• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

Can’t find info on sugar crashes and levels

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
J

Jayke

New Member
Hi folks.

My blood sugar levels are okay but I am being referred to an endocrinologist because I have had some potential hypo situations.

What’s prompted me to create this thread is that yesterday I had eggs for breakfast and checked my levels later which were 5.

All good.

I then ate steak and fries followed by panna cotta, which was very sugary and I’ve been trying to avoid these desserts for a good few weeks now.

I tested my levels around 80 minutes later and they were 3.4. They then rose on their own up to mid 5.

I felt okay, whereas over past weeks I had been feeling anxious and shaky if my readings were less than 4 (from 3.3).

I did pay to see a private endocrinologist who said everything looked pretty normal but said I should have fasting tests anyway, which I’m waiting for through my referral.

To cut to the question (thanks for keeping up with me):

- People talk of blood sugar crashes all the time, like its normal. When my levels went to below 4 around an hour or so after my and then up, is this normal?

I can’t find anything online about this. In my mind it relates to the crashes that people talk about after spiking.

What do you think?

Thanks for reading.

🙂
 
One thing to bear in mind is that Home BG meters are not necessarily 100% accurate, and people without diabetes do no always stay above 4.0 (though they do for the vast majority of time, of course!)

I’m not sure how unusual it is for a non-D to see a reduction in BG by 80 minutes after eating a high carb load, but your pancreas emits insulin that works a LOT faster than the stuff we inject into sc tissue that then needs to be absorbed into the bloodstream before it is available.

It is possible for people to be prone to hypoglycaemia without diabetes - so it might be worth asking your Dr about that?
 
Thanks, Mike.

Oddly, I send this reply from the doctors as I had an egg and banana for breakfast - I tested my levels an hour later and they were 6.7. I soon came over very, very tired and feeling sick. I tested again (only ten minutes after the 6.7 reading) and it was 4.6.

I figured I’d crashed rapidly and feeling so bad I thought I’d try and see somebody. This is really getting me down.

Blood levels look okay now at 5.3. I haven’t eaten anything since. This is the pattern that has been happening recently: eat and they rise and they then fall and then rise again to a steady level. Not every meal.

There seems to be a pattern between this and eating sugary foods.

I don’t think I have reactive hypos because the pattern doesn’t show that my levels typically drop after eating.

Confused!
 
I remember people talking about ‘reactive hypoglycaemia’ But I’m not sure I ever really understood what it was!
 
My understanding is that in reactive hypoglycaemia the pancreas puts out more insulin than us required in response to carbohydrates.

Make sure you carry some hypo treatment with you at all times e.g. glucose tablets, jelly babies or full sugar pop.

Have you tried going low carb for a few meals to see what happens?
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top