Feeling Low v Being Low

[bunty]

Does anyone else here experience what feels like a 'low' when they arent technically so? I sometimes think my body's normal range is between 4.4 to 6.00 because now and then i start to feel really spaced-out and vague (no jokes from the back, please!) and typically, this occurs when i am extra hungry for some reason and most often this is late morning.

Not always, though. A couple of times it's happened for no apparent reason and once or twice, after extra-strenous activity. I've become unsteady on my feet, go white and my hands shake. The lowest i have been, if i test at this point, is 3.9 but now and then it's been around the 4.3 t0 4.0 mark.

I take Met 500mg twice daily and moderate my carbs intake considerably. I usually exercise about 5 times a week.

Interestingly, i have also woken in the night sometimes, covered in sweat, utterly confused and feeling very weak. I havent tested at these times, just lay there and my body recovers by itself although in the morning i am feeling tired.

My two HbA1Cs thus far have been 5.6 and 5.4 respectively and my usual levels are within acceptable limits, i believe - not that i test often but i do test now and then, to get a snapshot of where i am. And now and then i have a few days in a row where i'll test routinely throughout the day. This allows me to gain a rough understanding of how i am doing. Mind you, i'm waiting for my latest results and because i have had the most appallingly stressful 3 months or so, i dont hold out any great hopes because i know from experience of testing, that i react badly to stress and my BG is always quite high then. The nurse urges me to lead a simple, stress-free life but so far she's failed to come up with a foolproof strategy for that!

So, now...am i alone in thinking that perhaps my lowest 'workable' level is around 4.3 and not 4.0? And am i alone in feeling i am 'having a low' when i drop below 4.3?

bunty

 

[sugarless sue]

Hi Bunty welcome to the forum.I think most of us feel like that if we drop below 4.3!!I know I do,shaky,weak that about covers it.What do you eat for breakfast? If you tend to have strenuous mornings and not a lot for breakfast this will cause a drop.
You blood sugar figures BTW are really good,most of us would kill to have figures like that!!You are right that stress puts up your BS,barring moving to a convent I have no answer to that one!! :lol: :lol:

 

[DiabeticSkater]

I have had hypo type symptoms when BG has dropped quickly from like 10 down to 7 in a few minutes. A lot of the sweating and shaking is caused by adrenaline which the body releases when it starts to panic about falling bg levels.

 

[bunty]

Moving to a convent would raise my stress levels through the roof! I'd die of frustration and boredom before the first week had passed!

My breakfast is usually about 12 of Asda's Cranberry Weeta-wotsits. They look like tiny wheat squares. And about 3 tablespoons of Cheerios. Every now and then i have one sachet of porridge made with semi-slimmed milk and sprinkled with Splenda.

Breakfast is a trial for me because i dont wake hungry, i'm still tired and not wanting to make an effort and because i'm allergic to loads of grubs. If i feel hungry enough and have time, i add a fat free yoghurt to the cereal version of brekkie.

On high days and holidays i rustle a proper cooked breakfast.

Oh yes, and now and then i have Rankin's Soda Bread or Rankin's Wheaten Bread - 2 slices - with cheese and cold ham. That takes longer to eat,though and is a struggle to eat.

So, am i 'having a low' at the levels i quoted? I read somewhere you cant say it's a low until it drops below 3.8 but i wonder if i'd still be conscious at that level!

bunty

 

[sugarless sue]

Technically on metformin they say that it doesn't cause hypos but that doesn't stop you from feeling as if you are having one!Some people get the same effect at higher levels because their bodies are used to higher BS levels.3.8 sounds very low to me,have they changed the parameters again?

 

[Jay3109]

Of course I can't speak for anyone else on here but I think many of us would start to feel a bit odd at anything below 4.3 - I certainly do. Thankfully I still have hypo awareness but there is a tendency for this to reduce if you get a lot of hypos as the body gets 'used' to the warning signs. This can also happen when insulin is changed and many people had a really rough time when they were moved from animal insulin onto human insulin a few years ago(although by the sounds of it, you're not taking insulin yet so don't panic!!).

The best thing is if you are feeling odd, take a blood test. And I would suggest that you don't just ignore your nighttime sweats and shivers either. Do a test just to be safe...

Best of luck

 

[Trinkwasser]

I have had hypo type symptoms when BG has dropped quickly from like 10 down to 7 in a few minutes. A lot of the sweating and shaking is caused by adrenaline which the body releases when it starts to panic about falling bg levels.

Agreed, I used to suffer from Reactive Hypoglycemia which works exactly like that, my pancreas produces no Phase 1 insulin so I can spike after eating inappropriately, then the Phase 2 insulin kicks in, and I can still produce a lot given enough time, so a couple of hours later my BG would go through the floor.

It's the rapidity of the changes as much as the actual low that sets off a dump of neuroendocrines including epinephrine and cortisol which are responsible for some of the hypo symptoms - and probably the lack of this response is what causes "hypo unawareness".

I've had more symptoms at 5.5 when I got there via a rapid drop from 10 than I have at 3.5 when I got there slowly from 4. Somewhere between 3 and 3.5 is where I usually find myself sitting on the ground wondering where I am.

 

[hanadr]

Anyone can go hypo, even non-diabetics, if a lot of fuel is burned fast. There is a theory that it's not the level we feel, but the drop. that would be why newbies, who've been running high for years, sometimes feel hypo at levels like 7 or 8. Metformin isn't supposed to cause hypos, because it doesn't trigger insulin production.

