Reactive Hypoglycemia - so many questions

[SandyFeet]

Hi everyone
new to the board and to this world of reactive hypoglycemia - apologies if this is in the wrong place.

I am struggling to understand this syndrome. We seem to spend all day having low carb/glycemic meals etc - but have a tube of glucose to have when the dizzy spells start. How do I know that the dizzy spells are because I need glucose - just don't understand this at all.

Also the glucose doesn't seem to really help the spells and I'm wondering if they make it worse?

Does anyone else have this condition? Thanks

 

[grovesy]

Welcome.

 

[Andy HB]

Welcome to the forum from me too.

Sorry, but I don't suffer from reactive hypoglycemia, but I have heard of it and am sure it can be a tricky thing to tame!

One thing which would definitely help you is knowing what your levels are. Do you have a blood glucose meter?

Andy 🙂

 

[SandyFeet]

Hi, yes we just bought one, but are still trying to understand what the readings should be, also I've read that with reactive hypoglycemia sometimes blood sugar can read as a perfect result but the symptoms are still there (so different from normal hypoglycemia).

Thanks for the welcomes! 🙂

For example this has been today so far (PS we are in a different time zone!).
Breakfast: 2 x wholemeal toast slices with labneh and cucumber
Mid morning snack: a dairylea triangle, an apple and walnuts/almonds
Lunch: Lamb chop/stew with lentils/kidney beans

Between mid morning snack and lunch the headache started and he feels lightheaded. At this stage do we have glucose?! (At one stage he was very anxious/shallow breathing so he had some of the glucose tube then).

Forgot to say he is also having Glucobay before each meal.

Thanks 🙂

 

[Njj194]

Hi,
I'm 22 and I was diagnosed with reactive hypoglycemia without diabetes, they think it's caused by stress and hormone imbalance (I have a high percentage for getting diabetes.).
The problem is that the doctors in my country Bahrain* don't have a lot of information and knowledge about my kind of case.
One of the doctors freaked me and my mother out by saying I wont live till my 30s and that I am better of living on vitamin pills and not eating anything. Another one told me consume alot of sugar and to stop lifting weights.
The last one diagnosed me with it but doesn't have much knowledge.. I controlled it for a while but now its acting up again i think its because I'm going through a lot of stress but I am not sure. (p.s. I don't have high blood sugar levels at all only low ones and I am not using any medications)
Can you please recommend me a doctor in UK OR Germany that specializes in my case someone who isn't harsh..
Thanks

 

[Ditto]

Hello all and welcome to the forum. 🙂 Don't know anything about this condition, but if I had it I'd just do Atkins and see how I go. It's my answer to everything!

 

[Wirrallass]

Hi Sandyfeet and welcome. Sorry to see you're struggling with getting to know Reactive Hypoglycemia ~ does nightmare describe it? I dont suffer with RH but I've carried out a spot of research for you on line as follows:~

Reactive hypothermia uk

RH or postprandial hypoglycemia is a medical term describing recurrent episodes of symptomatic hypoglycemia occuring within 4hours after a high carborhydrate meal in people who DO NOT have Diabetes.

It is thought to represent a consequence of excessive insulin release triggered by the carborhydrate meal but continuing past the digestion and disposal of the glucose derived from the meal.

You might like to check out the following links for more information.

diabetes.co.uk>reactive-hypoglycemia.html

Hypoglycemia Treatment & Management:-

emedicine.medscape.com/article/122122-treatment

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_hypoglycemia

www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/reactive-hypoglycemia.html

Also Amazon have for sale a book titled *The Reactive Hypoglycemia Sourcebook
11 Edition*. Kindle £7.37 ~ Paperback £10.52.

Hope this is helpful to you and do please keep us updated, take care x

 

[trophywench]

Had to look up labneh as I'd never heard of it - sounds delicious!

Two slices of wholemeal toast isn't what I'd call low carb, and it isn't even 'slower release' carb - nether is an apple - though it isn't as high carb as quite a lot of other fruits. I mean I dunno how big the slices of bread were or the apple, so can't calculate the actual amounts of carb that were consumed this morning - but it will be at least 45g of fast acting carbs - ie those that will hit the bloodstream more like an express train, whereas 'slow release' ones like lentils go more like the speed of a bicycle - if that makes any sense.

For comparison - two English slices of wholemeal toast using medium not thick slices of bread, are 30g carb and so will raise my BG by 9.0 mmol/L within about an hour. If the mid-morning apply was 15g, then that's another 4.5mmol/L on top of the 9 the body has got to cope with before lunch. Bearing in mind someone without diabetes or RA will have a normal BG of between 4 and 7 so that's what I'm aiming for - and I assume so will the RA person - that's quite a lot, isn't it?

If where you are in the world measures BG using mg/dL the figures would be

For comparison - two English slices of wholemeal toast using medium not thick slices of bread, are 30g carb and so will raise my BG by 160 mg/dL within about an hour. If the mid-morning apply was 15g, then that's another on top of the 80, the body has got to cope with before lunch. Bearing in mind someone without diabetes or RA will have a normal BG of between 75 and 130 so that's what I'm aiming for - and I assume so will the RA person - that's quite a lot, isn't it?

We can't recommend doctors - but in all European countries knowledge of such things is far more widespread - and Germany has an excellent reputation for their good healthcare - quite a lot of now Worldwide pharmaceutical companies either started in Germany or are still based there - giving the general impression that their universities must turn out pretty good scientific graduates in the first place.