Hypoglycemia symptoms at 5.5mmol?

Hi Guys and Girls

I've been experiencing symptoms of Hypoglycemia now for around 3 weeks on and off. My diet is pretty poor, I eat infrequently and dont seem to get the symptoms as heavily when Im eating properly. Today I woke, and I went downstairs to get something to eat. My partner and I ate some protein rich soya and linseed bread with some soy milk, as we're both Vegans.

Around 30 minutes after that, I suddenly started to get very dizzy. It came on very fast as it always does, and I started to get a racing heart (Palpitations) and felt very shaky and anxious too. My partner and I have been looking into what may be causing these things to happen, and we're both perplexed! It's really scary for me when the symptoms come on, and they leave me very anxious and nervy.

Upon having the symptoms I remembered that blood glucose levels sometimes drop quickly and you need to get something sugary to eat to raise it back up again. So I ate some more bread and some more milk (not as much this time).

Did a blood glucose test with the aviva accucheck meter I got a while ago, and saw the symptoms were happening at blood glucose level 5.5 mmol and thought that it was very strange indeed, as that is not a low blood sugar level at all. So we both put it down to a panic attack, as I have PTSD.

I decided to check the glucose level again 25 minutes later to make sure my symptoms weren't related to blood glucose level and saw it had dropped to 5.0 mmol despite eating some bread to raise it back up after the attack.

is it normal to drop that fast? .5 mmol in 25 minutes?

I believe I may well be having symptoms because my blood glucose is going too high and then dropping very quickly?

I decided to take a fasting blood glucose level a few days ago and I was very normal.. 4.9mmol, which Im sure you'd agree is a very good level!

I took another test (Yeah, a lot of glucose test strips!) 1 hour and a half later after eating the bread and my symptoms were gone. Blood glucose at 5.9 mmol. Which isnt too bad too Im guessing.

I just wonder why its happening now? Ive been eating sugary foods for ages without any of these symptoms, and then suddenly I get dizzy (like.. world seems very wavy type dizzy) I also got a pain in my leg one morning when having the symptoms, which hurt like crazy!

Its scary for me as Im only 23, and I feel like I have no energy all the time. I supplement my diet adequately with vitamins, and I know my diet is sometimes poor, but I don't believe its any more so than what it was a few years ago when I was fine.

Any advice for a young person? I have real sympathy for people who have diabetes. Its a horrible condition, and I wish you all do get better and heal from it.

Thanks

Chris

Grazer said:

As you say, all of your readings are very normal, which confirtms you're not diabetic (as per your profile)
Non-diabetics like you can get low blood sugar, but your readings don't reflect that. You perhaps need to see your doctor again to find out what causes it. I used to get those sort of feelings, and sometimes almost faint, with low blood pressure. Could it be that?

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Hi

Thanks for your reply. I always read about possible low blood pressure, but I got my blood pressure tested also. I was normal! I sometimes get pins and needles if I keep my arms or legs elevated for a few minutes. That's also normal! lol.. I sometimes nearly black out when standing up too fast, but that's rare these days.

Chris

I also just wanted to say that this same thing happened around 8 months ago. I started to eat higher carb meals and I know it was bad but its nothing that I hadn't been doing for ages anyway without symptoms. I started to feel weak, confused, dizzy spells and palpitations. I started to eat more protein than carb and it started to dissapear until after around 3 months later, I could eat any carb meals I wanted to.. be they high or low GI.

Im not sure what's caused it to come back, as I was following a pretty similar diet.

borofergie said:

Rocker_C said:

is it normal to drop that fast? .5 mmol in 25 minutes?

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0.5 mmol/l is within the error tolerance of your BG machine. It could drop that fast in 25s, let alone 25mins, I doubt it's very meaningful.

As you said yourself "my diet is pretty poor, I eat infrequently and dont seem to get the symptoms as heavily when Im eating properly." Why don't you concentrate on eating properly? It's especially difficult to get decent nutrition on a vegan diet, so I'm not surprised that your health is suffering, if you're not eating properly.

