• 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

Hypo-busting tips

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

everydayupsanddowns

Administrator
Staff member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Pronouns
He/Him
Hypos! Such an inconvenient and sometimes downright scary part of this whole ‘pretending to be your own pancreas’ palaver. From the low level irritating ones that pass almost without notice, to the ‘empty the snack cupboard’ monster ones that drag on and on, and even the scary ‘blue light’ versions...

What is your experience?

How do you treat them? And more importantly - how do you try to stop them happening in the first place?
 
I have a plastic ice cream box full of Mars bars, Kit Kats etc in the sideboard. I always leave the house with a Glucogel and Mars bars in my backpack, Glucogel in the car too. By my bed a packet of ginger biscuits plus a Glucogel. You cant be too careful. Regular testing is the answer to Hypos sneaking up on you.
There was a young woman on the bus who was looking Hypoish, she tested and looked nervous, I handed her a Kit-Kat and assured her I was type 1 as well.
 
We have Glucotabs/Dextrose all over the place, in bags, in the car etc etc and at home we also have mini cans of coke or appletise which contain just the right amount of carbs. Would love to use temp basals to try to head off hypos, e.g. before exercise, but you have to set them up so far in advance that we never think about it in time! Or if we do, I never manage to get the level right and she goes high 😡

Daughter says the worst ones are the ones that make you feel sick and you really don't want to put anything in your mouth, they are tough :(
 
Since I began using Freestyle Libre with a pump, avoidance has become a lot easier. The ability to shut off basal insulin if the trend is going downwards has been very useful, though it takes time for the effects to be felt. For treatment, one thing I find difficult is that the fastest-acting carbohydrate takes quite a long time before its effect on blood sugar is noticeable. If one is low enough to feel really unwell, panic can set in, and one continues to consume carbohydrate because one doesn't yet feel better. The result then is that one goes high. The rational way is to have a predetermined amount of carbohydrate to hand, use just that and wait until one sees/feels the effect. Logical but not always easy!
 
I generally treat my hypos with jelly babies. They are in a container everywhere in the house, in my bag, and in my backpack. They are easy to carry/store and it is easy for me to adjust amount of glucose. The only place we don’t keep them is in the car. We ended up with a jelly blob when a pack melted!! In the car it has to be glucotabs.

JBs are also good for heading off hypos that I pick up on the Libre using the arrows. That has helped a lot. Having said that I still miss quite a few, usually because I am concentrating on something and don’t stop when I should.

I do use TBRs for extended periods of exercise setting it up about an hour before we set off, such as when we get in the car to go out for a walk. I then set the timer for two hours and review depending on how far we decide to walk. It still does not always work and lunch gets moved forward, or we take a bit of time to ‘view the scenery’ and enjoy a rest along with some JBs.
 
I run in auto mode so thankfully that stops most of my hypos on the rare occasion, I will have to treat with jelly babies. I have these little hypo tubs that 4 jelly babies can fit in.
 
I agree with what JohnWhi said above, as I seem to take forever to see any upward movement after I eat something and so invariably panic that I am still going down and need more food. I think I am totally incapable of just sitting there for sometimes up to an hour before I feel any better, without feeling I need to have some more.

I usually keep jbs everywhere - every room in the flat, in my desk at work (wonder how they are getting on without me?), in every handbag, and yes, in the car too.

and talking of blue light versions.... I once set out to catch a bus into town and woke up hours later in hospital. A kind lady had found me trying to crawl up a tree by the side of the road and couldn’t get any sense out of me, so called an ambulance. Thank you kind lady!
 
@Barbie1 have you considered orange juice or full sugar coke to get the glucose into your blood stream quicker or having a glass of water with the jelly babies a slightlky less effective alternative. Liquid hypo remedy should hit the blood stream quicker than jelly babies which have to be chewed up and broken down in the stomach to fully release their magic.
 
I went down to 3.1 last night . Then realised I had taken quite soon after a long walk . I only had 8 units of insulin in total yesterday so a fibre one chocolate popcorn biscuit sorted it out very quickly and kept me stable until the morning. Not had one that lasts for long since I was first diagnosed
 
I have tubes if glucose tablets dotted around the house, I also have small cans of full fat Coke in a kitchen cupboard.
My handbag has a tube of glucose tablets as does my diabetes case.

I have found the Libre has helped to avert hypo’s before they got going and for me those direction arrows are very helpful when hypo .
 
