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Fast acting sugar?

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B

Bolddog

Active Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1.5 LADA
Northerner said:
You need to treat the hypo with fast acting sugar first, ..........
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Ever since ( in desperation ) I tried to sort out a sudden hypo in a supermarket with some sweet yogurt ( bad idea ) I've been intersted in just how fast a fast acting sugar can be.

From what I read, monosaccharides are faster acting than disaccharides or polysaccharides as they can enter the blood stream without needing to be digested. So, if I'm home and hypo it'll be a spoon of honey & it does seem to work very fast.

I'd be very interested in what you all find to be fast acting.

Sorry if this is thread drift

Bolddog
 
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I generally use jelly babies and find them to be fast enough. On the odd occasion though, they don't seem to be working quite fast enough to arrest a fast falling hypo, so a glug of lucozade or any other fizzy pop does the trick. I used to use dextrose tablets but began to dislike them and they go very hard after a while making them difficult to chew and therefore difficult to get into the system.

I remember when I was first diagnosed and telling my mates down at the pub that if I keeled over they had to rub treacle inside my cheeks without delay. Jokingly, of course - but you should have seen some of the faces! :D
 
After many years of trying different things I discovered Lucozade and never looked back. For me it is the only thing that gets rid of the hypo symptoms quickly........ But I do sometimes need half a small bottle, or on a bad day more.
 
I also use a swig of Lucozade, it seems to work the quickest and sometimes if I'm out just a couple of dextrose tabs, they always work ok for me. never tried honey or jam, but will keep it in mind if I run out of the others, I also like Jelly babies, but I find if I eat 2 or 3 - I usually want the whole lot!! so - not a good idea... lol
 
I am a jelly baby fan, this purely down to it being the preference for my DAFNE educators, there was also fruit juices etc.........

the quickest route in would be in liquid form, there is no doubt about that, but for me this is only required when I am dropping quickly and unexpectedly, which I can fortunately say doesn't happen very often........🙂
 
novorapidboi26 said:
I am a jelly baby fan, this purely down to it being the preference for my DAFNE educators, there was also fruit juices etc.........

the quickest route in would be in liquid form, there is no doubt about that, but for me this is only required when I am dropping quickly and unexpectedly, which I can fortunately say doesn't happen very often........🙂
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My problem with liquids is that I found out early on that I tend to overtreat by drinking too much, so I usually try the JBs first then follow up with a couple of swigs if they don't do the biz 🙂
 
My current go-to hypo treatments are:

Low level dips:
  • 1-3 Fruit pastilles Last well in a pocket once you've had a few from the tube)
  • Handful of Skittles (particularly pocket-proof - esp in summer)
  • Jelly babies (fun sized bags available in big mixed multipacks)

Nastier ones:
  • Lucozade approx quarter of a 'normal' bottle is 15g CHO, the fact that it is liquid and fizzy means it works partyicularly fast. Any full-sugar drink would be fine, but the screw-lid means I can have a swig or two and come back to it another day.

Not-quite-hypo-but-a-bit-near-the-edge
  • 1 biscuit (ginger nuts/plain choc hob nobs a particular weakness)
  • Fun sized chocolate bar.

M
 
We buy the mini Coke cans, we were told they are perfect to treat a hypo - but my son finds they are not enough if he is below 3 so we now keep some standard Coke cans in too. The mini ones seem to cost a bomb though, getting on for ?4 for 12 little ones, or 30p each, so I buy probably 4 mini ones at a time and an odd pack of big ones from time to time. I would have thought with Lucozade you end up wasting half of it don't you?
 
As mike says, you can keep the rest for another hypo, personally it doesn't taste nice, so letting it go flat wouldn't be a problem.....:D

Brand of full sugar juice doesn't matter, so if you can find it cheaper, buy that...
 
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I use Lucozade, I have been and got me a 100ml plastic measuring cup from Boots - free from their pharmacy LOL after a sympathetic young lady had listened to why I needed to measure 60ml (= 10g carb), together with a purchased (?2.10) graduated up to 10ml plastic syringe of the type used to squirt medicine into babies throats! I came home and squirted 30ml of water into the cup and used my trusty felt-nibbed black indelible magic marker pen to mark the level, then added a further 30ml and marked that line. It fits remarkably well over the top of said Lucozade bottle so instead of guessing it and hoping for the best, I get a properly measured dose. 60ml is quite a bit more than I thought .... no wonder I never seemed to get it right !

I have difficulty chewing when I'm properly hypo and swallowing is a bit tricky too especially with fizz, which really hurts my throat if I am not careful in that state and I can't guarantee that - so 'new' big bottles get decanted into the smaller ones. It's cheaper to buy in big bottles and by decanting it, guaranteed to be flat which suits me fine.

Defintely works, have just proved that! - hypo and seeing spots to 5.5 in 10 minutes! (meter said 3.9 but it was lying, I know I was lower than that LOL) I'll just check - it's + 1.5hrs and I'm 8.9 ....... methinks Mr Liver is assisting me, wish he'd keep his ruddy nose out of it ..... sometimes!
 
I love those sour sweets. But for a very quick fix it morrisons own glucose drink. Tastes better than lucozade and a lot cheaper, same carb value though.
 
Pumper_Sue said:
I love those sour sweets. But for a very quick fix it morrisons own glucose drink. Tastes better than lucozade and a lot cheaper, same carb value though.
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Ooh! before diagnosis I couldn't get enough of the sour sweets! Now I'm afraid to buy them because I know I wouldn't be able to stop at one or two! 😱
 
Northerner said:
Ooh! before diagnosis I couldn't get enough of the sour sweets! Now I'm afraid to buy them because I know I wouldn't be able to stop at one or two! 😱
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Lol I'm the same so I fixed that problem by only having enough in a container to treat a hypo.
The rest are kept on top shelf of the cupboard 🙂
 
Thanks (N?) for splitting this off previous thread. I'd have posted earlier but have been working crazy hours ( with gr8 BS control :confused: ) last 2 days.

I originally was wondering if people noticed monosaccharides to be faster acting than di or poly saccharides. I gather from your posts that its generally not an issue with most of you.

Then I realised its just me and the state of 'my internals'. ( coeliac, leaky gut with some di & polysaccharides - as well as gluten - known to provoke a major enemy : anterior uveitis ).

FWIW Monosaccharides - commonly Glucose ( as found in lucozade ) and Fructose - are different from di and polysaccharides ( 'sugar' etc as may be found in jam etc ).
My understanding is that monosaccharides can usefully enter the blood stream without any form of digestive process whereas di & polysaccharides ( sugar etc ) need to be processed by the digestive system before they can be used. ( with leaky gut di & polys enter the blood stream undigested.......and cause havoc - in my case to my left eye )

On a slightly different topic :
Was looking for some glucose sweets and all I could find was barley sugar. BARLEY sugar ? - cant imagine that would be gluten free. Any one know of G/F status of various barley sugar brands ?


Bolddog
 
On a slightly different topic :
Was looking for some glucose sweets and all I could find was barley sugar. BARLEY sugar ? - cant imagine that would be gluten free. Any one know of G/F status of various barley sugar brands ?
Click to expand...
Hi,
there are loads of sweets that are classed as glucose sweets. If you want the posh one pop into a chemist shop and pick up the travel sweets in the round tin 🙂 http://www.alsimpkin.com/pages/traditional_travel_sweets
 
I always carry glucotabs on me to treat hypo's.
 
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