Hypos - non diabetic

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maxmc2

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Evening all, hope you are well.
I've arrived here for guidance as the GP's don't seem to have any answers or aren't really concerned.

Over the last few years i've been experiencing the odd hypo here and there, probably one every 6 months, I started using my dads testing machine when I wasn't sure what was going on.

At the start of this year I started exercising a bit more and found that after a long walk or swim i'd end up having a hypo, its now at the point where i don't exercise because of the fear of having a hypo.

Back in Feb/March I mentioned it to the drs and they run a bunch of tests and all came back normal, not diabetic and my levels were good, including the Hb1AC?

More recently it seems to be something regular, i'd have breakfast in the morning and by midday i'd have a hypo, sometimes i can't test to confirm the numbers but it feels like a hypo, i've also noticed that even after a big meal i feel so hungry like i'd never eaten.

Does anyone have any experience of this and perhaps any guidance on what i should/shouldn't do/try to resolve it?

I take omerprazole for acid reflux and colchicine for mild pericarditis.

Thanks in advance.
 
Welcome to the forum
I think it would be a good idea if you are able to test to see if your blood glucose is low when you get the symptoms.
Because an HbA1C test is an average over a period of 3 months prior to the test by the very nature if averages it can hise highs and lows.
What you could be experiencing is if you eat a high carbohydrate meal your pancreas produces insulin to cope with the glucose and will sometimes over produce it so you can feel wobbly with low blood glucose, of course you then feel hungry and eat high carb foods and the cycle repeats itself.
Exercise will usually lower blood glucose but for some people they find the liver releases glucose, it is a matter of finding what happens with you.
What meals have you had when this happens.
I don't know if this helps.
Some people get symptoms that feel like low blood glucose when in fact it is high so that is why it is a good idea to test.
 
Hi there,
Many thanks for your reply.
The last few times when i had these symptoms the readings were as follows:
21/6 - 3.8, 19/6 - 3.6, 23/5 - 3.8.
The meals in question have mainly been my breakfast and this week that consisted of Weetabix or shredded wheat, sometimes i'd have a warm lunch, rice, chicken and veg and then an hour later feel a drop and super hungry, it's weird.
When i have the hypos i tend to have a cereal bar or a slice of bread with jam.
Its so weird as its becoming more regular and ive been told im not a diabetic because all the tests coming back within range, i think the Hba1c was 36.
 
Those are all normal readings for a non diabetic, it’s normal to go down to around 3.5
 
maxmc2 said:
Hi there,
Many thanks for your reply.
The last few times when i had these symptoms the readings were as follows:
21/6 - 3.8, 19/6 - 3.6, 23/5 - 3.8.
The meals in question have mainly been my breakfast and this week that consisted of Weetabix or shredded wheat, sometimes i'd have a warm lunch, rice, chicken and veg and then an hour later feel a drop and super hungry, it's weird.
When i have the hypos i tend to have a cereal bar or a slice of bread with jam.
Its so weird as its becoming more regular and ive been told im not a diabetic because all the tests coming back within range, i think the Hba1c was 36.
Click to expand...
Those readings would normally be considered hypo territory for people taking insulin but for people non diabetic they may experience levels as low as that without any weird symptoms.
A suggestion would be since you have a monitor to test before you eat and after 2 hours to see if your meal raises your blood glucose significantly.
 
maxmc2 said:
Its so weird as its becoming more regular and ive been told im not a diabetic because all the tests coming back within range, i think the Hba1c was 36.
Click to expand...
People who are diabetic normally have high blood sugars, not low. The reason people with diabetes have hypos is if they are taking insulin, or other glucose lowering medication, and they have too much in their system.
 
Leadinglights said:
Those readings would normally be considered hypo territory for people taking insulin but for people non diabetic they may experience levels as low as that without any weird symptoms.
A suggestion would be since you have a monitor to test before you eat and after 2 hours to see if your meal raises your blood glucose significantly.
Click to expand...
Thank you, why would i still experience the hypo symptoms at those levels, i get shaky, very sweaty, tired and hungry?
 
maxmc2 said:
Thank you, why would i still experience the hypo symptoms at those levels, i get shaky, very sweaty, tired and hungry?
Click to expand...
Because the bgl is lower than you are used to. What happens if you don’t treat it with carbs? Usually a non medicated person‘s liver would register this lower level and dump glucose to return to normality.

