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Treating lows

Richard F

Well-Known Member
Messages
283
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Like all on here, I carry glucose with me. Fruit pastilles for a bit of an adjustment and hypostop/glucogel for a serious quick hit if sugars are dropping rapidly. I'm pretty active walking and working out doors, glucogel tubes can burst making a mess of pocket or bag (worse now the packaging has changed and also quite expensive OTC to waste). What else could I try?

Years ago I'd carry Dextro tablets but found they weren't particularly quick, not like glucogel.

What works for you?
 
Hi Richard, I am pretty active, I go running 3-4 times a week so carrying hypo treatments can be tricky but I do make sure I have them on me at all times as been caught short before, for runs I carry glucotabs as they come in long tubes and I can generally stash in a pocket or bum bag, for longer runs I also carry jelly beans as I can keep them in my mouth and suck on easily for a glucose hit, also easy to carry in a bag, and i'll use a flapjack too if I need a more sustained elevation if going down slowly, for me hypo treatment is based on speed of BG decline so falling fast and glucotabs, falling slowly then bar or jelly beans, I used to carry jelly babies but they get squashed and in heat they melt too, munching on a melted mass of jelly babies isn't fun as you can't gauge the carb mass... !
 
Skittles in fun packs (sealed and small enough to pocket at least one and scatter other packs around in other handy places)

They are ~1g/CHO per skittle (each hypo maths!), in packs of iirc 17.

I haven't used dextrose for many years though so I can't compare how fast they act, though almost certainly slower as they are sucrose.
 
I use the small boxes of juice, with attached straw, not the easiest thing to carry round when running or walking, stuck one in pocket of husband’s jacket last week when we were going to a pantomime. The problem with those is that you often get a nice sticky fountain when you insert the straw.
Am also able to buy pouches of extended-life pouches of baby food, yoghurt with fruit , which amount to about 10-15 grams of carb and seem to act quickly enough for me.


I stash sachets of sugar and sugar cubes from cafes in my jacket pockets and have used those in the past. I have repurposed a small lidded dessert carton to keep jelly babies in, think someone did some research and jelly babies worked out the cheapest form of ‘rescue remedies’.
Am also able to get on prescription something called baqsimi, for the time when I don’t give myself some sugar in time.
 

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Thx, I'll try some of these.

I'm not convinced they'll act as quickly as glucogel, maybe better than pastilles. It'd be interesting if anyone's carried out a clinical study.

Lift Glucose Tablets Juicy Raspberry - 10 Tablets - Boots

Buy Lift Glucose Tablets Juicy Raspberry - 10 Tablets collect Advantage Card Points for every £1 you spend.
www.boots.com
 
Tbh the absolute nectar for dropping glucose levels is Glucojuice, they come in small bottles, so 1 bottle treats a hypo, if you can think in terms of what will be absorbed quickly, orange and apple juice are also good, but it depends if it needs to be accessed at home or on the go. I haven't used pastilles but if I was to have sweets then as I mentioned earlier jelly beans or jelly babies work equally well, however portion control can be difficult to manage when going low..
 
Interesting orange juice is medium on the glycemic scale, about the same as pasta, so not an immediate hit.
 
Recently i Bought these hypo Gels from this company and they work pretty quick and are small and easy to carry

DIABEAT&CO

DIABEAT&CO
diabeatcouk.com

they come in quite a few flavours but are not particularly inexpensive ( £15.99 for 12 gel pouches )
 
Thank you, I saw similar in Boots, the packaging looks similar to my current gel. The problem being that it splits in my pocket.
 
If you are in the UK, Lidl sell 75g bags of Dolly Mix (normally in a display box with two other types of children's sweets at their eye level, so look on the lower shelves). I find half a bag will turn around or avert a hypo. But the effect can be short-lived. If I don't follow up with a long-lasting carb, I'm going down sharply after 60-90 mins.

The bags are small enough to stuff a couple in your pocket. They are tastier (and cheaper) than the pure dextrose tablet, and at 97g sugar per 100g as effective.
 
Maynard's Wine Gums - no mess even loose in my pocket and work in 5-10 mins on an empty stomach.
Other wine gums are available but don't work as fast and I'm not sponsored by Maynard's!
 


Well I had occasion to use LIFT, no quicker than pastilles although they do have sturdy packaging.
 
For those who do use Skittles, they are £1.50 for the multi-fun pack packs with Nectar card right now at Sainsbury's
 
Ive recently changed my treatment to some glucose gel treatments used by cyclist, they contain 20g of carbs which is more than the content in a small can of cola that i used before , I’m on a self restricted fluid intake so the content is less . i get glucogel on prescription and they have a twist of top thing which can easily twist off the gels that I use no don’t have That problem . They are £8.50 for 20 sachets on Amazon
 
Thank you, I've ordered some

 
any sweets from VIDAL. Jelly babies - don't need many to send my bl;ood sugar sky rocketing - don't know what kind of sugar they have in but they work very fast
 
I cary Clif Bloks - lots of flavours and essentially gel with caffeine and carbs (for Athletes.....hmmmm....well I'm almost their target market...)

Easy to carry about, don't go off when the packet is open for a long period (as you only need one) and absorbs quickly.

Then anything for slower carbs like a penguin or toblerone or whatever I have with me.
 
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