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No Hypo Symptoms Sometimes - Bad Hypo Symptoms Other times

dtennant9

Well-Known Member
Messages
715
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi,

I have had a couple of Hypos in the last week where I have had no symptoms at all and only caughht them as I have been doing a meal time test anyway, yet I have other hypos where I really feel the symptoms.
I had one of 2.9 on Saturday where I hadn't felt any hypo symptoms. I took my fast acting glucose and it went down to 2.8 after 10 minutes.
I didn't have anymore fast acting with me, which I know is silly, so waited another 5 minutes and tested when it came out as 4.1. Once it was above 4 I then began to feel it a bit.
Last night I was testing before my evening meal and it came out as 3.4, again I felt fine. This time it came back up very quickly.
Also last night before bed I was 3.4 again, yet this time I felt horrific.
I'm able to tell why I have had the hypos but a little concerned why I'm sometimes having no symptoms, especially at 2.9.
Is it because my blood has dropped quickly?
Would there be any benefit in me contacting my DSN for advice? My blood was generally running quite high yesterday up until evening when things went a bit wrong.
 
Does your BG fluctuate a lot on a normal day and how is your BG in the morning?

I have been getting less and less hypo awareness since my BG's started to fluctuate a few months back and particularly after I started getting dawn phenomenon. Yet at other times I get hypo symptoms at around 5.
 
It doesn't fluctuate around too much, I sometimes struggle to get it to come down if it has been on the higher side. I usually wake up somewhere around 7 and 9.
I have been finding I've needed quite a bit more bolus for breakfast.
I also at times feel a bit low, test and realise I'm not.
 
Its a really difficult one because the lack of hypo awareness in me over a few months turned in to anxiety over my BG to a completely obsessive level so I would speak to your DSN asap.
 
Have left a message for them to phone me, even to ut my mind at rest.
Thanks for your help.
 
Hypo awareness can also depend though on how you feel, if you feel a bit run down or you are tired it can affect your ability to judge hypo's.

Also having a hypo or a rapid drop in blood sugar can affect your awareness if you end up having hypos in quick succession.

I suppose the other thing to check, are you on any meds? I was put onto beta blockers by my doc for a fast heart rate and my DSN went nuts because they are known to mask hypo symtoms in certain cases.
 

I'm just on Asthma inhalers other than my insulin, shouldn't cause me to much bother.
 
The reason for the Hypo warning signs is that the brain interprets a low blood-sugar level as an immediate threat to its well-being. And certainly it is, when the brain's fuel source is Glucose.

However, if you are fasting or if you are on a Ketogenic/LCHF diet then it is likely that your brain's main fuel source is Ketones. In that case, a low blood-sugar level is not interpreted by the brain as an immediate threat, and you won't get warning signs. No point panicking about a low petrol gauge if you are an electric car. (This is a severe oversimplification, just for the purposes of keeping this message brief).

Not experiencing the Hypo warning signs is not always a loss of Hypo awareness. I use a Ketogenic diet where my brain is Keto-powered. In Ketosis, when I have a low blood-sugar level I do not get the warning signs; nor do I get any loss of brain function. I just continue with my day.

Every couple of weeks I treat myself to a Sunday afternoon of chocolate. This means I come out of Ketosis, and for the next 48 hours or so my brain is Glucose-powered. Guess what! With low levels my warning signs are there, and I get a loss of brain function if I ignore those warning signs.

I'm not advocating low blood-sugar levels. My target is always 85mg/dl (4.7mmol/l)

I'm just offering 1 explanation, from personal experience, how/why it's possible for Hypo symptoms to appear sometimes but not other times. Apologies if the Keto explanation is not relevant for the OP.

Regards,
Antony
 
You need to adjust your insulin doses to stop the hypo's in the first place, it's safe to say that the more hypo's you have the less are the chances that the body will recognise the hypo's coming on.

If you continue to not recognise the hypo's then you need to run your bg levels higher than normal for several weeks to restore your hypo awareness, it's best that you test more often during this time as you want to be avoiding low bg as far as possible, if in doubt do speak with your diabetes team but this is the usual advice given out to those who become hypo unaware.
 

Spoke to them this afternoon and they've recommended cutting back on my Lantus for the time being.
I'm approved for a pump and on a waiting list with one other.
Unfortunately no funding right now but at least everything is set when it becomes available.
 

Sound like good advice, shame about the funding
 
One thing to be aware of is that one hypo will immediately suppress or reduce the warning signs of any further hypos in the following day or two. So one hypo can easily turn into a run of hypos.

As noblehead says the solution is to consciously bring your blood sugar up a bit and keep it steadily above where you want your warning sign trigger point to be.

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 

That might explain the lack of warning signs on Saturday as I'd had a few in the days running up to that.
 
I recently posted a thread about the exact same thing and I was having hypos of 2.1 and no symptoms, it really scared me as like you I was only knowing of these lows through pre meal/driving bg tests. However I noticed that this happened during when we had a hot week of weather and returned as normal when the weather turned again. Since then I have noticed that when it's a hot day, my sugar levels drop and I have no symptoms. The DSN agreed with me and noticed the pattern of hypos with unawareness was when it was a hotter day. May it possibly be the same for you?


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 

Yes I've noticed my sugars dropping in the heat as well. Living in Scotland that's not an issue very often. It was quite warm last Saturday though, so could explain it. That combined with running after a two year old!
 
How bad does the heat affect your sugars? I been type 1 for a year and half... Usually struggle to keep my levels under 12... this last week my sugars keep dropping and for last 4 days i have not put insulin in and its still hard to keep above 6. This is new two me so any advice would be much appreciated
 

It could be the heat that is causing your absorption of insulin to increase.
I guess as you've only been diagnosed a year and a half that you could still be in the honeymoon period.
This article has some info about diabetes and hot weather.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-and-hot-weather.html
 
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