Hey Nosher.
The reactive hypoglycaemicia. Is it possible that certain individuals can get this at certain times of their life. Like in the teens & 20's. Then have no issue later..??
I'll elaborate. (Please don't don't take my enquirery as an unempathic Q. Or a "you'll grow out of it." Lol none of us like that s##t.)
As a teen my old school mate told he used to suffer on odd occaisions, from his description the symptoms we would say was a hypo. He stopped it with sugar.
My wife experienced the same in her late teens/early 20s.. She also shared a house a number of years ago. (When I first met her.) this one guy sharing used to frequently show signs of hypoglycaemicia, even slumped in the kitchen confused trying to eat.. Though in my view he may have been a secret T1?
In some ways I'm glad I met a woman that has somewhat experienced the symptom.. It means she can understand without the stupid over reaction.
Hi,
I found some studies on it once.
Apparently RH is very common. About 50% experience it at some point, and around a quarter of women experience it at least once a month. Connected to hormones, often. So the more messed up your hormones are, the more likely it is that you experience RH. But, for the same reason, most people deal with it easily, in its milder form - sudden hunger - snack, or eat meal -feel better - carry on as normal, without even noticing that their shaking hands, hunger and lack of focus was a mild hypo...
No idea how that affects men (cos they have a lot of hormone stuff going on at different phases, don't they?) but I'm sure it does.
Diane Cress (American diabetic dietician, advocating carb control) reckons that a lot of people start out with RH as a kind of pre-preD (with no idea that's the reason they want carby food NOW!), then some of those escalate to T2. She reckons that appropriate dietary intervention (book details in my sig) allows such mild RHers and preDs to reset their insulin response, and avoid T2.
My own experience is that PMT, stress and strong emotions make it FAR worse. In fact, half my PMT symptoms (including irrational rage and a desire to rip people's throats out), match my RH hypo symptoms and their aftermath. And all of those, including the insulin and glucagon relationship, are all hormones or governed by hormones, aren't they?
So yes, it is amazingly common, almost everyday.
It's only when it gets severe and life impacting that people start to notice.