Low sugar levels

[Katie_P34]

Hello guys, looking for some advice, I'm new to being diabetic only been diagnosed type one just under 2 weeks. The last 5 days I've been really unwell with a cold and then ontop of that caught my children's stomach bug. Today Ive felt better still not 100% and I've had two hypos of 3.3 and 3.7. I've never had to deal with this before is this due to the illness. I was really steady before catching this cold.
Thank you for reading.

 

[Inka]

Hi @Katie_P34 If you have a stomach bug, your digestion could be affected. I had a stomach bug recently and had to reduce my insulin, particularly the bolus/meal insulin because my digestive system was still recovering. I suggest you consider doing similar.

Do you have a Libre?

 

[Ieva DUK]

Hi @Katie_P34 ,

those levels would likely be caused by the stomach bug as @Inka has said and/or the cold. Being unwell can sometimes cause irregularities as it also affects your eating, sleeping and many other factors. The important thing is to monitor that and to stay on top of it. Please take good care of yourself and keep us posted!

 

[SimonP]

Flat (full sugar) lemonade is useful if you feel rubbish and happen to be going hypo, little sips, etc.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Flat (full sugar) lemonade is useful if you feel rubbish and happen to be going hypo, little sips, etc.

Alas you need quite a bit of lemonade these days. All reformulated post ‘sugar tax’ to half strength or lower.

Often only 5g of carbs per 100ml. Full sugar coke is the only one that is still 10g + of carbs per 100ml that I have easy access to.

 

[SimonP]

Alas you need quite a bit of lemonade these days. All reformulated post ‘sugar tax’ to half strength or lower.

Often only 5g of carbs per 100ml. Full sugar coke is the only one that is still 10g + of carbs per 100ml that I have easy access to.

Oh that's interesting (and annoying), thankfully I've not needed any for a long while for illness.

I did share a can of normal full sugar Pepsi with my daughter on a ride the other day and noticed that it was only iirc ~20g of CHO for the can (with the remainder made up of sweeteners). Annoying, I'll have to do a quick supermarket website survey to work out if there's anything else aside from normal Coke that contains useful quantities of carbs.

Thanks for the heads up @everydayupsanddowns

 

[Inka]

Appletiser still has carbs. I get 150ml cans that have approx 17g carbs per can @SimonP

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I did share a can of normal full sugar Pepsi with my daughter on a ride the other day and noticed that it was only iirc ~20g of CHO for the can (with the remainder made up of sweeteners).

Yes the fact that most (including Lucozade for goodness sake) are now full of sweeteners is very annoying.

 

[Inka]

Lucozade is by far the most annoying of all - a glucose drink with hardly any glucose 🙄

I don’t think the sugar tax works anyway. Look in people’s trolleys. Yes, they have 6 two litre bottles of non-sugary fizz, but that’s surrounded by all manner of junk processed foods and barely a piece of veg in sight. That’s not to mention the fact it’s not a good idea to be drinking all that sweetener IMO.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

Annoying, I'll have to do a quick supermarket website survey to work out if there's anything else aside from normal Coke that contains useful quantities of carbs.

Fruit juice?

 

[SimonP]

Fruit juice?

I'm pretty sure that Coke et al used to have more carbs and importantly faster acting carbs than fruit juice. I don't drink Coke etc generally but sometimes you need as much bang for your volume buck as possible.

If I'm just at home I'd drink OJ or even flavoured milk for a quick boost.

 

[helli]

@SimonP I'm interested that you use flavoured milk to treat hypos. Do you find it works fast? Milk is always considered a no no because the fat slows it down. But maybe the flavoured stuff (I assume it is flavoured out of the bottle rather than a powder you add to "white milk") is low fat.

 

[SimonP]

@SimonP I'm interested that you use flavoured milk to treat hypos. Do you find it works fast? Milk is always considered a no no because the fat slows it down. But maybe the flavoured stuff (I assume it is flavoured out of the bottle rather than a powder you add to "white milk") is low fat.

I read something a while back about (plain) milk being effective but have no idea where I read it now.

I use it sometimes when I get back from long rides, so I'm not low due to too much IoB, just exercise so it's not a massive rush to get it fixed as it's not dropping fast. I often crave milk when I get back and it's afaiu also not a bad post-ride recovery drink in terms of macro constituents. I've probably not got much in my stomach, so perhaps absorption isn't delayed much, I don't know.

If I'm going low for some reason with IoB, especially if dropping like a stone, Skittles are the immediate go to, though in the evening if I've misjudged my split bolus I will eat icecream because I quite fancy it, which seems to work quite fast, though I imagine not as fast as things that contain less fat (but it does taste nice! 😉

So, I'm not sure is the answer, sorry, but I'd be fairly sure it's not as quick as something that contains sucrose and certainly not as good as dextrose.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

I'm pretty sure that Coke et al used to have more carbs and importantly faster acting carbs than fruit juice.

I'm sure that's true. You can buy little boxes (200ml) of fruit juice which are ~20g sugar, so they're a convenient thing to drink (and unlikely to be reformulated to reduce the sugar). (While "convenient", you need to be able to stick the little straw into the box, so not ideal as a hypo treatment. But still mostly OK.)

 

[SB2015]

If at home I still opt for juice which I do need to dilute, as I find it hard to drink such sweet things.
If I feel rubbish tonic is good for settling things but again not enough carbs if used on its own.
JBs and skittles work well when out and about.
I have never heard of milk drinks being used for hypos, as the fat content would concern me.
I have used a mini magnum if I get an early alert before low and a nice slow decent. Main,y because they are hard to beat and any excuse very welcome!!!!

 

[SimonP]

I'm sure that's true. You can buy little boxes (200ml) of fruit juice which are ~20g sugar, so they're a convenient thing to drink (and unlikely to be reformulated to reduce the sugar). (While "convenient", you need to be able to stick the little straw into the box, so not ideal as a hypo treatment. But still mostly OK.)

Good call, I used to use these but for some reason stopped. Looks like normal Coke is only 10g/100ml, so similar content - I always thought it was more, but no sign of sweeteners on the ingredients list.

I have used a mini magnum if I get an early alert before low and a nice slow decent. Main,y because they are hard to beat and any excuse very welcome!!!!

This may be my excuse too! 🙂