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feeling hypo at 6.5??

searley

Well-Known Member
Retired Moderator
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2,256
Location
Southampton
Type of diabetes
Type 1
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Pump
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Diabetes, not having Jaffa Cake
I have been high for a few years, my morning reading were between 9 and 11 and anywhere between 15 - 20

early december i started insulin, and my doses have been slowly increasing to bring my levels down, but i have not been rushing to bring them down too fast

when i get up now, my reading are normally between 7 - 9 and at the end of the day 11 - 13 and it is very rare i go below 7

obviously this is still too high, so i am increasing my doses slightly, the problem i have is that when i go below 6.5ish i start to feel strange: dizzy, extreme hunger, poor eyesight, shakes.. if i eat this start to go away shortly after.

should i just ignore this an allow my levels to carry on down to about 5, in the hope that my body will start to get used to those levels?? or should i just accept that running slightly high is a better option?

My main concern is that i dont want to become a danger to people around me
 
There was a thread about this recently - have a quick look for it.

Basically, the decision was that any hypo symtoms you get with a BG level of OVER 4, is a FALSE hypo.

Sounds like your system just needs to re adjust to the lower (better!) BG levels that you are now able to maintain.

We also discussed experiencing hypo systems after a big drop in BG that maintained your BG level above 4. The theory their, is that hypo symptoms manifest themselves at relative, and absolute levels.

That is:

hypo at anything below 4 = absolute
hypo when there's a big drop but leel remains above 4 = relative. (relative to the drop in bg, and not the level that it drops to).

For me, I wouldn't treat a hypo at 6.5, unless I knew I wouldn't be eating in the next few hours. The problem with treating hypos, is getting into that feedback loop of treating the low blood sugar, increasing dose to cover the high BG, going low again, treating again, dosing again and so on...
 
Hi,

sounds like to me that you are having 'phantom hypo's' This is because you've been running high for a while your body thinks it's normal and when you are around 6.5 your body thinks this is a hypo.

You should still treat this as a hypo and have around 10g of fast acting carbs, as 10g of carbs will usually push you up 2-3mmol this will be enough for your body to stop giving you these false hypo symptoms but not push you up too high.

Remember though if you have a hypo below 4 you should treat with 10-15g of fast acting carbs such as glucose tablets or lucozade, if you aren't going to have a meal within an hour you should have 10-15g of slow acting carbs to make sure you don't re-bound back below 4mmol.

In time your body will get used to being at a much better level of 6.5 and these phantom hypo's should stop.

I assure you that you won't be a danger to anyone aslong as you carry some hypo treatment around with you and those closest to you know how to help if needed

good luck
 
searly,

I don't think eating food when experiencing a false hypo at 6.5 will resolve anything, you have to give your body time to adjust to these lower levels in order to regain good control, as long as your bg is above the low 4's then I would just try and persevere. BTW, you are doing well getting your bg down slowly rather than to quickly as this is the recommended advice by our HCP. Good luck!

Nigel
 
Thankyou, i did consider my best option might be to try and allow my body to get used to being much lower than normal, and that eating would just delay that, its just very difficult to resist when eveything you you body seems to be saying feed me!

its not like im really overweight, or a compulsive eater either.

its been a difficult few months, but now things are getting under control, a lot of the pain (leg, arm and back) that i was feeling has gone, apart from i still have constantly 'tired' arms, feels like ive been weightlifting

Hopefully this year, i will be well enough to enjoy what summer we get, and take part in some of my hobbies again

Richard

 
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