One thing that helps with JBs or indeed anything sugary we happen to eat to avoid or treat hypos, the longer we keep chewing and moving them around our mouths, the quicker they'll take effect by sugar in saliva being absorbed through the inside of the cheeks ! One chew and swallow is NOT the best way to treat !
 
trophywench said:
One thing that helps with JBs or indeed anything sugary we happen to eat to avoid or treat hypos, the longer we keep chewing and moving them around our mouths, the quicker they'll take effect by sugar in saliva being absorbed through the inside of the cheeks ! One chew and swallow is NOT the best way to treat !
Click to expand...
Now I didn’t know that.
As always I continue to learn as I go along.
Thanks Jenny
 
trophywench said:
One thing that helps with JBs or indeed anything sugary we happen to eat to avoid or treat hypos, the longer we keep chewing and moving them around our mouths, the quicker they'll take effect by sugar in saliva being absorbed through the inside of the cheeks ! One chew and swallow is NOT the best way to treat !
Click to expand...
I was told this , best absorbed through the gums
 
@Barbie1 I second the suggestion of regular (ie sugar) Coke above. Lucozade used to be fantastic too, but it’s no longer as good due to less carbs (I’m still annoyed about that 😡 ) For bad hypos or those hypos where you can feel yourself still dropping and start to panic, Coke or any similar full sugar drink works best. It’s quicker and in the unfortunate event you do have a bad hypo, you can actually feel the difference between that and even the very effective Dextro tablets.

So, I always keep the mini cans of Coke for emergencies (thankfully very rare now with a pump) and plenty of Dextro tablets in my bag, in my coat, in the kitchen cupboard, by my bed, etc. I also have some treat-type items for mild lows. Things like Haribo, sweeter chocolate bars, those individually wrapped cake bars, etc.

I find testing lots and checking my blood sugar after a meal if I’m unsure of the carbs is the best way to avoid hypos. I still have good hypo awareness and I put that down to trying to stay around 5 rather than get used to being in the 4s so I often test and eat a tiny amount of carbs just to push me up if I feel I’m going to dip below 5. I’m also extremely careful at night, even with my pump, and so would never go to bed below 5 without a few carbs.
 
trophywench said:
One thing that helps with JBs or indeed anything sugary we happen to eat to avoid or treat hypos, the longer we keep chewing and moving them around our mouths, the quicker they'll take effect by sugar in saliva being absorbed through the inside of the cheeks ! One chew and swallow is NOT the best way to treat !
Click to expand...
Hi yes the membrane between the cheek and gum (buccal cavity) is the quickest way to your system. That's where people with epilepsy are given their emergency medication.
 
Treatment in every room, JB`s, glucose tabs an ambulance, funeral director.🙄 Mine are mostly made from Alabaster to look like ornaments so visitors don`t realise what they are,🙄 taste c**p.:D

Not a nice experience is it @Barbie1? mine drops so quick don`t get a chance to stop it if I`m out walking.
The local Paramedics now stop and ask me if I want a lift home and while we`re at it check your BGL`s,
sometimes they`ve had to turn around and take me in, reading low.

Cherish the ground the NHS walks on, hypo awareness doesn`t exist in my body mind you there is not a lot that does. o_O
 
Jelly babies - depending on how bad I am depends on which colours I will or won’t accept if someone passes them to me! I can be selective ! Glucotabs at a push I don’t really like them

I never really thought about the longer chew bit @trophywench will do now though

Jelly blobs in the car seem to be a you only do once!! @Sally71

and the hypos where you feel sick and know you need to eat are awful @SB2015

Never chocolate for a hypo but maybe if I feel I’m starting to go low or to put me up a bit
 
I love how everyone has Jelly Babies as a hypo treatment, I can't stand them! So it's Haribo for me all the way, Tangfastics preferably 🙂

I have mini bags of skittles/haribo in all of my handbags and coat pockets so I'm never caught short!
 
Always worth bearing in mind that Libre (or other sensors) are showing you what was happening 10 minutes ago - which is quite a long time in hypo terms. Plus it delays any apparent uptick in sensor glucose by the same amount. I have found it helpful to cross-check with BG meter whenever I am tempted to double-treat low sensor glucose. Quite often a BG meter will show 5s when sensor glucose is still insisting I am well below 4.

I have been adjusting my CGM ‘alert levels’ ever higher too, and for a few years I have tried to begin treating in the 4s to reduce exposure to levels below 4. A short sharp 30 min 0% tbr and a more moderate carb treatment seems to result in fewer yoyos than 15g... and then another 20g when the first seems to be not working fast enough.

And of course @Austin Mini - I feel I should point out for newer members that chocolate/kit kat / mars etc really aren’t fast enough for ‘primary‘ hypo treatment - they are more likely to take 30-40 minutes than the 10-15 of your glucogels. But I guess you know that already, with all your years of experience 🙂
 
When I feel the need to wake up at 2 o'clock in the a.m, my hypo cure is a few biscuits, 5.6 g/c each, so 3 normally does it.
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top