Why Do Hypos Happen

[GlitterSparkles]

hi its glittersparkles and was wondering what happens inside of you when you have a hypo

 

[Deleted Account]

I don't know everything that happens but I know a couple of things:
1. when our body feels our BG is going low, it releases adrenaline. For someone with a working pancreas, this acts as an insulin inhibitor sending a message to stop producing insulin. With diabetes and injecting insulin, adrenalin does not do the insulin inhibiting because we have already injected it so it is in our body. But we can experience the effects of high adrenaline which is the slightly manic behaviour, possibly stronger than usual, heart pumping faster, etc.
2. our brain needs blood sugar to work properly, when it does not have enough (I think this is about 2.8 mmol/l), it doesn't work properly which is what leads to things like inability to concentrate.

I am sure there is more than this and look forward to the other answers.

 

[Juicyj]

My understanding of a hypo event @GlitterSparkles is that a hypo is triggered when the brain is starved of glucose, as the brain requires glucose to function normally and when that doesn't happen the brain will start to 'shut down' so various functions will start to decline such as vision, speech, movement etc, messages are relayed to the liver by hormone and in reaction the liver will trigger a glucose reaction releasing stores, however all of this can be helped by immediate treatment with glucose.

 

[novorapidboi26]

There will likely be a glucagon response from the alpha cells of the pancreas at some point as well.....this triggers the liver to release some of its energy stores so as to increase the glucose levels in the blood stream.......

for diabetics though, especially long term ones, that response may not be as effective, even more so if hypos are a regular occurrence.....

 

[lindisfel]

In R.H. there is apparently no first phase insulin to speak of and the blood glucose goes sky high on carbs. Then the pancreas produces an inappropriately high amount too late and it drives the hypo. My hypos were two hours after first bite.
D.