Was it a hypo?

[Sindri]

I have asked this on the type 2 board but my hubby says I should ask properly in the ask a question section. I am a Type 2 diagnosed in August 2011 and controlled by diet. I normally have a blood sugar of between 5.5 and 6.5 when tested, not tested often of course due to expense and not being on medication i'm not allowed the strips on prescription.

I drank 2 glasses of Cava Champagne on Monday, felt a little tipsy and stopped at that. Had a fabulous lunch about an hour later and indulged in a fabulous chocolate cupcake as the pudding. About 20 mins later we were in the taxi coming home and I started feeling a bit nauseous, light headed and woozy after that I don't remember about 10 mins. I came too in the taxi on the way to hospital, I was confused and didn't know what was happening. My husband said I had been unresponsive, that my eyes were open and I was repeating the same words over and over but not responding to anything.

The hospital gave me a small cup of lucozade and took my blood sugar which was 4, my blood pressure was 98/65 and I had a small blip on my ECG. Over the next four hours my blood sugar came up to 5.3 and blood pressure came up to around 102/69. I had a muller light yogurt (small one) and about an hour later my sugars were 6.5(ish) and blood pressure was up to 135/just over 80 and no blip on my ECG. After 9 hours at the hospital the doctor said they didn't know what caused the episode and to go home.

Was this a hypo?? If it was would it have been the champagne?

 

[Pneu]

Ok to answer your two questions...

In all likelihood the champagne caused your body sugars to go low... normally our livers release sugar into our blood throughout the day to power our bodies... however if your liver is having to work hard doing something else such as cleaning alcohol from your blood then it stops releasing this glucose... I suspect what's happened is your body has responded to the meal by releasing insulin, at the same time your liver had stopped producing glucose (because of the alcohol) and consequently you now have to much insulin in your system this has taken your blood sugars low.

Reference Hypo's...
A normal blood glucose range in a non-diabetic is between 3.3 - 4.5 mmol/l depending on age and health and time of day.. In most people as our blood glucose drops below 4 mmol/l then the body begins a response as it fears your are going to run dangerously low on fuel... this response can come in all sorts of forms.. in its most mild it can be light-headedness, sickness, desire to eat, shakes, etc... As your sugars drop lower (typically sub 3mmol/l) then it can cause changes in brain activity, so anger, confusions, drowsiness, unresponsiveness, etc.. Very low blood sugars can eventually induce coma and even death.

Normally as your blood sugar drops low your liver begins to rapidly release its store of sugar (glucose) and your body cuts it's insulin response.. thus its very rare that anyone but a diabetic that injects insulin (where the body can't cut the insulin response) gets anything more than a little light headedness that soon passes... I think what you have experienced is almost a perfect storm of conditions..

1. The drinking diverted your liver function away from releasing glucose..
2. As such your body over shot the amount of insulin you needed; probably induced by a high sugar pudding / meal.
3. When your blood glucose dropped your liver was still busy elsewhere and didn't glucose dump until you came to in the taxi (at this point it probably rated the blood glucose drop as more dangerous than the alcohol).

Normally type II diabetics don't need to worry to much about drinking in moderation or hypo's (unless on medication that can induce them).. as a type I you learn very quickly that alcohol and blood glucose are not very friendly bed fellows! I don't think you necessarily need to worry about this going forward just make sure that in future you have eaten something contain carbohydrate before you drink.

Edit: I also note from your other thread you had been at a wedding so possible also a lot of dancing and more exercise / excitement and stress than usual.. this to could have further depleted your blood sugars as your muscles burn energy they re-absorb glucose from the blood this can go on for a number of hours after the exercise... so possibly other contributing factors as well

 

[Grazer]

Hmm! Had a few, shall we say, "discussions" on here recently, so I'll be careful. Pneu isn't wrong, but what she describes is a typical situation for a type 1 or type 2 on insulin.PERSONALLY, I think it's very unlikely you had blood sugar low enough to give you a hypo causing the lack of consciousness you experienced. . A type 2 on diet only, all other things being equal, like you is no more likely to get a Hypo than any non-diabetic. You can get low blood sugars, anyone can, but that's different to what would be called a dangerous hypo. True hypos normally only occur with diabetics taking insulin, although it can happen with certain pancreas stimulating medication. (NOT Metformin) What happens is that the amount of insulin in the blood as a result of medication is too much for the amount of glucose it is supposed to remove, so the subject goes far too low. This can happen with too much exercise, not enough food, or with alcohol on those people on insulin.On diet only, we can as I said get low blood sugar; I've measured my self at 3.2; and can get a bit light headed. So does my fit non diabetic daughter if she works hard with not enough food.Certainly, alcohol prevents the liver producing glucose in our blood as Pneu said, but as a type 2 on diet only that would normally result in your blood sugar not going as high as it otherwise would have; wouldn't expect it to DROP your BG enough for what happened. The reason it can with someone on insulin is that they are putting it in their body; on diet only, your body wouldn't produce the insulin if your BG wasn't high enough to justify it. I suspect something else caused your strange moment. If there is some other ailment or problem you have then I guess that could affect this, but as a normal type 2 on diet only it seems unlikely. Just my views!

 

[Pneu]

Grazer... totally unrelated! but just to confirm I am male

 

[Grazer]

Grazer... totally unrelated! but just to confirm I am male

Oh my God! How embarassed am I! Why did I assume otherwise? Perhaps at some level I'm deeply disturbed..........

 

[Pneu]

Grazer... totally unrelated! but just to confirm I am male

Oh my God! How embarassed am I! Why did I assume otherwise? Perhaps at some level I'm deeply disturbed..........

lol... I shouldn't worry no offence taken!

 

[chop363]

your blood sugar is under 4