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Reactive Hypoglycaemia

When I first got my meter I was testing

On waking
Before breakfast
2 hrs later
Before lunch
2 hrs later
Before evening meal
2 hrs later
Bedtime

What an education!
It gave me a really good understanding of how my body reacts to food.

I heartily recommend this. You don't have to do it for long. Once you know what bacon and eggs do to you on a few occasions, it seems pointless testing the same thing over and over. But I still test new foods, new portion sizes, and in stressful or unusual circumstances.

Amongst other things, I have learned that my body simply cannot tolerate any carbs for breakfast. I now eat protein or fat (eggs, bacon, coffee n cream, leftovers, coconut milk yogurt...) and I now get a beautiful drop in my BG after breakfast. And I feel great. And I don't get hungry til lunch.
 
The most important thing about testing is when you have done it for quite a while and you can have your favourites down to how much of them you can eat at any one time. Then little meals become your favourites and it doesn't become a chore, it becomes easier if you plan and shop. If there is anything you want to try, first in really small portions, and test, then a little bit more, then a little bit more until you reach your limit!
Some pieces of fruit, maybe like me, a few baked beans without the sauce! Cooked, let cooled and reheated in microwave.
Use it like a chemical experiment and experience. You never know what you can eat and you will be surprised at what you can't!
Having full fat with other foods will slow digestion and reduce your spike!
Have fun, I did!
 
Ok, so I have kept track of what I’ve been eating on the LCHF Diet for the past few days and here it is along with a few symptoms. It’s been two weeks sticking to it with the exception of one slip up one evening. Before then I was toying with the diet also so I feel I’ve given the diet a decent go and I’m really not convinced it’s working out for me.

A few key things to note are:
· I get palpitations after putting virtually anything into my stomach. (At first I thought I didn’t get any palpitations but then I gave a unit of blood (hemochromatosis treatment). This seemed to cause / increase the palpitations significantly). Important to note that these palpitations do not bother me anything like they would when eating a normal diet.
· I wake up every morning feeling weak and with a terrible headache through dehydration. Cycling to work has become extremely difficult for me following this diet.
· I am not convinced I am suffering from low carb flu. The only similar symptoms I have to it are the fuzzy, foggy brain and irritability / exhaustion. These are very generic symptoms that apply to many conditions and I have suffered them for the last few years now so the diet hasn’t changed that.

Fri 10.30 cheese and tomato omelette. Pork chop courgettes.
Fri 12.00 palpitations but not tired.

Sat 7.30 headache very dehydrated.
Sat 7.30 - 9.30 lots of water.
Sat 8.00 cup of tea with milk.
Sat 9.00 two walnuts.
Sat 9.30 nettle tea.
Sat 11.30 Sausage bacon egg tinned tomato.
Sat 11.30 Immediate palpitations
Sat 12.45 pistachio nuts water
Sat 13.30 Coffee
Sat 15.30 Coffee
Sat 15.30 Coleslaw and salad
Sat 17.00 pistachios
Sat 18.00 Two burgers cheese salad dressing
Sat 19.30 pistachio nuts

Sun 8.30 Headache Dehydrated
Sun 9.30 Tea
Sun 9.30 Omelette, tea bacon cheese tomato.
Sun 9.30 Palpitations
Sun 12.00 Leek cauliflower soup Cream
Sun 12.30 V lightheadded / tired
Sun 12.30 Tea
Sun 13.00 Pork onions cheese gravy
Sun 13.00 Tea
Sun 17.30 Feeling weak
Sun 17.30 Coffee Cream
Sun 17.30 pistachio nuts
Sun 18.00 Loads of water
Sun 18.30 Pork Broccoli Coleslaw Onion Gravy
Sun 18.30 Seemed to feel better for it
Sun 19.30 Two mouthfuls of double cream

Mon 7.00 Big headache
Mon 8.30 Tea, Almonds
Mon 11.20 Turkish Yogurt 10%
Mon 13.15 Broccoli Coleslaw Chicken Diet Coke Cheese
Mon 13.30 Tea
Mon 17.00 Pistachio Nuts
Mon 19.45 Two mouthfuls of double cream
Mon 19.45 Feel tired/bad due to the cream
Mon 20.15 Feeling sick / one off sharp pain below heart
Mon 20.15 Liver pain / bloating intensified
Mon 20.30 Bacon cauliflower courgettes lemon juice
Mon 20.30 Feel better for it
Mon 21.30 Tea Decaf

Tue 7.00 Massive headache
Tue 8.30 Tea
Tue 9.30 Turkish Yogurt 10%
Tue 10.30 Tea

I’m starting to wonder if I have an issue with dairy. The double cream I drank (which was delicious btw ) really seemed to cause some bad symptoms. My stomach is bloated as ever. The pain in my liver area fluctuates as usual but hasn’t gotten any better.

