Does anyone experience symptoms with blood sugar spike?

[guillemot80]

Hi everyone,

It's great to be part of this forum. I've been a type 1 Diabetic since 1988, and wanted to find out if anyone else suffers the same symptoms of blood sugar spikes as I do.

In the past, blood sugar spikes didn't really have much of an effect on me. However, as I've got older, I'm convinced that when my blood sugar rises quickly it sometimes causes me to feel anxious, dizzy, tight-chested or just generally "off".

My diabetic clinic and GP have always played down these symptoms as anxiety, and I can't really find any first-hand accounts online, so I'd be really interested to hear from any other diabetics who experience weird symptoms that seem to correlate with fluctuating blood sugar (apart from the normal hypos).

Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you!

 

[Ljc]

Hello @guillemot80 , welcome to the forum. I have T2 and on mdi insulins .
I find that if I reach say the mid 9s (fortunately not very often) or am rising rapidly then I feel generally off colour and or ratty, not dizzy or anxious though.
The thing is imo we are all so very different in how our diabetes affects us. Whatever flavour of D we have, we live with it daily which imo is different from learning/studying it from the outside. Please don’t get me wrong I know the DSN’s are very knowledgeable and helpful but I do wish someone could teach diabetes the rules it’s supposed to follow 🙄

I would say that if you have these symptoms each time then they are your own particular warning signs of hypers.

I am sure others will be along soon.

Edited to say, could it be that you are having less hyper’s now which has made you more sensitive to them.

 

[Eddy Edson]

I'm a T2 & this may be way off base, but yr post chimes with something I've been noticing. From time to time I get what I describe to myself as an "inflamed" feeling - kind of jangly, uncomfortable, kind of a physical anxiety. It goes along with slightly elevated BG - by which I mean in the 6's or 7's when "normally" I'd be in the 4'5 or 5's. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with carbs, persists to a certain extent with exercise, fades after a day or two.

I don't think having slightly elevated BG is the cause: I can often have similar BG levels without the "inflamed" feeling. I think it goes the other way: either some anxiety thing causing the "jangly" feeling and slight BG elevation, or else some actual physical inflammation due to whatever (eating too many nuts??) causing it all.

Like I say, probably nothing to do with what you're seeing, but I have been thinking about this.

 

[Schrodinger]

T1 here been one for WAY too long 🙂 depends on what a "Spike" is.

If, for arguments sake, you spike to 15-20mmol then yes what you experience is something I would expect, but we are all different. For me if I spike it does affect my mood but mainly that is born of frustration when I am not sure what, why and why it does not respond to insulin corrections.

 

[Docb]

Another T2 (at least that's what my GP thinks) here and I can relate to what you are saying. No anxiety as such, but can get what I would describe as total emptying of the fuel tank despite there being a "normal" amount of glucose in the blood stream. Can't correlate it with spikes but I know when I'm heading into double figures - just generally feel odd. Like the other day when I ate the four tiny squares of flapjack (about 10% of a normal piece) that a local café had put on the side of my cup of tea as a taster. 9.0 when I got home, feeling wrong.

Like Eddy I have thinking about what is going on and wondering if it has something to do with a low carb lifestyle being combined with a poorly performing pancreas. Could it be that low carbing has kept the blood glucose down but there is insufficient insulin to process what is there in sufficient quantity to keep the system working as it should. The system is behaving as if it is reacting to hyperglycaemia or hypoglycaemia even though the blood glucose readings are "normal".

 

[Thebearcametoo]

My daughter can get bad anxiety and be generally off if she’s high, especially if she’s spiking but not with dizziness etc.
Has your GP done a general check on you for things like iron deficiency?

 

[guillemot80]

Hello everyone, thank you for taking the time to reply. It's very interesting to read all of your experiences. In response, yes @Schrodinger, this morning I spiked to about 16 while out walking and felt horrible... which was soon relieved by taking some insulin. @Docb, that's an interesting thought – I have often wondered what other things are going on in my body when my blood sugar goes high.

Obviously my pancreas no longer produces insulin in response – but does anyone have any information about what else happens in the body?

Thanks again everyone, @Ljc @Eddy Edson @Schrodinger @Docb and @Thebearcametoo