What Should I Do When My Blood Sugar Is Low

Monitor Blood Sugar Levels Closely

High blood sugar levels often do not cause symptoms until they run well over 200 mg/dL. As such, it is essential for a person with diabetes to monitor their blood sugar several times a day. Doing so will mean that blood sugar levels never get that high.

A person with diabetes can use a home glucose monitor to check blood sugar levels. These are available for purchase online.

Recommendations for how frequently to check glucose levels during the day will vary from person to person. A doctor can make the best recommendations regarding blood sugar monitoring to a person with diabetes.

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.

Causes Of Low Blood Sugar

There are many reasons why you may have low blood sugar, including:

• Taking too much insulin.
• Not eating enough carbs for how much insulin you take.
• Timing of when you take your insulin.
• The amount and timing of physical activity.
• Drinking alcohol.
• How much fat, protein, and fiber are in your meal.
• Hot and humid weather.
• Unexpected changes in your schedule.
• Spending time at a high altitude.
• Going through puberty.
• Menstruation.

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Signs & Symptoms Of Low Blood Sugar

Keeping blood glucose levels in a healthy range can be challenging.

When the amount of sugar in your blood has dropped below your target range , it is called low blood sugar .

If your blood sugar has dropped, you may feel:

• shaky, light-headed, nauseated
• an increase in heart rate
• sweaty, headachy
• weak, drowsy
• numbness or tingling on your tongue or lips

Symptoms of very low blood sugar are more severe and can make you:

• confused and disoriented
• lose consciousness
• have a seizure

Make sure you always wear your MedicAlert® identification and talk to your doctor or diabetes educator about prevention and emergency treatment for severe low blood sugar.

Low Blood Sugar: Warning Signs Ways To Treat And When To Call The Doctor

Physicians explain how to tell when your blood sugar is dangerously low, and how to take action to prevent complications.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2020 National Diabetes Statistics Report, 34 million people living in the United States had diabetes in 2018 — and amazingly, 21% of adults with diabetes did not even know they had it. The scariest part is that, if left untreated, diabetes can be deadly. In fact, it was the seventh leading cause of death in the year 2017.

And while normally associated with high blood sugar , diabetic folks can also experience hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, alongside its own bevy of problems — including more severe and/or long-term effects like seizures, loss of consciousness, dementia and even death. Further, according to the Mayo Clinic, hypoglycemia can also cause low blood sugar in folks without diabetes due to a variety of conditions and medications.

So, needless to say, it’s important to maintain healthy blood sugar levels. But how is this done, especially if you don’t know the first thing about blood sugar?

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When Your Blood Sugar Gets Low

Check your blood sugar whenever you have symptoms of low blood sugar. If your blood sugar is below 70 mg/dL, treat yourself right away.

1. Eat something that has about 15 grams of carbohydrates. Examples are:

• 3 glucose tablets
• One half cup of fruit juice or regular, non-diet soda
• 5 or 6 hard candies
• 1 tablespoon or 15 mL of sugar, plain or dissolved in water
• 1 tbsp of honey or syrup

2. Wait about 15 minutes before eating any more. Be careful not to eat too much. This can cause high blood sugar and weight gain.

3. Check your blood sugar again.

4. If you do not feel better in 15 minutes and your blood sugar is still lower than 70 mg/dL , eat another snack with 15 g of carbohydrates.

You may need to eat a snack with carbohydrates and protein if your blood sugar is in a safer range — over 70 mg/dL — and your next meal is more than an hour away.

Ask your provider how to manage this situation. If these steps for raising your blood sugar do not work, call your doctor right away.

What Should I Do With The Data

When keeping track of your results, make sure to include the time and date, blood glucose results. Additional notes about what you ate, whether you exercised, any difficulty with illness and stress, medications, and doses you are taking can be helpful. You should discuss your results with your diabetes educator on a frequent basis to determine what they represent and whether you need to make any adjustments to better control your blood sugar.

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Low blood sugar is called hypoglycemia and occurs when blood sugar levels fall below 70 mg/dL. Low blood sugar can become life-threatening if it becomes severe, so its essential that people with diabetes and those caring for them know which foods to eat when low blood sugar occurs.

Suppose someone has repeated incidents of low blood sugar. In that case, they may develop hypoglycemia unawareness, which is when they dont notice low blood sugar symptoms as quickly as they once could. Hypoglycemia unawareness increases the risk of severe hypoglycemia, so treating and preventing hypoglycemia is very important for the health and safety of people with diabetes.

Hypoglycemia Tests And Diagnosis

To diagnose nondiabetic hypoglycemia, your doctor will do a physical exam and ask questions about any medicines you take. Theyâll want to know all about your health and any history of diseases or stomach surgery.

