Hypo without insulin

Shed some light on how the diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes was established in your particular case.

I suggest your check-out Reactive Hypoglycemia as your symptoms sounds very similar to that diabetes diagnosis i.e. when your blood sugar does the opposite of what you might expect.

Daibell said:

I suggest your check-out Reactive Hypoglycemia as your symptoms sounds very similar to that diabetes diagnosis i.e. when your blood sugar does the opposite of what you might expect.

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What he said. I'm not sure you're ready to wear the I'm A Type One tee shirt yet!

There are some anecdotal reports that when a beta cells are dying and type 1 is developing the pancreas is working so hard to try and produce insulin to deal with the food eaten that it accidentally produces too much insulin, causing hypos. It could be considered part of the honeymoon period, where endogenous insulin production is erratic.

catapillar said:

There are some anecdotal reports that when a beta cells are dying and type 1 is developing the pancreas is working so hard to try and produce insulin to deal with the food eaten that it accidentally produces too much insulin, causing hypos. It could be considered part of the honeymoon period, where endogenous insulin production is erratic.

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I was going to say that sometimes the pancreas can splutter and fart insulin when it's in the early stages of onslaught from the immune system. Although @catapillar has definitely put forward a much better worded account of the process

When I was at the age of 14 I had hypos that were similar to real diabetic hypos... I'm not talking about feeling just being a bit too hungry. I'm talking about trembling, heart beating out of chest, sweating and raiding the pantry to eat everything in sight and more.

I used to stay at home during summer while my parents worked, and I didn't know how to cook, nor was I raised to eat the healthiest foods. There were times when I only ate a piece of chocolate bar the whole day, and by the end of the day the "pantry-raiding monster" came to life... yet I was still super healthy nevertheless, and part of the athletic team in a PE oriented school.

Fast forward 10 years, and the semi-hypos started coming back. It wasn't as bad as in my teen years, but they were more frequent, almost daily. I even joined a reactive hypoglycemia group, but eventually the crazy hunger disappeared, again!

Fast forward 2 more years, and I started having unquenchable first. Went to the doc, sugar was 26. Immediately put on insulin with a diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes...

Okay first off Im a T1 but still have some info to share with you that can help. With blood sugar levels, often times we are taught to look at eating regularly to stop them dropping too low or to eat something when doing sports for example, but rarely have I found it discussed that temperature is a key factor too especially with low blood sugar. Its September (almost October) and so people are putting on central heating and during this time, the body can and will burn up sugar faster than usual. Its one of the reasons why a lot of diabetics find themselves having hypos in summer despite being well controlled every other time of year. re readings don't worry. I've had 2.6 and lower but I am injecting insulin. Plus also if you have any kind of infection or virus the sugars can go crazy at times too. Also worth considering.

Carey29 said:

I looked it up, it does sound like what happens to me. A few times lately I have been 6 or 7 before eating a sandwich etc and two hours later I'm 3 or 4 which I find very strange because I would be expecting it to go up after a sandwich. There is other times however where it would go up higher to 10 or 11 after eating. The highest I have gone to is 14.4 after a Chinese takeaway. It's very confusing, the nurses don't even seem to know what exactly is going on and why My blood sugar levels are going low so often. I have to go in to do a glucose tolerance test next week so maybe that will help figure it out.

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Is it an extended OGTT?
I don't believe it is RH, as your fasting blood glucose levels are above normal levels.
I agree with the above about the beta cells.

Usually RH is developed with T2 diabetes. Not T1, but I wouldn't rule it out!!!!

Dear Carey29,

I wrote a long reply only to delete it by accident! grr!

I am T1, diagnosed via antibody testing after 2 GD pregnancies, and I had similar experiences: dysglycaemia, tho in my case it was years before diagnosis, and the hypersensitivity to insulin. I regularly passed out or would shake all over and go cold and sweaty. I didn't test bg then as I had no reason even to think of diabetes, but clearly it was low since I passed out! As Catapilla and GrantGam say, this is the poor old beta cells trying their best but getting timing and quantity of insulin wrong.

In retrospect I used to have the severe hypos you describe if I had only eaten carbs, e.g toast and jam for breakfast. Have you noticed a pattern to your diet and the frequency of hypos? I would encourage you to make sure you always have protein and fat at meals, as they metabolise more slowly. You might also try smaller meals and snack in between, again on protein/fat foods.

As for insulin sensitivity, when I was first diagnosed I had whiplash like hypos on 1 unit of Novorapid and even hypoed on 1 unit of basal. I couldn't bear the high bg (psychologically or the physical effects) so I adopted a low carb diet. I still eat this way (30-45g per day) but am now entirely dependent on bolus insulin for meals and take some basal.

Although it is disconcerting, the plus side of it is that is probably a sign that your t1, like mine, is slow onset. (The University of Exeter recently published a paper on autoimmune diabetes and the different genetic markers that seems to determine age and rapidity of onset.) This means that you can get used to injecting insulin at small doses before things get more unpredictable. The downside is that the hypos and insulin sensitivity are unpredictable and so it is hard to integrate diabetes management into daily life. I found myself wishing my pancreas to cling on, but also wishing the beta cells would just get on and die already so I wouldn't have to deal with the randomness of it all! (I have since found that randomness only continues )

Let me know how this goes, and hopefully tweaking your diet might help a bit. Be well,

Hannah