you do not take the proper amount of insulin, Dr. Dodell says. This is also noted by the American Diabetes Association.
Other diabetes medication can interfere with insulin production and make your glucose drop, too. Among these are the insulin-increasing drugs for type 2 diabetes called sulfonylureas and their less potent counterparts called meglitinides.
Natural Treatment Of Low Blood Sugar And Dizziness
- Regularly monitor and check the blood sugar levels.
- Give a cup of fruit juice, tea or coffee with sugar and water with glucose powder or sugar.
- Patient should be educated and counseled about diabetic hypoglycemia.
- Avoid self decision to take an excessive dose on finding elevated glucose level.
- Do not delay or miss meals.
- Food should be split through the day to avoid mid- day dizziness.
- Avoid alcohol
- Regular check up of blood sugar level of diabetics.
- Eat adequately after exercise.
How To Treat Someone Who’s Unconscious Or Very Sleepy
Follow these steps:
They may need to go to hospital if they’re being sick , or their blood sugar level drops again.
Tell your diabetes care team if you ever have a severe hypo that caused you to lose consciousness.
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If Sugar Dips After You Eat
If you don’t have diabetes and get dizzy after eating, you might actually be experiencing a post-meal condition known as reactive hypoglycemia. According to the Mayo Clinic, this is when blood sugar plummets right after a meal. It typically happens within four hours after eating, and it can spark shakiness, sweating, confusion and lightheadedness.
It’s not always clear why this happens. While it may have to do with what you eat, it could also be about when you eat, according to the Mayo Clinic. At the same time, your risk goes up if you’ve recently undergone certain operations like gastric bypass or if you’re genetically prone to metabolic disorders.
The good news is that if you get dizzy and lightheaded because of a post-meal blood sugar drop, it usually doesn’t last long. And medical treatment is rarely required.
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When Should I Call The Doctor For Dizziness
Dizziness is a common complaint and often has resolved by the time the patient arrives to see a health care professional. Usually there is no rush to seek care. However, while the complaint of dizziness is not often an emergency, seek care immediately if it is accompanied by any of the following:
- Chest pain, shortness of breath, or palpitations. These symptoms should not be ignored, as they suggest the heart may be the source of the dizziness.
- Dehydration. Often there may be an associated illness including fever, vomiting, or diarrhea.
- People with diabetes may have dizziness due to low blood sugar or high blood sugar , and may need emergent care to stabilize their insulin and medication requirements.
- Bleeding from any source.
- Altered mental status or thinking. This may include symptoms such as confusion, change in vision, change in speech, facial droop, weakness of one side of the body, or headache. These may be signs of stroke, bleeding in the brain, or tumor.
- FAST warning signs of a stroke:
- Face — facial droop
- Arm — arm or leg weakness
- Speech — difficulty speaking or understanding speech
- Time — time is of the essence. Call 911.
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Low Blood Sugar And Nausea
Whether people have diabetes or not, when they have mild low blood sugar, they may feel extremely hungry, often also nauseated. This symptom combination is the first sign of low blood sugar and is caused by the release of the stress hormone epinephrine, also known as adrenaline.
When your blood sugar drops, it triggers the fight-or-flight response, causing a surge of adrenaline. This flood of adrenaline functions as a helper, moving stored glucose into the bloodstream quickly. However, this surge isnt without effects. Other symptoms like sweating, shakiness, and anxiousness can also be caused by this process.
That said, people with diabetes shouldnt assume their nausea is always related to low blood sugar. The only way to know for certain is to measure your blood sugar. If your levels are within the normal range, other factors may be contributing to your nausea.
Causes Of Lightheadedness May Be Dehydration Medication Side Effects Sudden Blood Pressure Drops Low Blood Sugar And Heart Disease Or Stroke
Feeling woozy, lightheaded, or a little faint is a common complaint among older adults. Although it’s not usually caused by anything life-threatening, it could be, so you need to be careful.
“Don’t ignore it. Even if the lightheadedness does not have a serious cause, it could lead to serious injuries from a fall. And at the worst, the cause may itself be life-threatening,” says Dr. Shamai Grossman, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School.
If you feel lightheaded and/or woozy, Dr. Grossman recommends having a drink of water or orange juice and lying down. If symptoms last more than 15 minutes, he says it’s time to seek medical help in an urgent or emergency care setting. Even if symptoms are brief, and even if you think you know the cause, report the lightheadedness to your doctor.
