At what sugar level would you fall into a coma?

Messages
5
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
I've been on insulin for 40 years. Felt the hypo when i was at nearing 75 mg/dl in the early years. (Sorry, I don't know the equivalent used in the UK). But over time, you become insulin resistant & therefore experience less or no symptoms. Now, for the most part, I feel no symptoms, even if it drops to 40 mg/dl! My greatest fear is slipping into a coma overnight. Luckily, I have health insurance so I now use Dexcom CGM. You set the high & low alerts & it blares an alarm at you whenever you drop below your threshold (or rise above it). This is a life saver! Not only that, I refer to it constantly. Probably 50+ times a day. This way, if I see my BG creep up, I can micro-bolus a correction, or if it gets too low, I can correct by micro-carbing using fast acting carbs (juice boxes are the best for this!) My A1C dropped from 7.8 to 5.7 in less than 2 months using this system. (It's described at length-and more- in Dr. Stephen Ponder's book, Sugar Surfing. I'm spreading the word so everyone can benefit this way. Good luck! Check out the free chapter online. It sure sounds like I'm a sales rep for this book, but I promise you, I'm not. After 40 years of T1D, I thought I knew it all, & heard it all - until I got his book. And thank God for that! :)
 
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nmr1991

Well-Known Member
Messages
212
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
lowest was 0.9 and I felt the same as being drunk, but with extra shakiness and sweat, i think 0.5 and below you will start to lose consciousness, your brain does need energy to survive, but it can use other forms that are present in your body like glucose left behind from a high blood glucose you might have had recently. It is possible in this respect to go down to 0mmol/l without slipping into a coma, but I wouldn't advise it unless you are intending to do yourself harm.
 

Brunneria

Guru
Retired Moderator
Messages
21,889
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
This article shows that blood glucose meters are required to be more accurate at glucose levels above 4.2mmol/l than at blood glucose levels below 4.2mmol/l.
https://www.diabetesdaily.com/blog/2013/07/blood-glucose-meter-accuracy-comparison-chart/
(I could not, unfortunately, find a date for the article, but suspect it is more recent than 2012 because of the contained information)

Generally tests are found to be less accurate on the edges of the measurable range (usually shown on graphs as a bell curve).
 
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