Thanks Catherine, there's more......
Here is a link to a website which clearly explains Hypoglycaemia in all it's aspects. Have a read.
http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/hypoglycemia/
An extract:
Hypoglycemia can happen suddenly. It is usually mild and can be treated quickly and easily by eating or drinking a small amount of glucose-rich food. If left untreated, hypoglycemia can get worse and cause confusion, clumsiness, or fainting. Severe hypoglycemia can lead to seizures, coma, and even death.
It is the Pancreas that either doesn't work at all or doesn't work properly in a Diabetic, not the
Liver. The Pancreas doesn't produce Insulin to decrease the level of glucose in the blood. Hence a Type 1 and a Type 2 can both 'liver dump' which boosts Glucose levels when required. So long as your liver is healthy it will continue to do this. It only does this when you are dropping into the hypoglycaemic zone.
The body uses all three macro-nutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, and fats) to store energy.
The most easily used is the storage medium of carbohydrates, called glycogen. Glycogen is made from glucose, and is stored in the liver and muscles. Since it is basically nothing more than a complex matrix of glucose, it is easy for the body to store and use, something the body does all day long. The technical term for the act of creating and storing glycogen is glycogenesis. When the body calls for the conversion of glycogen back to glucose it is called glycogenolysis.
Another macro-nutrient that is available to be converted to glucose is protein. Most of us think of our protein as being stored in muscle, but the body has protective mechanisms to make muscle wasting its last choice. One of the most useful and readily available sources of protein storage is in blood components, i.e., albumin (plasma). The body uses a process performed in the liver to convert amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, into glucose. The name for this process is gluconeogenesis, literally "the creation of new glucose".