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I changed over to the vegan diet as I have a severe allergy to eggs and milk products. I stopped eating meats because it was easier on my digestive system. I was also diagnosed with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) around 7 years ago now. After switching to the vegan diet, my health went back up and I made a good recovery. Its still tempting to eat **** food on a vegan diet though, despite what people think of it, which is what I tend to do. The vegan diet is more than adequate to nourish the body. Im not here to defend the vegan diet though, it has its faults as does the meat diets and any others to name out there.

Eating lots of protein seems to stop this happening, but it's so much that it seems excessive. Like maybe 40-50% of calories per day from nuts, seeds, beans and tofu. I'm not complaining about having to eat that much, but wouldn't that have a negative long term health impact? Surely that couldn't be good for anyone.

Care to share any diet tips?

borofergie said:

Rocker_C said:

[
Care to share any diet tips?

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Ha. You wouldn't like my diet - mostly meat and eggs and dairy with a few green leafy vegetables. I'm almost exactly the opposite of vegan.

I know several people who managed to clear up their IBS by cutting out grains from their diet. Wheat is the major cause of "leaky gut syndrome", and can exacerbate other dietary problems like the dairy intolerance you describe, but I guess that cutting out grains is kinda difficult for a vegan.

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Do you mean taking away the gluten from the diet? Vegans can take out gluten pretty easy these days. I've tried that too, but no difference to me at all. My father isnt vegan either, and my girlfriends family. We dont mind people eating what they choose to eat. Each unto their own. lol. By the sounds of things, you eat quite a good amount of protein in your diet. Do you find that helps control your condition?

iHs said:

Hello Chris

Sometimes deficiency of B vitamins can mimic some of the symptoms you have described. Why don't you see a GP and have a blood test done to confirm whether or not you are deficient?

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Hi

Thanks for your comment I'm going to take an MMA test soon, which measures for B12 deficiency. I supplement it with fortified foods in my diet, as well as eat things very high in B vitamins. Mushrooms, Nutritional Yeast (getting into it more) and leafy greens and others too. Im just puzzled as to why the symptoms seem to come on fast and then go slowly. I have tried searching for what may be causing it, and anxiety could be one cause, but there was another which matched which was Idiopathic Postprandial Syndrome I think they called it, which was a condition whereby people who have high anxiety could experience hypoglycemia symptoms after eating without there being a low glucose level in the blood, and no one seems to know what causes it.

Ive looked into whether or not I have a deficiency before of B vitamins and I have none of the symptoms associated with that apart from fatigue, but that seems to disappear after eating for some reason.

Thanks for your advice anyhow, have a nice day

Chris.

borofergie said:

Rocker_C said:

Do you mean taking away the gluten from the diet? Vegans can take out gluten pretty easy these days. I've tried that too, but no difference to me at all. My father isnt vegan either, and my girlfriends family. We dont mind people eating what they choose to eat. Each unto their own. lol. By the sounds of things, you eat quite a good amount of protein in your diet. Do you find that helps control your condition?

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I eat lots of fat, moderate protein, and almost zero carb (<30g a day). It works perfectly - my BG is lower than most non-diabetics.

Gluten is a problem, but wheat also contains lectins which are the cause of leaky-gut. If I wasn't diabetic, I'd include more starchy carbs in my diet, but I wouldn't touch grains, or anything derived from them (apart from a very occaisional beer).

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wow that is a lot of fat! lol.. I know I have issues when trying to digest a lot of fats, but the proof is your blood glucose that it works for someone with diabetes to keep your blood sugar low. I was wondering for a long time how much of an effect it had on blood glucose levels to eat higher protein and fats.

I'll have a look into lectins. I know a lot of modern day additions to our diet have caused mayhem with our bodies. It doesnt surprise me that there's a huge rise of people suffering from different health problems, probably mostly caused by diet. Are there no low carb wines or other alcohols around?