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Low/normal blood sugars

LindaA 2

LindaA 2

Member
Messages
20
Location
Glasgow
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Insulin
hi looking for a bit of advice please. Diagnosed t2 back in March with an average bs of 19. Now after following a low carb diet getting an average reading of 5.4. I know this is good going but lately however I’ve been having a lot of headaches and dizziness and on testing my bs I’m getting readings between 4.5 and 5. I thought your bloods had to be really low, about 3.5 or 4 to have a hypo so what could be causing the headaches and dizziness? Has anyone else had this problem? Thanks in advance
 
Diagnosis would normally be a fasting glucose (not an average) or an hb1ac (3month) in either in % or mmol so I’m a bit confused there.

I assume the current readings are your pinprick ones.

If it’s diabetes related my first guess would be false hypo. Are you on blood pressure meds? If so A rapid improvement in your health could mean the tablets are doing more lowering than required now and your getting low bp instead. Any other suspect conditions going on that you know of?
 
LindaA 2 said:
I thought your bloods had to be really low, about 3.5 or 4 to have a hypo so what could be causing the headaches and dizziness?
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Are you on any meds for your T2?
 
HSSS said:
Diagnosis would normally be a fasting glucose (not an average) or an hb1ac (3month) in either in % or mmol so I’m a bit confused there.

I assume the current readings are your pinprick ones.

If it’s diabetes related my first guess would be false hypo. Are you on blood pressure meds? If so A rapid improvement in your health could mean the tablets are doing more lowering than required now and your getting low bp instead. Any other suspect conditions going on that you know of?
Click to expand...
Hi HSSS my last two hba1c were
25/4/18. 48
22/11/18. 42

Apart from Metformin I’m not on any other type of medication. Until I was diagnosed with diabetes I was relatively healthy lol
 
LindaA 2 said:
Hi Briped only Metformin. My latest hba1c was 42
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My guess would be a false hypo too, or possibly, if you have lowered your carb intake further and started started eating keto recently, 'keto flu'.
Metformin is not in the class of drugs that can make you hypo. That being said, there are those T2s who can hypo just like that, but since you're testing I'm sure you'd find out if it were a real hypo.
 
LindaA 2 said:
Hi HSSS my last two hba1c were
25/4/18. 48
22/11/18. 42

Apart from Metformin I’m not on any other type of medication. Until I was diagnosed with diabetes I was relatively healthy lol
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Now I’m really confused.
Hb1ac of 48mmol/mol is the equivalent of blood glucose of 7.7mmol
42 = 7

Where did you get the 19 from?

And your profile says you are on insulin
 
HSSS said:
Now I’m really confused.
Hb1ac of 48mmol/mol is the equivalent of blood glucose of 7.7mmol
42 = 7

Where did you get the 19 from?

And your profile says you are on insulin
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19 was from my average finger pricks. I thought these gave you a daily overview of your blood sugars as you only get your hba1c done every 6 months.

I was on insulin to start with but doc took me off it end of last year. I’ll update my profile
 
Please remember that not all symptoms that we might feel are necessarily due to Diabetes. If your symptoms persist then I suggest you seek medical advice.
 
LindaA 2 said:
hi looking for a bit of advice please. Diagnosed t2 back in March with an average bs of 19. Now after following a low carb diet getting an average reading of 5.4. I know this is good going but lately however I’ve been having a lot of headaches and dizziness and on testing my bs I’m getting readings between 4.5 and 5. I thought your bloods had to be really low, about 3.5 or 4 to have a hypo so what could be causing the headaches and dizziness? Has anyone else had this problem? Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Sounds like a lack of salt to me..? are you replacing what you no longer get from eating. I put a pinch of salt in my coffee (each one) could well be your intake has gone down while low carbing?
 
bulkbiker said:
Sounds like a lack of salt to me..? are you replacing what you no longer get from eating. I put a pinch of salt in my coffee (each one) could well be your intake has gone down while low carbing?
Click to expand...

Also my first thought. Classical symptoms of salt deficiency on low carb.
 
Hello LindaA 2
I get bad headache's if my b.s. gets to 4.5 too , lasts couple of days. Recently came off metformin as thought b.s. was getting too low (doing a lot of walking too) my diabetic nurse said this was ok as long as b.s. wasn't above 7.5 in morning (this was before Christmas & it has stayed low 5 to 6.5) but reading on here.... I started testing after eating & b.s. was in 12 & taking time to go down so last couple of days I have taken one metformin tab now b.s. is better.
 
Carbon said:
Hello LindaA 2
I get bad headache's if my b.s. gets to 4.5 too , lasts couple of days. Recently came off metformin as thought b.s. was getting too low (doing a lot of walking too) my diabetic nurse said this was ok as long as b.s. wasn't above 7.5 in morning (this was before Christmas & it has stayed low 5 to 6.5) but reading on here.... I started testing after eating & b.s. was in 12 & taking time to go down so last couple of days I have taken one metformin tab now b.s. is better.
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Thanks Carbon that sounds just like me. My waking bs is between 5 and 6.5 and during the day it’s very seldom above 7.4. Think I’ll speak to my doctor about reducing my Metformin and see if that works. Your information has been invaluable, thanks
 
LindaA 2 said:
Thanks Carbon that sounds just like me. My waking bs is between 5 and 6.5 and during the day it’s very seldom above 7.4. Think I’ll speak to my doctor about reducing my Metformin and see if that works. Your information has been invaluable, thanks
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So pleased I have been of help. Learned more on here though than what I've been told by diabetic nurse's... have a lovely day
 
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