Theyâll check your blood glucose level, especially when you are having symptoms. Theyâll also check to see if you feel better when your sugar goes back to a normal level.

If your doctor suspects hypoglycemia, you may have to fast until you start to have symptoms. Theyâll test your blood glucose level at different times throughout the fast.

To check for reactive hypoglycemia, you may have to take a test called a mixed-meal tolerance test . For this, you take a special drink that raises your blood glucose. The doctor will check your blood glucose levels over the next few hours.

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Why Is It Important To Recognize A Low Blood Sugar Level

Low blood sugar levels can happen with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Low levels are more likely to happen if you use insulin. Hypoglycemia can cause you to have falls, accidents, and injuries. A blood sugar level that gets too low can lead to seizures, coma, and death. Learn to recognize the symptoms early so you can get treatment quickly.

How To Help Others Help You

Knowing the signs of low blood sugar, having an action plan, and being prepared with your glucose meter and glucose tablets are vital, but sometimes you might need to rely on other people to help when youre blood sugar drops too low. Take these additional steps so youre prepared and they are, too:

Teach your loved ones. If youre unable to help yourself, friends, family, or colleagues may need to treat you with an injection of glucagon, a hormone that tells your liver to release stored glucose, the American Diabetes Association says. For this reason, its a good idea to teach those close to you what to do. If they dont know how to give you the injection or if glucagon isnt available, they must call 911 and get you the help you need, Evans says. Low blood sugar thats sustained for a prolonged time can lead to irreversible brain damage, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center.

Wear an ID bracelet. Evan suggests that everyone with diabetes should get a tattoo or wear a medical ID bracelet. The bracelet should say diabetes and whether youre on insulin or take other medications, the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston recommends.

Talk to your doctor about your low blood sugar risk. If you have frequent bouts of hypoglycemia, be sure to talk with your doctor. The solution may be as simple as changing how much or the kind of diabetes medicine you take. However, never make any changes to your medication regimen without your doctors approval.

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How To Treat Someone Who’s Having A Seizure Or Fit

Follow these steps if someone has a seizure or fit caused by a low blood sugar level:

Tell your diabetes care team if you ever have a severe hypo that caused you to have a seizure or fit.

How Common Is Low Blood Glucose

Low blood glucose is common among people with type 1 diabetes and among people with type 2 diabetes who take insulin or some other diabetes medicines. In a large global study of people with diabetes who take insulin, 4 in 5 people with type 1 diabetes and nearly half of those with type 2 diabetes reported a low blood sugar event at least once over a 4-week period.2

Severely low blood glucose, defined as when your blood glucose level drops so low you cant treat it yourself, is less common. Among U.S. adults with diabetes who take insulin or some diabetes medicines that help the pancreas release insulin into the blood, 2 in 100 may develop severely low blood glucose each year.3

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How Can I Avoid Hypos

If you have type 1 diabetes, you’ll often be encouraged to control your blood sugar to almost the same levels as someone who doesn’t have diabetes, especially if you’re young and don’t have complications of diabetes or other medical conditions. This is because high blood glucose in the long term is linked to damage to your kidneys, eyes, nerves, feet and heart. However, keeping tight control of your blood glucose does increase the risk of hypos.

Having said that, there are lots of steps you can take to reduce the risk of hypos. These include:

• Not skipping or delaying snacks or meals.
• Learning about the right dose of insulin you need for a given amount of carbohydrate.
• Adjusting your insulin if you’re exercising vigorously.
• Avoiding alcohol, and particularly drinking on an empty stomach.
• Speaking to your medical team in advance of situations where your normal eating will be disrupted so you can work together to adjust your insulin dose.
• If you’re taking sulfonylurea tablets and getting symptoms that you think may be hypos, speak with your team. They may be able to change your medication, as there are many alternative treatments for type 2 diabetes that don’t cause hypos.
• Keeping a supply of sugary drink, fruit juice or glucose tablets to hand at all times, so you can treat symptoms early.
• Checking your blood glucose regularly.

Low Blood Sugar Levels In Diabetes

People with diabetes can have low blood sugar levels because of the medicines they have to take to manage their diabetes. They may need a hormone called or diabetes pills to help their bodies use the sugar in their blood.

These medicines help take the sugar out of the blood and get it into the body’s cells, which makes the blood sugar level go down. But sometimes it’s a tricky balancing act and blood sugar levels can get too low.

People with diabetes need to keep their blood sugars from getting too highor too low. Keeping blood sugar levels in a healthy range means balancing when and what they eat, and when they exercise with when they take medicines.

