Hypo recovery food

[Andy41]

Can anyone suggest a good food to get your blood sugar up again that doesn’t require me to clean my teeth again at 3 am? Is there a glucose jab even?

 

[Jasmin2000]

Glucose in water. I always have a bottle in the fridge - 15g/50 ml does me fine.

 

[EllieM]

What about a carton of juice? Then you could just rinse and spit...

My dentist just suggested I try to drink or rinse with some water after having glucose tablets...

But @Jasmin2000 's suggestion of glucose in water sounds better, though I guess you'd want to have it by the bed not in the fridge.

 

[In Response]

Do you need to clean your teeth at 3am?
Most of us are happy to go through the day without cleaning our teeth every time we eat something. But as soon as our head hits the pillow we (and i include myself in this) think the plaque and teeth bacteria come out at night and cling to any vestige of sugar. They don't do any more damage at night than they do during the day. So, we do not have to clean our teeth after treating a night time hypo.
However, if this happens often enough for you to worry about your teeth, it maybe worth checking your insulin dose is correct. Maybe do a basal test? Or work out whether there are any patterns about when they happen - is it after exercise?
On the other hand, are they real hypos or compression lows on your CGM?

 

[becca59]

Can anyone suggest a good food to get your blood sugar up again that doesn’t require me to clean my teeth again at 3 am? Is there a glucose jab even?

Had a discussion with my dentist about this, as I’d been hitting the Jelly Babies quite hard in the night. I was told to not brush teeth afterwards, but to have a glass of water on bedside table to rinse with. Brushing brushes the sugar in which is why breakfast should be eaten after, not before brushing teeth apparently. Something I’d never done in over 60 years. Treat your hypo and rinse your teeth, they will be fine.

 

[Ushthetaff]

I would suggest not bothering to brush your teeth at 3 pm , as diabetics we inherently try to eat less sugary stuff than the general population , and I’m sure a large percentage of the population only brush twice a day without serious teeth issues .there is a glucose jab available on prescription and it’s advisable to keep one in the fridge , I wouldn’t use it as a cure for a hypo when you are able to treat it by eating something , only use in extreme cases normally like if your unable to treat hypo yourself. The glucose injection is available on prescription .

 

[In Response]

there is a glucose jab available on prescription and it’s advisable to keep one in the fridge

I assume you are referring to Glucagon which, as I understand , is not glucose but it forces the liver to dump glucose and is to be used when unresponsive due to a hypo. The effects are unpleasant and not to be used instead of eating a jelly baby or two.

 

[Ushthetaff]

I assume you are referring to Glucagon which, as I understand , is not glucose but it forces the liver to dump glucose and is to be used when unresponsive due to a hypo. The effects are unpleasant and not to be used instead of eating a jelly baby or two.

I understand what you’re saying but who says it’s not to be used , have used it when I took hypo cure and was immediately sick , I wasn’t unresponsive just not able to keep anything down, so I took this and I will say it was almost immediate , personally I didn’t find the effects unpleasant and as a side not if you were unresponsive how would you know it was unpleasant , as I would assume probably wrongly, that after recovering from being unresponsive one would feel a tad unpleasant so whose to say the cause, I totally agree that eating jelly baby or drink high sugar fluid is definitely the way, or maybe even setting Libre alarm ( if used) to try and prevent hypo in first place but as we all know it’s not a perfect world in the life of the diabetic or for anyone else for that matter . I do apologise if I seem in a bit argumentative , it’s definitely not meant even if it’s how it seems

 

[SimonP78]

I felt pretty awful when I was given one a long long time ago, but it may as you say be the fact I was very low and/or the effect of a large concentration of glucagon (which I think is probably the reason as I seem to recall having read that somewhere). I imagine how I felt wasn't helped by the alcohol which had contributed to producing the low in the first place!

I know they are looking at using glucagon alongside insulin for artificial pancreases (Dual hormone systems) so one assumes it must be ok in low/normal doses.