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Am I the only one that has this symptom?

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Sue777

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New to this forum but not new to RH. Love all the reading I've been doing here so thank you all for the great posts and information. In spite of all my searching, I can't seem to find anyone else who suffers from urgent diarrhea as part of their blood sugar crash. My crash symptoms occur identically every time, in the same order: I feel a jolting dizzy wave, then the anxiety and panic set in, then the hot flash, and within minutes I'm running desperately to the nearest bathroom. After that, the crashing fatigue sets in.

I know all the other symptoms are a normal part of most people's blood sugar issues, but I never read or hear about anyone having to urgently empty their bowels. Does anyone else experience this or have any theory as to why this happens? As a side note, I do have colitis so perhaps that's part of it, but even when my colitis is not in a flare and is fully under control, a low blood sugar episode sends me running, praying I'll make it on time.

Thanks in advance for any feedback or thoughts.
Sue
 
Hi Sue, and welcome to our forum.
Glad you have read the threads and hopefully you have understood what is happening with your blood glucose levels.
Going the toilet as you have described is a new symptom that I don't remember anyone else has mentioned. It must be the colitis, but I'm only guessing.
I have had an upset stomach and of course the usual clenching to make sure I make it up the stairs!
If I can, ask some questions?
How are you advised to control your blood glucose levels? Maybe if you can stop the lows, you can stop the frantic rush to the toilet!
What is a typical days food for you?
With the colitis, how do you get on with the dietary needs of both conditions?

Again welcome to our forum, keep asking, maybe someone has a similar symptom.

Best wishes
 
I do not have reactive hypoglycemia, but i do have panic attacks, You mentioned anxiety and a wave of panic and I can say that yes, an urgent need to empty your bowels goes with the wave of panic/anxiety. Its part of the fight or flight response our bodies do when we feel under threat.

I have lows, but not so many now I keep my carb intake as low as i can, and that has helped with the panic response, as the lows seemed to mimic and trigger a panic attack.
 
Thank you both for the warm welcome and replies..... I think I've found a new place to hang out. Yes, I think the panic part sets off the digestive crisis, but I've tried to figure out WHY I have the panic and purging during these episodes. Is it an excess of insulin? Is it an adrenaline jolt? When I say the first symptom I notice is a "jolting" dizziness, it is truly that intense and quick.... it can sometimes make me grab onto my desk because I think I'm going to lose my balance, but only lasts a second. What is that jolt? The crash? Insulin? Cortisol? Adrenaline?

To answer your questions, Lamont: I have tried everything under the sun to manage my colitis with as few medications as possible. The only thing that works like a charm, every time, is steroids, but those are evil in other ways so I am on a very, very, VERY low dose right now just to "maintain". I have tried giving up dairy, giving up gluten, eating paleo, eating vegan..... you name it. Giving up dairy and gluten certainly helps the colitis so I've stuck with that for the most part.

About 20 years ago I did Atkins to try and lose weight and it was successful. But after 9 months I started having some medical issues and my family, friends AND DOCTORS strongly urged me to "get off that stupid diet!". Being desperate, and not having much scientific evidence on low carbing 20 years ago, I gave in.

About 6 months ago while I was struggling to find a way of living that would make me feel my healthiest and happiest I remembered that while doing Atkins, I had never felt better. Good energy, good mood, and very few blood sugar swings. I decided I should do it again (now that there are more people doing it - I was pretty much alone back then and there were very few low-carb options in the stores). I started reading about ketogenic diets and went for it. I'm still doing it. Due to a failure with my breathometer I ended up falling out of ketosis about 3 months ago so pretty much had to start all over. I'm back in ketosis but not yet "fat adapted". Hopefully when I am, I won't have any BG spikes or crashes.

I actually don't have them all that often right now, but what throws me and scares me is WHY they happen when they do. I couldn't think of any good reason for having such a miserable day yesterday. So the "unknown" and unpredictability of an episode being able to ruin a day (and plans) like that really frustrates and scares me. I have a full day tomorrow with other people and I'm anxious about not feeling well enough to do it. Yes, that's the anxiety I've dealt with for decades rearing it's ugly head. But honestly, if I can't figure out WHY I crashed yesterday, how can I prevent it from happening again?

