Limiting Hypo treatment

I probably should pay more attention to what happened to my BG after a hypo but I've always done the same. I hd it explained to me to take a fast acting sugar, like jelly babies, then after that a slower release one.Because of that I've always done the same. 3 or 4 jelly babies, then a slice of toast and jam. Sometimes though I do stuff my face because some hypo's are worse than others, even at the same number, and I just get the urge to eat and eat. Then after it when my blood goes back up I'm like '**** i shouldnt have eaten so much ****' haha

Maybe on my next few hypo's I'll try actually measure what a specific amount of grams of carbs does to me. I've moved on from jelly babies to glucotabs recently so I'll maybe have 4 or 5 of those and that's it next hypo and see what happens. Generally I'd always have a slice of toast afterwards but I'll try skip that and see what happens next hypo.

Jaylee said:

I've had cause to use them on the odd occasion.. It's worked for me too! Don't confuse the taste of sweetness with the fast acting carb content. Though I feel the chewiness & hard coating, may slow down the digestion a little with a Skittle...?

"Sucrose is a disaccharide consisting of one glucose and one fructose molecule, or 50% glucose and 50% fructose. ... Table sugar and the sucrose found in processed foods are commonly extracted from sugarcane or sugar beets. Sucrose tastes less sweet than fructose but sweeter than glucose."

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For most people, Skittles are best enjoyed as an occasional special treat, but this sugary food may be helpful for people with low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia. According to a 2008 University of Calgary study, Skittles work as well as glucose tablets at helping children with Type I diabetes overcome bouts of hypoglycemia. In the study, researchers gave children suffering from an incident of low blood sugar either a glucose tablet or Skittles candy, which contain sucrose. The researchers concluded that children responded equally well to these two products and had similar increases in blood sugar.

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MisterMints said:

Fun size Mars Bars can be quite good too with about 11g of carbs in them.

(Yes, I know that chocolate is not recommended as a hypo treatment, and the fat may delay the absorption, but they work great for me as a pre-hypo treatment when my Libre and xDrip are warning of an impending hypo when I'm around 5mmol and heading downwards)

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I'll do chocolate for a non-crashing hypo too Probably not for one that's doing the full dripping wet cold sweat thing, but as a correction from a bit higher, I'll choose based on what I want to eat rather than what's going to be fastest.

Jaylee said:

Hi,

Answer this when you come back up... But give it an hour. What is your approximate time between testing when you go low? 5, maybe 10 minutes?

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Once I go low usually below 4 I will test evry 10 mins or so until I can see it going up. Generally I find though that after first 10 mins it will go down even more, thats when panic mode kicks in. If I am at home its OK but if I am at work or outside, I can go into full panic mode and have more carbs. I will deal with the high later. In my eyes best to have a slightly high BG than get carted off in ambulance

I use GlucoTabs. To me, they are edible but not a treat.
I buy them in bulk from eBay and decant into the smaller tubes I bought from Boots years ago.

I was frustrated by Dextrose. Firstly because the paper wrapping didn't protect the tabs once the packets were open and secondly because only the worst tasting ones (Orange ... I cannot cope with fake orange flavour even as a medical treatment) are the only ones available in pairs.

The number of GlucoTabs I take depends on the "depth" of my hypo, whether I have any "insulin on board" and whether I am exercising.
I don't take any slow acting carbs as I was advised not to when I changed to the pump. I think this is something to do with having no "spare" basal.

MisterMints said:

Sometimes I have right problems with my hypos! Especially if its an early morning one.

I have a bag of jelly babies by my bed, and if my xDrip alarm is going off and I've double checked the reading is correct I'll have maybe 3 jelly babies. 45 minutes later and nothing has happened (sometimes the reading has even gone down) so I'l take 2-3 more, and still nothing. Another 45+ minutes later and I'll try another 2-3 and then BAM!! My glucose shoots up from 3 to 13 in no time at all and I struggle to get it under control for the rest of the day.

I know you're supposed to wait and give the sugar a chance to get working, but nearly 2 hours of being in a hypo state has to be enough time to wait surely?!? This frustrates me no end!

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Try something with bubbles in the middle of the night. I find the gas helps the sugar hit quicker. Small cokes in the night 2 jelly babies in the day for me. If during the day I find things not working quick enough. (Am obstinate and don’t usually stop what I’m doing) I lay on floor with feet raised. Find this speeds the process up. I just do not have the time for hypos-retired, too busy!!!

Treating hypos? in order of preference.

Jaffa Cakes
Jelly Babies
Gluco tabs, either raspberry or blueberry.
Timeout biscuits.

I'm some of you will sit there and go "tut tut" but like all things these work for me

While I agree with others that having something nice to deal with a hypo should not be seen as a treat, when you are fairly out of it and in a deep discussion, with your self or anyone who will listen plus talking a load of Mel's cats, and your other half is trying to get you to eat something, then something nice and sweet is more likely to help get out the hypo.

helensaramay said:

I use GlucoTabs. To me, they are edible but not a treat.
I buy them in bulk from eBay and decant into the smaller tubes I bought from Boots years ago.

