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Lowest BS ever of 3.4, bad news for me

I've posted about this before, but years ago before I was ever T2, I had several what I now know were migraine induced hypos: all my usual cold, shaky, nauseous pre migraine symptoms plus an urgent craving to eat some sugar, which was not usual, but definitely helped. It was really weird but my body obviously knew what to do...

Thinking back, I'd been told I should eat regular meals to help avoid attacks, but wasn't always a very good eater, and as these episodes tended to occur at the end of a working day, I could well have been very low on glucose...

Robbity
 
Aren't hangovers after a heavy night on the booze due to low blood sugars? Remembering back to my student days I seem to think a very stodgy breakfast cured them.
 
@Lamont D It's our last night in Lillehammer so after tea we went for a walk through the woods above the city and the path led to the ski jump. There were lots of young folk skiing off both jumps, it was grand to watch and listen to them. The noise they made going through the air was like a small plane taking off! We hadn't expected to see folk jumping so neither of us had the camera . After watching for a while we climbed to the top of the ski jump 936 steps. I felt grand, but it was far cooler so that probably helped. I had a small bar of chocolate in my pocket, just in case, but no testing equipment or phone! But at least hubby stayed with me this time. I'd taken diclofenec after tea for sciatica and I managed the walk no bother.
I doubt I'm a wee bitty tae auld tae tak up skiin!
 

Being someone with a phobia of falling off a shear drop, my admiration for these skiers is so high! (Pun!)

The fascinating thing also, being involved in a work place environment, how the hell do they get past the H&S guys?
Shouldn't they be wearing bubble wrap or a suit of armour?

Bet the view was brilliant!

If you can climb up you can jump!
 
Agreed
 
Lillehammer? Jealous of that.

Yes it can happen, I did a race, 35K and ended up down in the low 3s, not ideal but it was because I had used up more than I had put in. It's the reverse of what we do every day and try not going high.

it is horrible when it happens but it can do if we have not eaten enough, drank enough, too hot, too cold etc. you know what to do, always have a pack of sweets when out on adventures, its easier to manage a slight high than a low.

Take care
 
I suspect that dehydration has a far larger impact on type 2 diabetics than we might realise and others expect.
When others have written about feeling hypo I have asked if they might have been dehydrated and that seemed to chime with them.
My suspicion is that there is a problem releasing glucose from the liver if there are alarm bells from the kidneys that water levels are low - so to protect the kidneys from damage trying to work with too little spare water, the liver closes down the glycogen conversion.
 

That is an interesting thought, but if it always happened during dehydration how come the liver dumps in the mornings when we are at our most dehydrated after not drinking anything for 8 or more hours? I can tell by the colour of my first flow urine on rising that I am not as hydrated as I am the rest of the time. Or are you talking serious dehydration?
 
During sleep our kidney function is changed by - I think - melatonin being released. A more concentrated urine is made due to the effect of hormones not hydration. When disturbed at night there is often a further disturbance an hour later to go to the toilet as the kidneys have been woken up and are operating at daytime rates.
The situation is different when awake and trying to exercise.
 
I agree Resurgam.Certainly I have been taken ,semi conscious to AandE four times when I've collapsed ,very scary.There have been other times when I've been with family and I've just been able to lie down and take a drink and food.The second time this happened I was diagnosed with type 2.The last time, last year,It happened in hospital and was very severe,whilst visiting.The good thing was I was tested immediately and was found to be very dehydrated.......we had rushed to see step daughter who was in intensive care,no food or drink for hours and lots of worry.I look back on all the other episodes and dehydration seems the problem Like others I had always been told no hypos on Metformin ,but there is definitely a link IMO,between dehydration and hypos.
 
I think your advice here is possibly incorrect. A reading of 3.4 mmol/l is indicative of a medical hypo event since any reading below 3,9 mmol/l is so classed by definition. To assume that a T2D not on medication cannot possibly be suffering a hypo is IMHO a poor judgement. It is known that people undertaking extended exertion can suffer low bgl, such as marathon runners, rowers etc. Also some herbal and mineral supplements such as cromium and bitter melon can lower bgl, as can some non diabetic meds Also alcohol can have this lowering effect.

You are also assuming that the liver will recover the situation, but you are not allowing for diabetes interfering with the endocrine system and making the assumption that the liver will react as per a normal non-diabetic. In actual fact the fat surrounding the vital organs is there for a purpose, and one such function is to provide emergency energy to supply energy and heating for the vital organs in the core of the body, and reducing blood supply from feeding non essential parts of the body such as finger tips. Thus there is a protection mechanism that kicks in when at low temp to protect the body by preserving fat stores and this may prevent a liver dump until the temp rises.

Lastly you are assuming that the reading given is correct, It may only be a misread, but could under extreme conditions be reading high by up to 0,8 mmol.l so the true bgl value could be as low as 2,6 and still be considered accurate. Given that the meter / strip temp is low then there could be even more error present,

As a T2D on low carb, I have had many low bgl events, and while most have been what I would consider low risk, there were times when it would be dangerous for me to drive or operate machinery. Even going down stairs would be risky and these did present a need for immediate attention on my part. Yet when I reported on this forum that I had a reading of 2.1 and it was confirmed by my second meter, there were people on this forum (normally T1D) telling me that I was having a false hypo or a busted meter and that I should not worry about it since T2D do not get hypo's. Oh yes we can.

So please be careful when providing this level of advice without knowing the full circumstances of the situation.

Edit to add correction: I made the assumption that cold was a significant factor but this was not stated in the OP. My comments may be correct for a cold day, but on a warm day, dehydration may be a more likely answer.
 
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I agree completely with @Oldvatr - I have had several hypos - some quite major - while on metformin, especially while trying to lose weight pre low carb while following the Eatwell Plate diet sheet.

 
The reasons people without diabetes don’t get hypos, is that their BG have recovered by the time someone with a meter gets close to them! (Unless very cold and then it is called hyperthermia.)
 
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