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Can you feel Hypo symptoms even if BG is > 4.3

P

PSS

Well-Known Member
Messages
69
Location
London
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Apologies, if this sounds a silly question. I am a T2 and my last HbA1C was 7.5. I felt light headed last week and quickly treated it as a possible Hypo, I ate a hard candy sweet and half a sandwich. The blood glucose reading was 7.9 after 30 mins.

My question is can you feel hypo even if your blood sugar is above 4.3? And should be treated like a hypo even if the reading is above 4.3?

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
Home meters are not accurate and it is possible that it read 4.3 when your blood glucose was lower. I have known meters to be out by as much as 1.3. It might be safer to treat it like a hypo until you find out what is going on.
 
I've noticed that if my blood sugar is dropping rapidly from within a normal range (<8mmol/l) I can feel it. The symptoms are not quite the same as a hypo. Having the Libre has given me the opportunity to identify this better.
 
tim2000s said:
I've noticed that if my blood sugar is dropping rapidly from within a normal range (<8mmol/l) I can feel it. The symptoms are not quite the same as a hypo. Having the Libre has given me the opportunity to identify this better.
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Tim, Thanks for the reply, I felt light headed for 5 seconds, that was it ! Was fine soon afterwards as soon as I ate the sweet and sandwich.

Thanks for the Libre tip, I'll look into it.
 
When I started insulin and my levels were brought down to the 7-8 range instead of the 20+ that've was used to I started getting phantom hypos at about 6.5 this soon stopped as my body git used to lower levels
 
If my Bg is say lower than 5 and I still have active insulin in me, then yes I get the symptoms but sometimes I think it could be psychological because I know I am going to be hypo...like for instance I could feel fine sometimes...test and be about 3.2mmol and then once the realization is there, I then have all of the symptoms!
 

Thanks Nocola

Although I am T2 but a lot of what you say applies to me. I think I might go hypo but my meter says otherwise. And usually I am fine. IOne of the doctor's blog I read said that diabetes can not cause hypos it is almost always the medications. For example Metformin can not cause hypos !

PSS
 
Yeah I kind of realised that after i posted my post...sorry haa!
 
Yes, anything below around 5mmol can be the start of a hypo and it can vary from day to day. I'm on insulin and sometimes feel a hypo coming on around 4.5mmol although normally it needs to go down to around 4 mmol or less.
 
Hi,
You can still get hypos if you are diet controlled. You do get them much more often on meds though. I had a hypo the other week at 4.1 sweating and the shakes. Not a nice feeling. I'm diet controlled only.
 
A friend in hospital that is being treated for anorexia is struggling to keep get her levels above 3.6. She is now day 8 of hospitilisation and still mainly in hypoland despite having to eat 3 regular meals and 2 hourly snacks and fruit juices to tey nbring levels up.
Her texts n emails are like she is drunk.
Just goes to prove though that sustained weightloss does (can) substantially lower blood readings.. Although I am not advocating this to be done.......

Friend is non diabetic...interesting seeing how somebody struggles with the opposite levels in weight and blood glucose though..
 
hope your friend is feeling better soon and manages to get good support.
 
KELI said:
hope your friend is feeling better soon and manages to get good support.
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I hope so. She is very dear to me and I just want her to be a healthy and happy youngster...
Thankyou... Means a lot...x
 
There's a phrase I've seen used in a couple of studies on reactive hypoglycaemia.

The phrase is 'relative hypoglycaemia'
It describes the experience when blood glucose drops sharply, to lower levels than the person is used to.
They then experience hypo symptoms, even if the blood glucose doesn't fall to true hypo levels (below approx 3.6 mmol/l).

Here in the uk, we often call the experience a 'false hypo', but I much prefer the term 'relative hypo' because the symptoms are very real, and very unpleasant. Definitely not fake!

As to whether it should be treated... well I think prevention is better than cure.
So I like low carbing, because if your BG never swings high, then it can't drop sharply, hard and fast enough to produce a relative hypo.

Hope that helps.
 
I don't feel I'm low till I'm under 2.5 and even then I might not know it till I'm even lower - its how its become as i've gotten older more so since I've cut gluten out of my meal plan which is annoying to say the least.

Honestly I don't treat it unless its under 4 if in the 4s I might have a protein bar or something to keep me from going lower but bring it up it depends on what I'm doing (as in if I'm driving or working i'll bring it up but at home not doing much other then working at my comp as long as its steady its alright to hover in the 4s)
 


So I guess the trick is to avoid spikes. It must be very hard to achieve on ongoing basis :-(
 
PSS said:
So I guess the trick is to avoid spikes. It must be very hard to achieve on ongoing basis :-(
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The only thing that has worked for me is going low carb. That helped a lot. But over time I went lower and lower, and ended up low carb high fat.

It doesn't work for everyone, but my goodness, it makes me feel so well.
 
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