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How Can I Help If I Think Someone Is Having A Hypo

The symptoms of hypos can often be mistaken for drunkenness. So if you see someone acting oddly, especially if you know or suspect they have diabetes, check if they have:

• A medical alert bracelet or similar.
• An insulin pen or syringe, or glucose testing kit.
• Glucose gel or sugary sweets.

Then:

• Help them sit down quietly.
• If they have their own glucose gel, help them take it.
• Otherwise, give them sugary sweets, two teaspoons of sugar, or a glass of sugary drink or fruit juice .
• Keep a careful eye on their level of responsiveness, breathing and pulse.
• If they get better, make sure they check their blood glucose.
• If they don’t improve, call 999 .

Signs Of Low Blood Sugar

With hypoglycemia, the blood sugar falls below the normal, healthy levels mentioned earlier, which can occur for a variety of reasons.

“Although some people with blood sugar problems may not experience symptoms,” Dr. Aldasouqi continued, “there are some key things to look out for. For those with low blood sugar, someone might have symptoms like anxiety, sweating, increased heart rate, confusion, and may go into what is called ‘a hypoglycemic coma’… The term ‘diabetic coma’ is also used by some.”

Other symptoms of low blood sugar may include:

• Fatigue
• Tingling or numb lips, tongue or cheek
• Blurry vision

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When To See The Doctor

In case of hyperglycemia, see your doctor if you experience any of the following:

If you have hypoglycemia and your symptoms do not improve after eating a sugary snack, have someone take you to the emergency room or phone your local emergency number DO NOT drive while your blood sugar is low.

How Can I Prevent Low Blood Sugar

Your best bet is to practice good diabetes management and learn to detect hypoglycemia so you can treat it earlybefore it gets worse.

Monitoring blood sugar, with either a meter or a CGM, is the tried and true method for preventing hypoglycemia. Studies consistently show that the more a person checks blood sugar, the lower his or her risk of hypoglycemia. This is because you can see when blood sugar levels are dropping and can treat it before it gets too low.

If you can, check often!

• Check before and after meals.
• Check before and after exercise .
• Check before bed.
• After intense exercise, also check in the middle of the night.
• Check more if things around you change such as, a new insulin routine, a different work schedule, an increase in physical activity, or travel across time zones.

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Complications From Spells Of Hypoglycemia

Mildly low blood sugar levels are somewhat common for people with diabetes. However, severely low blood sugar levels can be life threatening. They may lead to seizures and nervous system damage if left untreated long enough. Immediate treatment is critical.

Its important to recognize your symptoms and treat them quickly. For people at risk for low blood sugar, having a glucagon kit a medication that raises blood sugar levels is important. Talk with your doctor for more information.

You may also want to talk with friends, family members, exercise partners, and co-workers about how to care for you if your blood sugar drops too low.

Its important for them to recognize low blood sugar symptoms and to know how to use the glucagon kit, as well as understand the importance of calling 911 if you lose consciousness.

Wearing a medical identification bracelet is a good idea. It can help emergency responders care for you properly if you need urgent medical attention.

Treat low blood sugar as soon as possible. Avoid driving if you are experiencing low blood sugar, as it can increase your risk for having an accident.

There are several ways you can prevent low blood sugar. Well look at each of these prevention methods in more detail below.

Your Hypoglycemia Action Plan

If you experience symptoms of hypoglycemia, its important to take action. Start with these steps:

Test your blood sugar. If you recognize any of these symptoms and believe your blood sugar may be too low, the first step you should take is to test your blood sugar with your glucose meter, Tan says. Anything less than 70 milligrams per deciliter is considered low blood sugar, according to the National Library of Medicine . However, target levels are often individualized, so talk with your healthcare provider about your optimal numbers, Tan adds.

Eat or drink fast-acting carbs. If you have low blood sugar, you need to take action right away. Your best bet is to consume about 15 grams of carbohydrates, the NLM says. Some options include:

• ½ cup or 4 ounces of orange juice
• ½ cup or 4 ounces of regular soda
• 1 tablespoon of sugar dissolved in water
• 1 tablespoon of honey or maple syrup
• 5 or 6 hard candies, jelly beans, or gumdrops
• 1 tablespoon of cake frosting
• 2 tablespoons of raisins
• ½ cup of applesauce

You can also take three to four glucose tablets or a tube of glucose gel. Everyone who takes medications for diabetes should always have glucose tablets with them, Galindo urges.

Wait, then retest. The next step is to wait 15 minutes, then test your blood sugar again. If blood sugar has reached 100 mg/dl or greater, youre fine. If not…

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