I was frustrated by Dextrose. Firstly because the paper wrapping didn't protect the tabs once the packets were open and secondly because only the worst tasting ones (Orange ... I cannot cope with fake orange flavour even as a medical treatment) are the only ones available in pairs.

The number of GlucoTabs I take depends on the "depth" of my hypo, whether I have any "insulin on board" and whether I am exercising.
I don't take any slow acting carbs as I was advised not to when I changed to the pump. I think this is something to do with having no "spare" basal.

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I have a couple of little Dextro tab tins - my pharmacy was giving them away free if you bought a couple of packs. They protect a single pack perfectly in my pocket or bag.

smc4761 said:

OMG I must be worlds worst diabetic. When I read of you guys having like 3 jelly babies etc, I think eh???????

I am going low at moment sitting at 3.7 and on way down. I will try jelly beans and hope they work, but I usually take around 12 and generally that will not have a huge impact quickly. I find these can take 15/20 minutes to have any impact by which time my BG will continue to go down

My go to if I am low and in house is warm cup of coffee with at least 2 sugars and a couple of biscuits to see me through. Outside it will be part of a bottle of full sugar cola and that will do the trick

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I sometimes plan on having a couple of jelly babies but then end up eating the whole bag

Like @MeldCP I find sweet things very sweet these days. I struggle eating one jelly baby. Cannot get it down quick enough, followed by a slush of water. Cannot imagine eating many more. I call them the Jelly babies of doom!

Aknitty said:

Hello
When treating a hypo, does your body get crazy about eating jelly babies/drinking apple juice etc? I suppose it is a biological urge as it's obviously an emergency situation but am planning for pregnancy so find it difficult dealing with subsequent highs.how do people limit hypo treatment effectively? Or not? I am hypo now so probably not making much sense thanks

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Hi. I am new to this forum. I have had T1 for 55 years and I find that the quicker I treat my hypo's the quicker I feel better and then am less likely to get the ravenous hunger (where I want to eat the horse and then chase the rider to eat him too!) Also, the Blood Glucose is more likely to go high later if you under-treat, as then your liver starts releasing glucose into your bloodstream to try to correct the low. So my way is to treat as soon as my BGL is 4 or less even if I am not feeling it yet. i.e. if I happen to test and it is 3.9 I treat. I use something we can get in Australia called Carbotest. This is the neat glucose liquid which is used for Glucose Tolerence Tests for diagnosis of Type 2. It has 15g of glucose in 60 mls, and is very slightly fizzy. Fizzy liquid gets into your bloodstream quicker than non fizzy does. Jelly Beans were my favourite for years, and before that glucose tablets, but this liquid works MUCH quicker. I feel better in about 3 minutes. Then I can follow up with something slower if I want/ need to. When I run out of Carbotest, Lucozade or Coke or Orange Fanta work really well too. Just need to be careful though:- I am from the UK and a frequent visitor to England and to Germany, and a couple of times in England and also Germany I have used these drinks for a hypo-, and it didn't work, and I then found out that the sugar content had been reduced. This was really scary as I ended up needing about 3 cans before it worked!

@Irene Banting any relation to our saviour? Agree the quicker you can treat a hypo the better - my go to is glucotabs, 3 to start with, and then see in ten mins if I need more - problem is in that low state more is always the preferred option - jelly babies and the like would just be too much of a temptation for me. Nighttime hypos are the worst for self control.

No, sadly no relation! However I did use the name in honour of him and the dear little dog whose name was Irene. I always promised myself my next dog would be called Irene, but fell in love with a male dog. I agree, I can't be trusted with black jelly beans or jelly babies of any colour.

evilclive said:

Sitting next to the fridge, eating everything we can find in there, is something many of us know well.

My "need something fast!" hypo treatment (for when things are bad, not just a dip into the 3s) is jelly babies, but only a small bag. I now know that 6 full size jelly babies will get me out of pretty much anything, which removes the temptation to binge further - if I had a big bag I would be very likely to over do it. I might even get away with 4 - needs experimentation (the 6 comes from the little mini bags of 9 2/3 size ones, which are no longer made. I've got a stock of little ziplock bags to split the big bag into.)

I've never been a fan of dextrose tablets - I don't feel the need to have to eat something unpleasant just because I'm hypo

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But your teeth might be less affected long term using glucose rather than other sugars !!

MisterMints said:

I did not know that - every day's a school day - but they work fine for me, and at 16g are just about the right size for hypo treatment.

This article over at Live Strong suggests that sucrose or glucose, it doesn't matter. They work well as a hypo treatment.

https://www.livestrong.com/article/280965-nutrition-facts-on-skittles-candy/

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But glucose is less destructive dental-wise.

After several glucose tabs I try to measure my BSL. If low I add another 2 tabs and wait.
Sometimes I get a surprise and find that my BSL is actually normal or a bit high despite still having hypo symptoms (including the insatiable hunger)!. I assume that glucagon and adrenaline have mobilised my liver stores of glucose and BSL has risen and continues to rise leading to the frustrating high BSL later.
So before being tempted to eat out the contents of the fridge, supermarket's lolly section, etc etc I try to go by the finger prick reading (hopefully CGM in future)!!
As mentioned above, hypos will happen and the less sucrose used over time the happier my teeth and bank balance are!!