Regarding how I was instructed to handle my RH? I've never been "officially" diagnosed by any doctor and I'm not sure any of them truly recognize it as a problem so I don't even mention it anymore. I just handle it on my own with diet.

How do I handle both RH and colitis? THAT, my new friend, is the hard part. A keto WOE would be SO much easier and pleasurable if I could eat dairy. Or if I could eat salad or raw vegetables. As it is, there are very few vegetables I can eat without triggering my colitis. My typical day is not to eat breakfast, have meat and a small amount of veggie for lunch, perhaps some nuts for a snack, and then meat and veggie for dinner. Boring, yes, but keeping me in ketosis.

Sorry, I'm sure you weren't looking for a mini-novel but I got carried away. Ask all you want - I love being here and sharing.
Sue
 
You say you gave up dairy and gluten, and the colitis improved, but did you give these up and the same time? Maybe it is the gluten and not the dairy? Have you tried introducing a little dairy since you gave it up? Have you found any "alternatives" such as goats cheese or similar? It does seem a shame to be unable to eat it when it is so useful on keto diets.
 
It must be another symptom of RH! Writing long posts and telling a saga of your battles with the medical profession!
If you are interested in my blog, it is in my box underneath my post, but you might not yet have enough posts to be allowed to.
If you go to top of page, click on blogs, and search for Lamont d blog.
It has to be hormones! But I think as lucylocket said it's that combination of anxiety and stress that certainly won't help with whatever it is or causing it.
You seem to be aware of your tolerance levels, like me, no dairy, no wheat but I'm not gluten intolerant, go figure!
What fats do you have to cook with?
As I have found that vegetable oils just don't agree with me.
I was told by my endocrinologist to swerve it and eat natural saturated fat.
You do seem to have a very restrictive diet, more than I do, but you feel better for it, more energy and it does help with other conditions as well.
I seem to be writing a lot about doctors not having a clue, and it wasn't until I got referred to my current endocrinologist that something happened to me.
There are good endos out there who understand why RH ers suffer so much.
But they are very few. My first endocrinologist thought it was T2 and fatty liver!
I needed to be on a diet! He advised me to eat the eat well plate and get more exercise.
He just didn't have a clue!
I now have great support from my GPs surgery and my endocrinologist.
I e-mail every so often.
 
Hi there.
No, I gave up dairy about 6 months before giving up gluten. I am definitely lactose intolerant, have been for decades, and amazingly when I gave up dairy I was able to give up my Flonase, Afrin and Claritin-D, too! Apparently dairy does something inflammatory in my head and sinuses so I'm better off keeping it to a minimum, darn it.

I do sneak small amounts of the safer dairy products in once in a while and can probably get away with it if I don't do it daily. But then when I start to have more colitis episodes I can't tell if it's from those dairy cheats or if I'm going into a flare for another reason. So for research sake, the less dairy, the better.

I had an endo doc that I saw regularly for a few years because I ended up having my thyroid removed (Graves Disease) but he never wanted to hear anything about blood sugar issues. I've since stopped seeing him and now my GP regulates my Synthroid dosage.

I think once I become fat adapted and find some new foods to keep me consistently on a keto diet I will have far less BG swings, but I really want to learn why it happened yesterday when I thought I was doing everything right. Too much protein the night before? That's the only thing I can come up with. I read somewhere once that our body produces the amount of insulin based on our PREVIOUS meal. I guess that would explain yesterday?
Sue
 
Sue777 said:
I read somewhere once that our body produces the amount of insulin based on our PREVIOUS meal.
Click to expand...

Yes, this is known as the last meal effect. Once our pancreas is used to producing very low levels of insulin, if you suddenly give it a big hit with more insulin-raising foods, it can go into shock in that it is hasn't yet woken up and continues to produce the insulin it is used to - hence a spike. It gets used to this after a few days. Protein isn't normally a problem though, and neither are fats. Proteins (some) do have higher insulin requirements though.
 

OK, might chicken breast (lean white meat) be a problem? Dinner the night before was a large chicken breast and green beans cooked in bacon grease. If I recall, another time when I needed a quick food source I grabbed a cold piece of chicken out of the fridge and a short time later I had a crash.... never could figure that one out.
 