So in conclusion I think I have another problem besides RH that isn’t going to be sorted by following this diet. Perhaps it is dairy and I will probably look into that next but I don’t think I will continue with LCHF as it is just not working for me L

Ahh, think that’s it… Please let me know your thoughts.
 
Oh, forgot to mention... I have been drinking as much water as I possibly can in the evenings to try and avoid the morning headache (I buy 2L bottles of still water and drink from them most of the time). I seem to have a significant problem with trying to stay hydrated!
 

Are you able to add your blood scores and any exercise you've taken, along with those timings and food?

(I don't have RH, but an enquiring mind, and there's only part of the story there.)
 
During the days above the only exercise I did was on monday. That was cycling to work and back, 20 mins each way. The route is very hilly. I usually cycle 5 days a week with an occasional run at the weekend.

I have no way of measuring my blood sugars :/
 
Hi @MrBigglesworth

I think I would be checking out for problems with dairy too. Are you including eggs in that? Because they might be a factor too.

On Sunday, when you were feeling weak at 5,30, that was four and a half hours after you ate your lunch. Of course, I don't know your portion size, but I wouldn't rule out the fact that your body just needed more fuel.

Getting a blood glucose home testing kit would be a really good idea. I think the SD Codefree is about the cheapest. You can be up and running with one for about £23, if I remember correctly - that is the meter and a pot of 50 strips, so you can test 50x. Worth its weight in gold, in my opinion.

The dehydration in the morning is something I have experienced. For me, it was less about low carb, and more about the low carbing having reduced my water retention to such an extent that when I drank a glass of water, my body's tissues no longer soaked it up like a sponge and held on to it. Not sure what happened, but I no longer get it, so somehow my body has learned to adapt.

I would be interested to hear what your doc says about the palpitations.

The only other thing I can contribute is to ask if you have cut down on coffee as a result of going low carb? Lots of people do, sometimes without even realising it. My husband always has nasty headaches when he stops coffee, and I vaguely remember hearing about someone (years ago) who got palpitations through coffee, but I can't remember if she got them from too much, or giving the drink up.

The reason I mention it is that on two days you have a pattern of waking up with a headache, then eating, drinking, having palpitations, but those symptoms do not reappear after your first coffee of the day. On monday, you don't mention having coffee at all, and you felt awful all day.
 
How long did it take for you to loose the headaches @Brunneria?

I've never really drunk much coffee so that shouldn't be an issue.
Sorry if its a bit unclear... I get palpitations after eating anything at the moment. If I've mentioned them in the diary, they would have been more significant / immediate.
I'll definitely look into getting a glucose monitor. The one you mention is the cheapest but would I be better off getting a slightly more expensive one in terms of quality etc?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
That tag worked perfectly @MrBigglesworth

Good that you can rule out coffee. I cannot imagine life without it. Sugar, wheat and mangos, yes. Coffee? NO!!!

re the meter. I think that the SD codefree would be accurate enough. Lots of us type 2s use them, because of the price (we self-fund). I think type 1s need accuracy far more, and they get their kit from the NHS.

When we (type 2s and RHers test, it is far less about the precise reading, and far more about trends. Individual readings are rarely very accurate (the meter manufacturers work with an error tolerance of +\- 15% which is HUGE. So never trust an individual reading to be precise.

However, the wonderful thing about home testing is that you can spot trends and patterns. You can repeat foods in the same circumstances, and then repeat them again in different ones. The results teach you so much, I think they are invaluable.

(if you are in the UK, I suggest getting a meter that reads in mmol/l because those are the units the UK uses. 3.6 mmol/l is the figure people accept as the top of the hypo range. normal blood glucos is between 3.6 and 8 ish, above 8 is a bit high. 30+ and people have been known to end up in hospital. all those figures are a rough guide and very open to interpretation. our bodies vary a lot!)

