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How you treat a hypo?
- Thread starter Knoxy
- Start date
- Status
Steff
Little Miss Chatterbox
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Hi knoxy the more experienced in hypos will be along soon as ive only had one but when i did i had a biccie and some ribena
Here are a few pointers i found ...
If you feel "hypo" coming on you need to take some glucose or sugary carbohydrate food immediately, eg
3 Dextrosol or glucose tablets
?/3 bottle of Hypostop
3 teaspoons/3 cubes of sugar
4 teaspoons of ordinary jam or honey
1 cup of milk (?/3 pint)
Small glass (100 ml) of fruit juice, Coca-Cola or lemonade (not diet drinks)
1 tablespoon of ordinary Ribena
4 tablespoons of ordinary Lucozade
2 bar Kit-Kat
Fun-size Mars bar
After the symptoms of "hypo" have passed take a small starch carbohydrate snack, eg 2 plain biscuits or 1 round of bread to maintain your blood glucose until your next meal
Here are a few pointers i found ...
If you feel "hypo" coming on you need to take some glucose or sugary carbohydrate food immediately, eg
3 Dextrosol or glucose tablets
?/3 bottle of Hypostop
3 teaspoons/3 cubes of sugar
4 teaspoons of ordinary jam or honey
1 cup of milk (?/3 pint)
Small glass (100 ml) of fruit juice, Coca-Cola or lemonade (not diet drinks)
1 tablespoon of ordinary Ribena
4 tablespoons of ordinary Lucozade
2 bar Kit-Kat
Fun-size Mars bar
After the symptoms of "hypo" have passed take a small starch carbohydrate snack, eg 2 plain biscuits or 1 round of bread to maintain your blood glucose until your next meal
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hi Knoxy
People often mention the 'rule of 15'
Take 15g rapid acting carbohydrate. Wait 15 minutes. Test again. If you are still not above 4mmom/l take another 15g.
Many people are also advised to take 10-20g of something a little more starchy to follow up the hypo and prevent a further dip. Whether or not you will need to do this is something you will discover for yourself. Personally I know that for most of my low-level dips, eating this follow-up carb would send me into the 10s - 14s so I tend to just keep an eye on things. Certainly the risk of a hypo recurring is not worth taking so treat with follow up carbs to begin with and watch for a pattern.
For every hypo you have, you should try to work out what caused it. Did you underestimate the carbs in the meal? By a little or by a lot? Have you been unusually active? Is it a very hot day? If you know the cause you will be better able to know the level of treatment required.
By treating the hypo thoroughly but carefully you should be able to get your bgs into normal range without inevitably skyrocketing into the teens. Do remember though that once you have had one hypo in a day you are more likely to have another. So keep a close eye on things.
It is not uncommon to bounce high after a hypo - sometimes this is overtreatment, but other times, when the hypo has been a little more severe, the liver is stimulated into dumping glycogen into your bloodstream to raise bgs. Sadly though the message often takes a little while to get through, so rather than helping, it arrives after you have sorted your levels out already
I have a little flat metal tin that I carry with me everywhere into which I can fit 4 cafe-style sachets of sugar. I keep this for emergencies in case I start dipping when there are no shops around or open. I also usually carry something sugary/sweet in my coat pocket, just in case
This time of year the small 'fun-size' bags of Skittles (available in multipack assortments) are especially good as they contain roughly the right amount of carbs (with little or no fat to slow it down) and are virtually indestructible even in a jeans pocket on a hot day.
Fruit pastilles are good too (3 or 4 are usually enough). And we have bottles of Lucozade in the house. I'm also quite happy to use pretty much any fun-size choccy bar in cooler weather, though I know strictly speaking these are not ideal (too much fat which slows down their absorption). I find a little chocolate hypo-treatment every now and then makes saying no all the other times much easier!
M
People often mention the 'rule of 15'
Take 15g rapid acting carbohydrate. Wait 15 minutes. Test again. If you are still not above 4mmom/l take another 15g.
Many people are also advised to take 10-20g of something a little more starchy to follow up the hypo and prevent a further dip. Whether or not you will need to do this is something you will discover for yourself. Personally I know that for most of my low-level dips, eating this follow-up carb would send me into the 10s - 14s so I tend to just keep an eye on things. Certainly the risk of a hypo recurring is not worth taking so treat with follow up carbs to begin with and watch for a pattern.
For every hypo you have, you should try to work out what caused it. Did you underestimate the carbs in the meal? By a little or by a lot? Have you been unusually active? Is it a very hot day? If you know the cause you will be better able to know the level of treatment required.
By treating the hypo thoroughly but carefully you should be able to get your bgs into normal range without inevitably skyrocketing into the teens. Do remember though that once you have had one hypo in a day you are more likely to have another. So keep a close eye on things.
It is not uncommon to bounce high after a hypo - sometimes this is overtreatment, but other times, when the hypo has been a little more severe, the liver is stimulated into dumping glycogen into your bloodstream to raise bgs. Sadly though the message often takes a little while to get through, so rather than helping, it arrives after you have sorted your levels out already
I have a little flat metal tin that I carry with me everywhere into which I can fit 4 cafe-style sachets of sugar. I keep this for emergencies in case I start dipping when there are no shops around or open. I also usually carry something sugary/sweet in my coat pocket, just in case
This time of year the small 'fun-size' bags of Skittles (available in multipack assortments) are especially good as they contain roughly the right amount of carbs (with little or no fat to slow it down) and are virtually indestructible even in a jeans pocket on a hot day.
Fruit pastilles are good too (3 or 4 are usually enough). And we have bottles of Lucozade in the house. I'm also quite happy to use pretty much any fun-size choccy bar in cooler weather, though I know strictly speaking these are not ideal (too much fat which slows down their absorption). I find a little chocolate hypo-treatment every now and then makes saying no all the other times much easier!
M
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