I notice that you do not eat breakfast.
When reducing my BG levels I began to have symptoms of RH - taking metformin and a statin had taught me not to eat breakfast, and go out in the mornings, then have lunch and the tablets. I changed to no tablets and breakfast with some carbs and that stopped my BG rising all morning and crashing 3 to 4 pm. I only eat twice a day now, early and late.
I do not eat lean white chicken - I always buy chicken thighs and cook them in my Actifry - so crispy and juicy.
I too have been talked out of doing Atkins, having started to eat low carb in the 1970s. So many people could have been saved so much misery if only a little research had been done.
 

No more "healthy" chicken breasts for me..... bring on the fatty thighs! Also off to see what an Actify is and probably buy one. Thanks!
 

I can't remember which thread it is on but the insulin index indicates that chicken can give you too much insulin. But everyone is different and I have not had that, but to go on , it is something to do with how much your are insulin resistance how much insulin is over produced probably on the second insulin response. But in so many things I could be just speculating. I would like to believe that if you have the chicken with something that has saturated fat to slow down the digestion, it would probably not produce the extra insulin, which is of course the way we prevent the hypos.
I do not have breakfast quite a few days a week, it is easier to deal with my working day, I usually eat about two to three times a day, between 3pm and 9pm.
Intermittent fasting helps me, especially with food choices. It also is my way of dealing with that I know I won't go hyper or hypo. My body likes being in ketosis and fasting! I only eat because I know I have to!
 
You might like to find out about "dumping syndrome" which occurs in other GI disorders. Early and late varieties dependent on time from eating. Sugar rushing into first part of small bowel precipitates this. You describe the symptoms nearly text book. Sorry, my memory is not what it was.
 
Hi and welcome @Sue777

One of the things that impresses me so much about the RHers that turn up here is the hard roads we have taken to get here.
Sounds like your journey has been a long and stressful one.

My RH is very affected by stress. Stress hormone surges in particular.
So while I can’t explain your gut reaction after a hypo, I think it is likely that the stress you are under (anticipating a busy day tomorrow and worried that you will be rested enough) may be making your blood glucose levels unstable - which could explain why you hypoed unexpectedly. Just a guess though.
 
I hadn't considered gastric dumping, as it is a type of hypoglycaemia and since doing some checking, it does cause diarrhoea. And has many symptoms of which you describe. Including the hypos!

It might help you googling gastric dumping syndrome.
 
Hi Sue,
I eat low carb but have found that too many walnuts cause loose bowels.

I have cut down on a number of foods because this last few months I have been subject frequent migraine auras without much of a headache. So I am trying to cut foods out with tyramine in them.

One of my daughters has gone on the Fodmap diet to hopefully eliminate IBS symptoms, I don't know how that fits in with a Low carb good fats diet?

Before you all ask my migraines are nothing to do with high or low blood glucose.

regards
Derek
 
Sue777 said:
No more "healthy" chicken breasts for me..... bring on the fatty thighs! Also off to see what an Actify is and probably buy one. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Actifry hot air cooker - set the time and drop in the food - it stirs and cooks - it is worth it just for the way it does chicken thighs but drop in some button mushrooms after cooking the chicken to soak up the juices - and the skins can then magically evaporate at the same time....
 
I am reminded of the baby squid in Little Mermaid who has this reaction when it sees the shark coming.
 
Thanks so much everyone.... I love the support and information you are all providing and hope I can pay back the favor once I'm more knowledgeable on some of these topics.

I have run into gastric dumping a few times when I've done searches for my symptoms but for some reason the articles I've read didn't seem to apply to me. But apparently it's time to do it again and re-read ... I know the name certainly fits!

I don't think stress caused my BG crash the other day because I hadn't even made the plans for tomorrow as of yet. Actually I was having one of my best health days ever, until the jolting dizzy ...then it was all downhill from there. But yes, I'm sure the brain and gut are very closely connected.

I just looked up the fryer but what bothers me is it claims "low fat" cooking. I NEED THE FAT! Can I still get juicy, fatty meals out of it?

Thank you everyone, I cherish and relish each and every reply.
Sue
 
Well? It looks like you all may be onto something here:
Dumping Syndrome: Causes of the Late Phase
The symptoms of this late phase may happen due to a rapid rise and fall in blood sugar levels.

I'm so glad you prompted me to look again - I had never seen that connection before!
Sue
 
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