Hypo's

[JackSpratt]

Hi everyone, I was informed I had type 2 diabetes a few months ago and I'm finding a few things a struggle, what am I supposed to do when I have an hypo, my practice nurse told me to drink some Lucozade and eat a few jelly babies but another person told me not to do that, I have a hypo at least once a week and because it frightens me so much I do drink Lucozade and it does seem to sort the hypo out.

Some people say eat carbs and others say don't, my nurse went nuts with me when I told her I ate a lot of turnip with meals, she said it was full of sugar and not to eat it, when I asked her what i was supposed to eat she said a low fat diet with little fruit and vegatables.

I have no idea what I can and can't eat and its scarring me to bits.

 

[trophywench]

Hi Jack

Important questions here! - so what medication are you on, why are you going hypo? it's usually cos whatever meds we're taking are a bit too much for what we've eaten, or maybe because we did some extra exercise - eg in my case either the vacuuming or the ironing or even a good walk round Tesco can send me hypo! but at least I know what causes it and can take some action beforehand to prevent it, if I remember.

Perhaps you are on something like Gliclazide and the dose is a smidgen tooo high?

Lucozade is by far the quickest thing to take for a hypo, but you need ONLY have 100ml of it. That is 17g of carbs, and we're usually sposed to have 15g so that's near enough. Then test after 15 minutes and make sure you are back safely over 4 again.

Or you can buy glucose tablets or gels or Lucozade tablets but the important thing is, it's glucose - not just ordinary sugar which is what a jelly baby is, cos it will take longer to act. Obviously if you haven't got glucose you grab the next nearest thing, and some people do find JBs act quick enough. I'm not one of them. You could be, but your nurse gave you the correct advice there.

However I'm not so impressed by her grasp of dietary information!

There aren't millions of carbohydrates (which is what she should be saying to you, not 'sugar' cos it's all carbohydrate that affects us, not just sugar!) in either turnips (the smaller white things) or swede (the bigger, dark yellow ones) There's only about 3g of it in a 100g weight. So I don't really know where she's had that from, but it isn't right anyway. For comparison, in 100g of carrots there's about 5g. Parsnips are really high and do need to be either avoided or at least only eaten in moderation.

Root veg all have more carbs than leaf veg though but the worst culprit on most people's plates is the spuds, frankly. You'd do more good for yourself cutting down on spuds rather than swede, I'd say!

But there are MASSES of veg you can eat quite freely, here's a list

http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/info/?page_id=139

and then if you look at this list it gives loads of ideas for doing different interesting things with veggies and all the values so you can compare and choose what you eat with the proper info about it!

http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/info/?page_id=248

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hi JackSpratt

The other thing you might need to bear in mind, since you've not long been diagnosed is what your levels actually are as opposed to what the feel like.

It is not uncommon for people newly diagnosed to get full-on hypo nasty hypo symptoms when their BG approaches the normal range, because in recent months/weeks/years it has fairly consistently been *way* above that.

It can take the body a few weeks to 'reset' the emergency switch.

Whenever you feel hypo you need to be able to test your own BG with a meter to check what your levels are. You may be doing this already, but it doesn't sound like you are getting the best advice from your nurse, so I thought it was worth a mention 🙂

 

[bennyg70]

Hi JackSpratt

The other thing you might need to bear in mind, since you've not long been diagnosed is what your levels actually are as opposed to what the feel like.

It is not uncommon for people newly diagnosed to get full-on hypo nasty hypo symptoms when their BG approaches the normal range, because in recent months/weeks/years it has fairly consistently been *way* above that.

It can take the body a few weeks to 'reset' the emergency switch.

Whenever you feel hypo you need to be able to test your own BG with a meter to check what your levels are. You may be doing this already, but it doesn't sound like you are getting the best advice from your nurse, so I thought it was worth a mention 🙂

If Ive had a high sugar level and it starts to drop back fairly rapidly to the good range, it can sometimes bring on the start of hypo symptoms also. Ive found and this might sound daft (Id guess its something along the lines of the placebo effect) That if I test when this happens and im 5 or 6mmol, then my brain tells me im safe and the symptoms can go away.

 

[AlisonM]

Are you able to test your blood sugars Jack? As Benny says, you may get hypo symptoms when your BGs are approaching normal because your body isn't used to it, treating then would only send you high again. If they are under 4.0 then a sugary drink will help but won't keep your BGs up, you need to back it up with a few jelly babies or some such thing.

As for diet, we all react differently so testing before a meal, then 1, 2 and 3 three hours after will help you learn what works for you. As a rule, I avoid white bread, white rice and pasta. Oh, and spuds, I bulk out meals with lots of veg and replace the spuds with sweet potato or mixed carrot and swede. Have a look in our links section for information and the food section too.