• Guest, the forum is undergoing some upgrades and so the usual themes will be unavailable for a few days. In the meantime, you can use the forum like normal. We'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Hypos do they damage your brain?

T

tonyJb

Member
My father was type 2 and a pastry chief, he'd managed his condition well for 25 years by the age of 80 he contracted Parkinson's as well, the hospital put him into a nursing home with five stars recommendation from the C.Q.C.
One day I received a call from the home telling me my father was in hospital, by the time I got there he was already in ICU, he was sleeping, I looked for his blood count, there wasn't one, a nurse appeared, I asked what his blood readings were, she replied their equipment didn't register that low, I said so effectively he's dead?
No, no said the nurse we are bringing him back.
To me it must have affected his brain, before this he could argue the "theory of relativity " with me, meaning he despite Parkinson's being labeled a form of dementia he was fully aware and could rationalize an answer.
After this episode he was a different person, he found it harder to concentrate, often struggling to talk coherently .

After 3 months in the home he'd been readmitted to hospital 3 times, seven days after his last admission ( the one mentioned before) I visited and asked the nurse how's he doing? The nurse who was new, looked at his notes and said he's OK he's got a water infection. I asked what is his blood sugars then ? Knowing full well they would be sky high, she looked at his notes again and announced WE DON'T CHECK TYPE 2 diabetics.
So he could have been having multiple highs and lows which would have been put down to dementia.
The nursing home today still has a five star rating from C.Q.C.

My question is: Has there been studies into how much of the brain is damaged from a Hypo?
Can all of the brain start up again when the body has drained it in it's search for sugar?
 
If you do a google search there are plenty of papers on this. Levels below 2.2 (according to what you can read) can induce brain damage, and there are quite a few recorded deaths due to very low levels. If his BS was very low at admission then I'm afraid he would fall into this category.
 
Hello
The effect of diabetes on our major organs is well known but less so with our brain.
I am not medically qualified to comment and your post quite rightly is a sensitive one however i've been type 1 for 43 years and if my sugar levels are low then i get confused and often don't make sense.
The older i've got and i'm still only 48 i've noticed the confusion affects me more now than it did 30 years ago.
Logic would suggest my brain has been affected by hypos over the years.
This is not a proper answer to your question just my humble findings but i do find the subject fascinating and i also mean that in the nicest possible way.

On a lighter note i do still get confused at the difference between "effect" and "affect" as i often use the wrong one but thats down to thickness and not diabetes....lol

Good luck

Tony
 
I wreckon if your levels drop to the point where you fall into a coma then sure, you could most likely suffer some form of brain damage. Regular hypos? I'm not sure, I mean all kinds of things can cause decrease in brain function including getting older.
 
I suffered with multiple hypos for quite a long time. Every doctor, dsn, even a specialist didn't have a clue! I of course was unaware and my life was dreadful in what I term my hypo hell! I would either be dead or in a terrible state if my current endocrinologist didn't know about RH!
I do think and believe that it did take a toll on my short term memory and also an awful lot of my memory from those years! I just don't remember a lot that went on then, and I struggle with names and nouns, I'm not sure wether age is a factor but I seem to be able to do my job with just a little bit of forgetfulness now and again!

The brain needs a certain amount of glucose, it also depends on other hormones and triggers to get on with daily thought process. If there is an imbalance of your hormones and the brain doesn't get the necessary glucose, then when a hypo occurs the brain doesn't receive enough and in RH, too much insulin causes the hypo!
The effect of low blood glucose levels and then hypers, then hypos because of the rebound effect, the brain can't cope, the liver does help with glucogenesis but because of hyperinsulinaemia, this can be too little to help.

I have found myself, apparently asleep or conked out and if I had known, that I was close to a coma so many times, I did try and battle for years to get a different specialist and it took me having a hypo in the doctors surgery till I got one!

I very low carb, I have to because my health is better and my future health is assured as much as it can be.

My lifestyle has changed dramatically in the last few years and I haven't had a hypo for three years or so!
I have become very lucid and my energy levels are exceptional.
My brain is working ok, with a few bits of memory loss!
I have my life back!

Best wishes to you and your father.
 
Prolonged hypoglycaemia could cause neurological damage. I am NOT a Dr but it's something I have been discussing with my professors in depth recently having spent much of my pregnancy hypo due to severe morning sickness. There's something called neuroglycopenia and it's worth a Google! Neuroglycopenia is a medical term that refers to a shortage of glucose(glycopenia) in the brain, usually due to hypoglycemia. Glycopenia affects the function of neurons, and alters brain function and behavior.
I broached this with my diabetic nurse and my diabetic dr during my pregnancy to ask whether being so low could cause long term complications (obviously the short term worry is a coma / death!) to the brain. They both said that other than the short term danger there would be no long term affect. It was only when I met with a professor of diabetes and neurology that he mentioned neuroglycopenia. Luckily I have been fine but was indeed shocked to have come across neurogycopepenia- something I was unaware of before and something that as diabetics , we should be informed of!
Hope that helps.
E
 
thanks
 

My father because he had Parkinsons was deemed by all doctors to have Alzheimer’s disease, he was fully conversant before the last episode in hospital.
He was put into a nursing home because the hospital was fed up with his attendance with water infections.
I had already battled with them for two years to reconise that he was hard of hearing and poor eye sight he needed a hearing aid, that they never put in, plus he had also undergone two cateract operations both with no follow up operations i.e. lasering the eyes, though they did give him major open heart surgery at the age of 80.
Just picture the sceen, a hard pressed doctor rushes upto my dad and starts talking to him, he cannot hear half of what is going on, plus he cannot lip read, so his Alzheimer’s disease looks far worse than it was.
The doctor eventualy said that it would be better for him to die, so after discussing it with him in one of his more lucidmoments I agreed, ( I imagined it would be like when you put an animal to sleep, where it takes seconds ) I don't know if it was they had fixed his heart but it took seven days of watching him suffer starving him to death.
Any mention of me getting Alzheimer’s disease and I will join my friends who have incovenianced commuters jumping under trains.....I'm not going that way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…