On the occasions it’s meal induced (rather than exercise) when are you testing? For those meals likely to trigger this it might be worth testing immediately before, and then at more regular intervals after. I’m curious if there’s a high spike followed by an over reaction of insulin.

Whilst I don’t think there’s anything unusual about being in the high 3’s necessarily, there is a condition called reactive hypoglycaemia which isn’t diabetes but is caused by higher carb meals and overproduction of insulin in response. If your reactions are getting more frequent and more extreme this could be worth investigating.
 
It's possible you may have Reactive Hypoglycaemia - that's when the timing of your body's insulin production is slightly off so that when you eat carbs, your blood sugar goes up because your body's not producing enough insulin, and then your body suddenly wakes up to the fact that your blood sugar is high and produces too much insulin so your blood sugar drops into a hypo and you get hypo symptoms because your blood sugar's dropping so fast. There's more info in this article on Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_hypoglycemia

RH often doesn't show up in a HbA1c test because the highs and lows balance each other out. If you think that might be what's causing your hypos, the treatment advice in the Wikipedia article is good, especially to eat more fibre, exercise immediately after eating (it doesn't have to be anything strenuous, just a short walk will do), and make sure you have balanced meals (don't eat carbs without either fat or protein to slow them down). Some people with RH can manage it like this - and the reason I know is because my OH has it and that's how he treats his - others have to cut down on carbs a lot (if you find that's you, see the recipes on this forum for people with type 2 diabetes for some ideas for low-carb meals).

Your hypos aren't very bad (strictly speaking they're not actually hypos, which are readings below 3.4, it's just that people with insulin are advised to treat for a hypo if under 4), but you obviously need to do something to stop the symptoms you're getting, as they're unpleasant even though the level you're getting is not dangerous. I'd recommend dried fruit to treat when you have the hypo symptoms, just one dried apricot or a few raisins, as you don't need to treat the way someone on insulin would and don't want to overdo it. But if you do have RH you will hopefully be able to manage it, and stop the hypos altogether - I can't remember the last time my OH had one, and I often used to find him sitting on the kitchen floor shaking and have to feed him apricots!
 
maxmc2 said:
Evening all, hope you are well.
I've arrived here for guidance as the GP's don't seem to have any answers or aren't really concerned.

Over the last few years i've been experiencing the odd hypo here and there, probably one every 6 months, I started using my dads testing machine when I wasn't sure what was going on.

At the start of this year I started exercising a bit more and found that after a long walk or swim i'd end up having a hypo, its now at the point where i don't exercise because of the fear of having a hypo.

Back in Feb/March I mentioned it to the drs and they run a bunch of tests and all came back normal, not diabetic and my levels were good, including the Hb1AC?

More recently it seems to be something regular, i'd have breakfast in the morning and by midday i'd have a hypo, sometimes i can't test to confirm the numbers but it feels like a hypo, i've also noticed that even after a big meal i feel so hungry like i'd never eaten.

Does anyone have any experience of this and perhaps any guidance on what i should/shouldn't do/try to resolve it?

I take omerprazole for acid reflux and colchicine for mild pericarditis.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I see readings in the 3s after exercise and feel a bit weird. It's normal.
It returns to proper levels in 10-15 minutes as the liver will start to release glucose to bring it up. Try testing a bit later and you may well see it's gone back to normal.
 
Thank you all so much for your replies and links on RH, it certainly does seem like that could be the issue. I'm going to keep more of a record of what i am eating and the numbers and see how i get on, i will certainly look at introducing more fibre and protein and will also get some dried fruit on hand just as a band aid, i will also check my levels shortly after to see if in fact they do return to normal, for all i know it could be a bit of anxiety that could be causing the symptoms too even though my levels aren't that low, again many thanks and i will do some reading over the weekend. All the best everyone and have a good weekend.
 
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