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How To Treat A Low Blood Sugar Level Yourself
Follow these steps if your blood sugar level is less than 4mmol/L or you have hypo symptoms:
You do not usually need to get medical help once you’re feeling better if you only have a few hypos.
But tell your diabetes team if you keep having hypos or if you stop having symptoms when your blood sugar level is low.
You Feel Confused And Out Of Sorts
With hypoglycemia, all of your cells hunger for fuel, including your brain, says Kathleen Wyne, M.D., Ph.D, director of the Ohio State University Adult Type 1 Diabetes Program in Columbus. As a result, you may feel spacey and confused, and you may have trouble communicating. With diabetes, ask friends and family to generally stay alert and ask, Hey, are you struggling to talk right now? advises Janet G. Zappe, R.N., a clinical program manager for the Diabetes Research Center at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
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What Are The Complications Of Low Blood Glucose
Mild-to-moderate low blood glucose can be easily treated. But severely low blood glucose can cause serious complications, including passing out, coma, or death.
Repeated episodes of low blood glucose can lead to
- high blood glucose levels, if worry or fear of low blood glucose keeps you from taking the medicines you need to manage your diabetes8
- hypoglycemia unawareness, a condition in which you dont notice any symptoms of low blood glucose until your blood glucose level has dropped very low
You’re Extra Irritated And Angry
Is your level of frustration a 20 out of 10? Angry and anxious for no obvious reason? It could be hypoglycemia. The most common mood changes are being belligerent and argumentative, says Dr. Wyne. Or it could be more subtle in just refusing to discuss something or not agreeing to something that is normally acceptable to you, she says. If your partner tells you youre crankier than usual, take note. Personality changes like Bettys a major sign of hypoglycemia, agrees Zappe.
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Scared Of Getting Diabetes
According to the Journal of Geriatric Cardiology , the type of diet that Dr. Doyle recommends is highly beneficial for preventing and treating type 2 diabetes.
For people accustomed to SAD standard American diet the idea of the whole food, plant based diet will seem impossible.
If preventing and treating type 2 diabetes is as simple as adhering to a particular diet, why dont more mainstream medical doctors push this approach?
Its because medical school spends only a few hours on nutrition, and only in the general sense.
During internships and residencies at hospitals, medical doctors are essentially trained in only diagnostics, drugs and surgery.
Type 2 diabetes is usually treated with diet and exercise alone, yes, but the patient is typically only told to watch sugar intake or cut back on fast food, rather than told to keep intake of animal and processed products under 10 percent.
FoodTherapyMD is the brainchild of Dr. Mitchell Doyle and recognizes that phytonutrients, the substances that make plant food so amazing, can be tailored to fight specific disease states.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. Shes also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
Research And Statistics: How Common Is Hypoglycemia
Because hypoglycemia is largely a symptom of an underlying condition, its unclear exactly how common it is in the United States. However, heres what we do know:
- According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , 34.2 million people in the United States have diabetes. This is roughly 10.5 percent of the population, and the majority of these cases are type 2 diabetes.
- In the type 2 diabetes sphere, elderly adults are at highest risk for hypoglycemia unawareness. Previous research reported in Diabetes Care found that only 1 in 13 older adults with type 2 diabetes were able to correctly identify their symptoms.
- According to CDC data, 235,000 people with diabetes were admitted to the emergency room in 2016 due to hypoglycemia.
- Overall, the CDC estimates that 57,000 people with diabetes were hospitalized for hypoglycemia.
- Insulin excess is responsible for between 4 and 10 percent of deaths in patients with type 1 diabetes, according to past research published in Diabetes Care.
- A previous study identified a higher rate of hypoglycemia-related hospital visits in African American men with type 2 diabetes.
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What If I Have Severe Low Blood Glucose And Cant Treat Myself
Glucagona hormone that raises blood glucose levelsis the best way to treat severely low blood glucose. Available as an injection or a nasal spray, glucagon will quickly raise your blood glucose level. Your doctor can prescribe you a glucagon kit for use in case of an emergency.
If your blood glucose level drops very low, you wont be able to treat it by yourself. Be prepared to address severely low blood glucose by
- talking with your doctor or health care team about when and how to use a glucagon emergency kit. If you have an emergency kit, regularly check the date on the package to make sure it hasnt expired.
- teaching your family, friends, and coworkers when and how to give you glucagon. Tell them to call 911 right away after giving you glucagon or if you dont have a glucagon emergency kit with you.
