Discover Top Posts Tagged with #reactive hypoglycaemia

Hi! How are you??? Still hiding from the hospital?

I have a question for you: I’ve recently started experiencing pretty severe headaches after I eat anything on top of my usual inability to function if I consume any food or drink. My doctors are saying it’s just dehydration (which probably plays a part since I can barely drink water without feeling horribly ill) but they won’t properly diagnose or treat so I’m doing my own research. One of the things I’ve come across as possibly causing similar symptoms is reactive hypoglycaemia. I don’t think that’s my problem but I thought I’d ask you what had to be ruled out when you got diagnosed.

A gift for your troubles:

Hello lovely mutual! Thank you for the extremely sweet Labrador-Much puppy eyes in the void energy there!

I am still hiding from the hospital. I called my GP and got the usual “nah no appointments available sorry” so I shall have to try again on a day I don’t have class at uni. My blood sugars are a bit better-but honestly not much. Last time I was like this it took me about a month to sort at home and I’m not sure I’m up for that again. If it gets to tomorrow and I wake up low again that makes a full week of dodgy sugars soooo I might have to have a rethink about avoiding hospital like the plague.

I have found out I am on the waiting list for the dieticians though which is good. Honestly can’t wait for nutrition support!

Reactive hypoglycaemia, to me anyway, is one of those things that’s often caused by something else. It’s often found in patients post bariatric surgery - but that’s not the case with me. My very much personal opinion/working theory is that gastroparesis can cause a similar problem. Paralysed stomach isn’t too dissimilar from surgically smaller stomach physiology wise surely? Gastroparesis can cause wacky blood sugar related symptoms as far as I know because the time your body thinks it’s going to get food to absorb (and so dumps insulin) and the time it actually gets it don’t match? EDS can cause malabsorption so food absorbed and insulin don’t match. It’s a whole mess. I think MCAS can cause dumping syndrome too!

As far as conditions to rule out go -metabolic disorders. If your body can’t process a nutrient like fats properly that might mess up blood sugars. Gluten allergy (coeliac’s disease), Addisons disease potentially (especially if you also have low blood pressure/orthostatic intolerance symptoms). And the old classic diabetes. It’s worth ruling out just be sure you don’t gave the adult onset autoimmune version. Reactive Hypos can also be caused by insulin resistance developing - PCOS and some other hormone related conditions can cause that I think.

I got diagnosed after I’d already had Addison’s ruled out (morning cortisol test) and Coeliac as well I think. I took those blood tests my GP had done to an endocrinologist. He (thank goodness) knew what EDS was and ordered an Oral Glucose Tolerance test. I basically drank a lot of liquid glucose and sat there feeling very strange for several hours whilst they took blood to test my glucose and insulin levels at intervals. Turns out my body made more than double the amount of insulin it should have done-so that was fun! Unfortunately that was private testing (the only time I’ve ever gone private in the UK - it’s way too expensive to do again) and the NHS won’t accept it. So I haven’t got any support for it anymore. There are meds that help but they didn’t work well for me (likely because of the undiagnosed digestive issues) and so they got stopped. I was asymptomatic it was great! But I also had blood sugars of like 3.3 every day. Not super safe!

I hope that answers your questions-if not please do ask again. And Skye says hi!

#chronic illness #ehlers danlos zebra #reactive hypoglycaemia #hypoglycaemia #(and associated nonsense stuff)#the short version is its either an endocrine problem or a GI problem if your blood sugars are weird #and if it’s not A it’s B!#you can get meters and use them yourself relatively cheaply and safely as medical devices go #and the numbers can be helpful if you have a Dr that wants to listen to the

Do symptoms of hypoglycaemia include sort of powering down and in extreme situations almost falling asleep unless you get a small amount of simple carbs into your system? If yes, I may have that and so does my father. My way of dealing with it is by no longer having such ridiculous ideas like not putting any sugar whatsoever into my tea.

It depends what you mean by ‘powering down’, and what causes it. It’s normal to get hungry and need a pick-me-up, but not so normal for an excessive reaction after eating certain things.

As far as I understand it (please correct me anyone if I am wrong) -

There’s a reaction seen in diabetics if they take too much insulin. This is hypoglycaemia.

Reactive hypoglycaemia is like what diabetics experience, but occurring naturally in response to food eaten (and I think it’s far less common to get into the very dangerous states). By eating a normal amount of carbs there’s an insulin spike, and the crash is forceful, depending on how low the blood sugar levels go. Symptoms are on the wiki pages I’ve linked.

I describe it like going unconscious very slowly. I go very tired, hot, sweating, shaking, weak, then cognition gradually turns off beginning with thought processes and carrying on to become disorientated, and lose awareness of the environment (sights, sounds, etc.). Episodes can also happen in the night, major symptom being to wake up drenched in sweat.

A small amount of carbs fixes it, but too much will make it crash back down again, and a proper fat/protein meal should be followed up asap. On a long-term basis, carbs (like your sugar in tea) cause it, and management is by restricting carbs.

If you want to check, see if you can get hold of one of those glucose meters that diabetics use. It shouldn’t go below 4mmol/L, and even more shouldn’t go below 2.5mmol/L. It’s pretty rare so a GP is unlikely to recognise RH, but endocrinologists can test for it.

#reactive hypoglycaemia #hypoglycaemia #Anonymous #ask