 

[bunty]

I'm on Metformin only because i have dire DP and would wake most days around 7/8 and as you all know, that just makes the whole day an uphill battle to attain normal levels. Nothing i did seemed to alter this, so i accepted the GP'ss offer of the drug. However, she said at the time that as my general levels were so good, i risked hypos and especially at night and that i needed to be aware of this.

At that time, i was still really overweight and now i am normal weight for my size, with perfect BP and cholesterol etc. It's in the past month or so that i've started to get what i think of as a low, maybe once or twice a week. The last one was avoidable, had i planned things better; I'd gone in to the surgery for my FBT and then went to Tesco for more meds, then on into work where i planned to have my belated breakfast. I made it up to my office door and that was it - couldnt get the darn key in the lock, couldnt stand properly and all that good stuff!

Time for a rescue carton of orange juice and a banana, followed by porridge and i was good to go after that.

I'm not sure why i would test myself when i wake up sweated and confused - what would i gain from that, always assuming i had the wherewithall to do it? As a Type 2, i cant much do a great deal other than to eat, if i am low, and i can do that without checking, dont you agree? It doesnt do any actual harm to be low (at least, not if tucked up safely in bed?), does it? There's a lot i have yet to learn, isnt there?

I tell you what, though. I'm relieved to hear that i'm not being a softy when i consider myself low! I had been trying to force myself to tough it out and shape up!

bunty

 

[Trinkwasser]

At that time, i was still really overweight and now i am normal weight for my size, with perfect BP and cholesterol etc. It's in the past month or so that i've started to get what i think of as a low, maybe once or twice a week. The last one was avoidable, had i planned things better; I'd gone in to the surgery for my FBT and then went to Tesco for more meds, then on into work where i planned to have my belated breakfast. I made it up to my office door and that was it - couldnt get the darn key in the lock, couldnt stand properly and all that good stuff!

It's becoming quite common to see people improving faster than was expected and rapidly becoming overmedicated. You may want to run this past your doc.

 

[gillyh]

I'm T2 diet/exercise only. I get times when my hands start to shake and I get very vague and not able to remember anything. Sometimes not even where I am!! My bg is between 4.8 and 7.0 normally (wake up around 7.0) with the occassional bg around 8.0. After meals it's higher but normally it's good. I've noticed that I also get dizzy, cold and feeling spaced out. I find it gets like this around meal times. Anybody got any ideas why? :?

 

[Trinkwasser]

I'm T2 diet/exercise only. I get times when my hands start to shake and I get very vague and not able to remember anything. Sometimes not even where I am!! My bg is between 4.8 and 7.0 normally (wake up around 7.0) with the occassional bg around 8.0. After meals it's higher but normally it's good. I've noticed that I also get dizzy, cold and feeling spaced out. I find it gets like this around meal times. Anybody got any ideas why? :?

Test at the time this happens. Also if you can predict when it's likely to occur test about half an hour beforehand. Sometimes you can miss a low if you have an overprotective liver, by the time you test you're back on the way up again.

Other than that, could be a lot of other possibilities. Had your thyroid checked? Make sure you get the actual *number* some doctors are petrified to diagnose or treat hypothyroid and will happily let people run ridiculously low numbers (low thyroid, high TSH) which could otherwise be easily treated.

 

[gillyh]

Thanks trinkwasser. I do have a slightly underactive thyroid but the doctor said not enough to warrant any treatment. I'll test when I feel it coming on and see what the figures are. I'll also have to have another chat witht he doctor next mot I have. :|

 

[Trinkwasser]

Thanks trinkwasser. I do have a slightly underactive thyroid but the doctor said not enough to warrant any treatment. I'll test when I feel it coming on and see what the figures are. I'll also have to have another chat witht he doctor next mot I have. :|

Try and get the NUMBER out of him! Some people don't feel right unless their TS3 is around 1, many doctors won't treat unless it's 5 or more, sometimes not until double figures. Sometimes it's the T3/T4 conversion that's shot but again many PCTs refuse to do the tests.

Try a couple of brazil nuts a day (selenium is involved in the conversion and much of the UK has low selenium)

if it doesn't help, well they're good for you anyway <G>

 

[gillyh]

Thanks for that trinkwasser. Gonna sound stupid now.....nothing new.....what number? What is a TS number? What does it measure? :?

 

[Trinkwasser]

Thanks for that trinkwasser. Gonna sound stupid now.....nothing new.....what number? What is a TS number? What does it measure? :?

http://www.labtestsonline.org.uk/unders ... lance.html

In some (many?) places you are only permitted the TSH test

so if there's something more complex wrong with your thyroid hormones you'll never know (unless you move somewhere more enlightened)

Ah sorry, in my previous post I typed TS3 instead of TSH

 

[gillyh]

I've had problems with IBS and pain from my hernia yesterday and was in a lot of pain. It lasted about 1 1/2 hours while before going out to and on way to work. That left me so weak and 'out of it'. On the way home I was still listless and extremely tired so tested my bg. I tcame abck as 3.6!!! That is the lowest reading I've ever had. I'd eaten though not as much as I normally do. Still extremely tired and weak. Could it also be linked to the flu jab I had tuesday morning? :cry: