• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Hypothetical link between unstable blood sugar and psychiatric disorders: direct or confounded?

E

Ellenor2000

Well-Known Member
Messages
91
This is just something I wondered based on some events in my life (psychiatric problems) that I think now were exacerbated by wild blood sugar swings.

The confounders I suspect are: sucrose addiction disorder, and nutritional deficiencies.
 
Ellenor2000 said:
This is just something I wondered based on some events in my life (psychiatric problems) that I think now were exacerbated by wild blood sugar swings.

The confounders I suspect are: sucrose addiction disorder, and nutritional deficiencies.
Click to expand...

I can safely say that in the future when we can monitor what rollercoaster blood sugar levels do to the brain's capacity to operate as it should, will be a huge step in the understanding of metabolic conditions.
My own experience of having hypers and hypos and how it effects my brain function is an example, my brain reacted to how quickly the rise and fall in blood sugar, by the list of brain function symptoms I suffered from.
 
My mental health was pretty unstable when my blood sugars were all over the place. Now I’ve got to normal, non diabetic levels, my brain hardly troubles me at all. Of course I’m a sample of n=1, but that’s my experience.
 
Can confirm myself that I had a major bipolar disorder through my 20's all the way till I got mine under control here just this year, no more wild swings in mood. Sure I do get some depressive episodes but they are not as pronounced but like @Mel dCP quite wisely says it is an N=1 sample once again.
 
When my RH (reactive hypoglycaemia) was less controlled, it profoundly affected my emotions.
And when I started taking enough Vit D3, for the first time in decades, my mild chronic depression lifted, for the first time in decades.

These articles may be of interest:

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/keto/ketogenic-diet-and-mental-health.html

https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/mental-health

https://www.dietdoctor.com/category/health-problems/depression

https://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/depression/#.XPk7LBrTWhA
 
Ellenor2000 said:
This is just something I wondered based on some events in my life (psychiatric problems) that I think now were exacerbated by wild blood sugar swings.

The confounders I suspect are: sucrose addiction disorder, and nutritional deficiencies.
Click to expand...

Hello Ellenor

I don't think that I have any "Mental Health" problems but when I get a "cold" or any other illness my blood sugars "jump up" and my wife says that I am much easier to live with when my Blood Sugars are under control.

So, when I get a "cold" and my BS start rising I now increase my Insulin by about 4 - 6 units in the morning and 4 units at night and my BS come back within the "normal" range.

Taking control of your Insulin injections is, I feel, very important to stable health - mental and physical.
 
Kyambala said:
Hello Ellenor

I don't think that I have any "Mental Health" problems but when I get a "cold" or any other illness my blood sugars "jump up" and my wife says that I am much easier to live with when my Blood Sugars are under control.

So, when I get a "cold" and my BS start rising I now increase my Insulin by about 4 - 6 units in the morning and 4 units at night and my BS come back within the "normal" range.

Taking control of your Insulin injections is, I feel, very important to stable health - mental and physical.
Click to expand...

Ok well I'm not someone who has to use exogenous insulin... It should say somewhere on my profile that I'm metabolically "normal" but I dunno
 
Ellenor2000 said:
Ok well I'm not someone who has to use exogenous insulin... It should say somewhere on my profile that I'm metabolically "normal" but I dunno
Click to expand...

Hello again Ellenor,
Sorry, I was just giving you my experiences. Before injecting Insulin about 7 years ago my blood sugars were "all over the place" and I was getting frequent Hypos - I could not find a way to "control" my blood sugars.

Going on Insulin injections was a great help and then starting the LCHF diet broght tighter control - also learning that I could vary the amount of Insulin I used to fit in with my health and also expected energy needed for that day enabled me to stay in the range of 4.6 to 5.9 on most morning "fasting blood sugars".

However, daily doses of Radio Therapy for Prostate Cancer sent my BS haywire again but increasing my Insulin brought me back under control. I have learned by all this that the lack of blood sugar control DOES affect my mental stability.

My advice therefore is to try and work out a "stable" routine to keep your fasting BS between 4 and 7 at first and then try and tighten them up to between 4.5 and 6 - if at all possible. Do not worry unduly about the odd spike and try to avoid the "near Hypo" range of below 4.

All the best.
 
It could be vice versa as well. I think my anxiety triggered my diabetic Genes or some real dysfunction in working od metabolic cells.
I was under very severe stress of some hypothetical situations for 4 years straight.
 
Last edited:
Since going on a ketogenic diet i have been able to lower my antidepressant nedication successfully, something i could not do in the past.
 
Kyambala said:
Hello again Ellenor,
Sorry, I was just giving you my experiences. Before injecting Insulin about 7 years ago my blood sugars were "all over the place" and I was getting frequent Hypos - I could not find a way to "control" my blood sugars.

Going on Insulin injections was a great help and then starting the LCHF diet broght tighter control - also learning that I could vary the amount of Insulin I used to fit in with my health and also expected energy needed for that day enabled me to stay in the range of 4.6 to 5.9 on most morning "fasting blood sugars".

However, daily doses of Radio Therapy for Prostate Cancer sent my BS haywire again but increasing my Insulin brought me back under control. I have learned by all this that the lack of blood sugar control DOES affect my mental stability.

My advice therefore is to try and work out a "stable" routine to keep your fasting BS between 4 and 7 at first and then try and tighten them up to between 4.5 and 6 - if at all possible. Do not worry unduly about the odd spike and try to avoid the "near Hypo" range of below 4.

All the best.
Click to expand...

4.5 to 6 is a rather wide range and tops out at a number I just do not feel well at.

My fbgs are usually 4s or low 5s. Add .5 mM for postmeal. I do not seem to be affected by 3s if they're stable, but if I drop into the 3s (or 2s I've seen on Libre but I suspect they actually map to low 3s) from, say, bingeing on caffeine (caffeine appears to make me DROP, not rise as it would make someone with a degree of type 1 physiology do), or from someone shooting me with a pistol loaded with insulin bullets (this is not a thing that has happened, but is a conspiracy theory I have had before), I become shaky, cold, vasoconstricted and possibly irritable.

Hypos I get appear to be almost entirely mediated by caffeine. The solution for that is, of course, to quit or reduce coffee.

I'm mainly referring to the kind of mental instability you'd see from swinging between 3.x and 9.x, as I would have done (never got measurements, sadly, but the level of thirst I had at the end, essentially bingeing on fruit juice, suggests that I was running numbers above 6.0 a lot of the time) before I started my LC/HF regime.
 
Ellenor2000 said:
Have you found you have to ignore some of the ketone guidelines from healthcare professionals?
Click to expand...
I find i never get above 1.5 mmol/l of ketones but then i do not deliberately fast. If my BSLs were to get above 13 mmol/l and ketones above 4 mmol/l I would be acting quickly to get the BSls down or getting to hospital. There is also a very rare condition called euglycaemia ketoacidosis where 2 people have been reported (and others said anecdotally) to have had acidosis at BSL less than 13 mmol/l. Illness + dehydration + insufficient insulin seemed to be the triggers so I always try to keep well hydrated and insulin at appropriate levels. I also keep up salt and take some magnesium supps as with lower insulin levels salt and magnesium seem to be lost more easily (see dietdoctor.com).
 
Veryanxious said:
It could be vice versa as well. I think my anxiety triggered my diabetic Genes or some real dysfunction in working od metabolic cells.
I was under very severe stress of some hypothetical situations for 4 years straight.
Click to expand...

Good morning "veryanxious".
Yes, something simple as a cold or worry/stress can send your BS haywire - also too much exercise and hard work can easily send towards a Hypo. On the other hand, spending your day just sitting watching TV, or on your laptop all day, can cause your BS to rise. BALANCE is the key. You need a balance of activity and rest.

Ladies tend to get the balance better than men - with household chores they always seem to be active. Men on the other hand tend to spend their day either working or watching TV.

Keep well.
 
Kyambala said:
Ladies tend to get the balance better than men - with household chores they always seem to be active. Men on the other hand tend to spend their day either working or watching TV.
Click to expand...
Bit of a sweeping generalisation there... this is 2019, you know :) They let us have jobs and everything now!
 
Kyambala said:
Ladies tend to get the balance better than men - with household chores they always seem to be active. Men on the other hand tend to spend their day either working or watching TV.
Click to expand...
Wow Kyambala, I don't know where you live but that is far from the truth where I live.
My male partner and I have very similar days in terms of amount "household chores", working and watching TV.
 
Mel dCP said:
Bit of a sweeping generalisation there... this is 2019, you know :) They let us have jobs and everything now!
Click to expand...

Good afternoon Mel,

I really expected the men o object - not ladies. Perhaps I should have said "as I observe it".
 
Back
Top