Example of spotting trends using your meter (each experiment needs to be run several times, and the resulting bg averaged):
- I eat yogurt and berries every morning for 3 days as breakfast and watch my RH produce a hypo at 11am. Not good. BG 3.2 at 3 hours.
- So I switch to Greek yogurt (10% fat). This time, no hypo, but I am RAVENOUSLY hungry by midday. BG is at 4.1, and I really need food. So the fat helped, and gave me an extra hour.
- Hmm, i think. Maybe more protein? and add ground almonds to my breakfast on top of the yog and berries. Better! Less hungry, and for 3 days I don't need lunch til 1pm. BG is 4.6 at 5 hours. Very happy.
- Then along comes the weekend. Bacon and sausage, in celebration! No hypo, no slump, no thinking about food til 3 pm. BG settles comfortably at 4.5 from 9am til 3pm. Brilliant. This is the life!
 
I think the fluctuations are important and something is definitely going on.
And the dairy can be having an effect on you, until you are properly diagnosed and testing your blood glucose levels we are only going on our experiences.
Ive had a look at wether others have had the fluctuations as part of the many and endless symptoms. It could be the anxiety or something similar. I had panic attacks and bad anxiety with a lack.of confidence. It's only the big ones you notice and usually when they are going.
If food makes you ill, can you fast to feel better?
I only ask, as this is a trick I learned from my hospital experience!
Because I felt really good during my 4 and a bit days in hospital, not eating, that convinced me that certain types of food were not good for me!
So when I'm not working, I have a fast day. This gives my body a rest from food.
If you can't, then don't!
 
nosher8355 said:
I'm not intolerant to lactose, but it always made me ill!!

That's weird!
Click to expand...
Same here, but I have an acquired IBS, due to having a nearly deadly dysentery two days after I was born, which lasted several weeks and left me with weird side effects which mimic IBS, including strange reactions to dairy products, random and unpredictable, e.g. sometimes I can have cream, sometimes not, same with cheeses, yogurts etc. The only cheese I can have regularly is parmesan;-) the rest I must change often.
Even milk, it goes with coffee or tea only:-/
Yay
 
No milk, cream, cheese, etc. Only full fat Greek style yoghurt seems to agree with me! Even low fat yoghurt, when I could have ate them turned my stomach! Weird or what?
 
nosher8355 said:
No milk, cream, cheese, etc. Only full fat Greek style yoghurt seems to agree with me! Even low fat yoghurt, when I could have ate them turned my stomach! Weird or what?
Click to expand...
Turkish yogurt from Lidl, does it for me, but only a few times in a row, followed by a break otherwise its a run:-(
 
I'll definitely try cutting out dairy shortly entirely (think ive experimented with lactose free before so going to go all the way inc eggs @Brunneria).
@nosher8355, food is definitely my problem! Problem is I need it and am struggling to figure out what, if anything specific is the cause. I often feel best in the morning as I haven't eaten yet.
I'd say I'm anxious to get well again but I dont find that a problem. In my experience if you are chronically ill and its not obvious, people tend to think you are a bit pathetic because you cant keep up with everyone else. I've had to deal with a lot including bullying at work, social issues etc and while its upsetting I can deal with it. I'm not trying to write a sob story here, just making the point that I don't think anxiety is an issue. All of this is difficult but I don't suffer from panic attacks. If someone is doggedly searching for something then they are going to be seen as anxious I think and that is me right now. Trying to find a solution to all this so I can live a normal life. Oh and you guys are helping a lot
 
I went through the pathetic treatment too and it really annoyed me at the time, but now that I'm feeling better I just shrug off any comments. I've found also that making a point of testing sugar levels in front of those people, but not saying anything, tends to shut them up quite quickly too as they then realise that there really is something wrong with me. Why would anyone put holes in their fingers unless they had to?
 
I believe quite a few on this forum have had the same treatment and I do sympathize!
I have always bored the doubters with how I've done this that and the other because of my medical problems. In fact I've won that battle, as they tell everyone not to discuss medical things with me!!
They know, why and how I'm dealing with it. And they still go the chippy for dinner, they think the absolutely gorgeous smell of the chips get me hot and bothered, they're wrong!
 
Same here, as the best part of my day is before eating;-)
 
hehe yes, I thought others would have had a similar experience(its obvious really given where we are). People are ignorant of things they dont recognise / understand and that too often results in poor treatment of people. @MosheBenYehud lets never eat again! ( jk )
 
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