Non-diabetic reactive hypoglycaemia

Cry18

Member
Messages
14
Hello everyone,

I’m new to this forum ☺️ But not new to non-diabetic reactive hypoglycaemia - I was officially diagnosed in 2018, along with PCOS syndrome (I don’t actually have any cysts now, and my periods have been regular for years but I do have excess facial hair and acne).

I’m looking to speak to anyone else who has non diabetic reactive hypoglycaemia. Do you stick to a strict no sugar/carbs? I’ve done this before and it did help symptoms, but it’s really difficult when socialising and I just feel like I’m being deprived of all of life’s joys! For the first few years I was diagnosed I didn’t worry too much, but over the past year I’ve been really anxious about dying from low blood sugar. Would this be possible without diabetes?

Has anyone been pregnant with this? As I’m currently pregnant and monitored my blood sugar for two weeks which was all fine, I’ve got to monitor again when I get to 28 weeks to check for gestational diabetes and I’ve been trying to avoid sugar as much as I can but sometimes I just want a brownie. Would there be any damage done to the baby from the occasional low?

thanks everyone - hope I can meet some people with the same thing as it’s quite lonely!
 

Lamont D

Oracle
Messages
15,796
Type of diabetes
Reactive hypoglycemia
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Hello everyone,

I’m new to this forum ☺️ But not new to non-diabetic reactive hypoglycaemia - I was officially diagnosed in 2018, along with PCOS syndrome (I don’t actually have any cysts now, and my periods have been regular for years but I do have excess facial hair and acne).

I’m looking to speak to anyone else who has non diabetic reactive hypoglycaemia. Do you stick to a strict no sugar/carbs? I’ve done this before and it did help symptoms, but it’s really difficult when socialising and I just feel like I’m being deprived of all of life’s joys! For the first few years I was diagnosed I didn’t worry too much, but over the past year I’ve been really anxious about dying from low blood sugar. Would this be possible without diabetes?

Has anyone been pregnant with this? As I’m currently pregnant and monitored my blood sugar for two weeks which was all fine, I’ve got to monitor again when I get to 28 weeks to check for gestational diabetes and I’ve been trying to avoid sugar as much as I can but sometimes I just want a brownie. Would there be any damage done to the baby from the occasional low?

thanks everyone - hope I can meet some people with the same thing as it’s quite lonely!

Hi and welcome to our forum.
I have reactive hypoglycaemia and was diagnosed eight years ago.
I am in a dietary regime of very low carb, which is being in Keto.
I use intermittent fasting and only eat in a small window.

Having very low blood sugar levels is always not advised, because in the long run, it will harm your health. It's the same as having too much insulin, which can happen with RH, this is what drives blood sugar levels down into hypoglycaemia.
Please understand that a result above 3.5 is not hypoglycaemia. Anything lower is.

I have not had the experience to advise on pregnancy and all that happens with RH.
I can't help with that. However having continuous hypos will not benefit the pair of you. Congratulations by the way.

RH is a dietary condition, I will add that I refer to the condition as carbs intolerance.
Which means every time you eat the amount of carbs will impact your blood sugar levels and trigger the insulin overshoot of insulin. Depending on your intolerance levels, will determine how badly you react.

I remain in normal blood sugar levels as much as possible and have found this to be the best treatment, I have had very few hypos since diagnosis because I don't trigger the overshoot. No carbs, no hyper, no overshoot, no hypos.

I would believe that you are not giving yourself enough time to becoming low enough to maintain control, it can take a couple of weeks to get there. Have patience.
But again I stress that a lot of things during pregnancy, will affect your health and the control of RH.

Keep asking, keep safe.
 

Brunneria

Guru
Retired Moderator
Messages
21,889
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi and welcome, :)

I have PCOS and RH but I have never been (or wanted to be) pregnant, so I cannot speak from experience on that side of things.

however, if I were pregnant, I think I would be less concerned about the lows than about the flooding of insulin through the bloodstream which would happen if I ate carbs. Unless I had passed out from hypos in the past. Fortunately, that has never happened to me.

as an RHer, my body pumps out more insulin than a nonRHer, which causes an overshoot. It is the overshoot that then pushes the blood glucose down to cause the hypo. So the key to avoid the hypo is to avoid the overshoot by avoiding the carbs that cause the overshoot.

pregnant women are naturally more insulin resistant than non pregnant women
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4290225/
And I know from personal experience with RH that the higher my carb intake, the higher my insulin resistance.

the following is a study on women with type1 diabetes, but the comparison is pretty easy for an RHer
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jdr/2019/5320156/

However, it is not all doom and gloom!
There are plenty of delicious low carb foods that you can comfortably indulge in while pregnant. These include low carb brownies, ice creams, cakes and cookies. You can google for ‘keto brownies’ and either bake them yourself, or buy them pre-prepared. There are v easy kits you can buy on Amazon for delicious keto choc brownies.

my suggestion is to have some already in the cupboard ready for when the cravings hit.

hope that helps!