- wearing a medical alert identification bracelet or pendant. A medical alert ID tells other people that you have diabetes and need care right away. Getting prompt care can help prevent the serious problems that low blood glucose levels can cause.
Severe Low Blood Sugar
As your low blood sugar gets worse, you may experience more serious symptoms, including:
- Feeling weak.
- Having difficulty walking or seeing clearly.
- Acting strange or feeling confused.
- Having seizures.
Severe low blood sugar is below 54 mg/dL. Blood sugar this low may make you faint . Often, youll need someone to help you treat severe low blood sugar.
People with diabetes may experience low blood sugar as often as once or twice a week, even when managing their blood sugar closely. Knowing how to identify and treat it is important for your health. Learn how to treat low blood sugar.
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What Are Regular Blood Glucose Levels
Theyre much less than 100 mg/dL after not consuming for at the very least 8 hours. And theyre less compared to 140 mg/dL 2 hrs after consuming.
Throughout the day, degrees have the tendency to be at their lowest right before dishes. For many people without diabetic issues, blood sugar level levels before meals hover around 70 to 80 mg/dL. For some individuals, 60 is regular for others, 90.
Whats a reduced sugar degree? It differs extensively, too. Several peoples sugar will not ever fall listed below 60, despite prolonged fasting. When you diet plan or fast, the liver maintains your degrees regular by turning fat and muscle mass right into sugar. A few individualss levels may fall rather lower.Symptoms Of High Blood Sugar Dizziness
You Feel Like You Might Pass Out
If you suddenly feel weak, shaky, or lightheadedor if you even faintyou could be experiencing hypoglycemia. A headache that comes on quickly, weakness or tremor in your arms or legs, and a slight trembling of your body are also signs that your blood sugar is too low. To get back to a more normal sugar level, eat something with sugar, such as pure glucose in the form of tablets or gel, for example. If its not urgent , go to the carbohydrates.
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About High Blood Sugar
High glucose levels occur when the body doesn’t have enough insulin or can’t properly use the insulin it has to shuttle glucose from the bloodstream to the bodys muscles, organs, and tissues for fuel, ONeill says. As a result, the amount of sugar in the blood builds up.
Hyperglycemia typically happens when you consume more carbohydrates or bigger portions of food than usual if you don’t take enough insulin or other diabetes medication as prescribed and if you decrease your levels of physical activity, she says. Heightened stress levels can also increase blood sugar levels. Non-diabetes-related medications that are known to raise blood sugar levels include steroids, beta-blockers, birth control pills, and many mental health medications, she explains.
Signs of high blood sugar include frequent urination, fatigue, dry or itchy skin, feeling thirsty, more frequent infections, and eating more food but not gaining as much weight as usual, says Athena Philis-Tsimikas, MD, the corporate vice president for the Scripps Whittier Diabetes Institute in La Jolla, California.
High blood sugar levels can cause these symptoms through various mechanisms, according to the Mayo Clinic. For example, high blood sugar levels damage blood vessels and nerves throughout the body. They can also deprive organs of energy and can cause fluid to accumulate in the eyes. And in an attempt to get your blood sugar to a healthier level, your body will often increase urine output.
How To Lower Your Risk
There are steps you can take to make blood sugar dips less likely. “In general, consuming protein and high-fiber foodssuch as whole grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes and nutswith meals and snacks can help reduce the effects of reactive hypoglycemia,” says Samantha Heller, MS, RD, a senior clinical nutritionist with NYU Langone Health.
Hummus and vegetables, a banana and peanut butter sandwich, or a spinach and bean burrito are all good options, “and avoid meals or snacks that are primarily easily digestible carbohydrates, such as chips, cookies, juices, candy, crackers, muffins or waffles,” she says. “These kinds of meals can cause a spike, followed by a crash in blood sugar, which can cause symptoms of hypoglycemia.”
The best way to prevent a low blood sugar episode of dizziness is “to include protein, fat and carbohydrate in a balanced meal,” Sandon says. “This helps slow down the release of carbohydrates into the blood, and lessens the insulin response to some degree.” Also avoid sugary foods like candy, soft drinks and honey, she warns, because all those foods can be a problem “if you are someone prone to reactive hypoglycemia.”
Anyone who feels that reactive hypoglycemia is an ongoing and recurring problem should see their doctor to determine the cause, Heller advises. Your doctor will rule out diabetes and other causes by checking your blood glucose level, the Endocrine Society explains.
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