The Brain and hypos.

[Einstein]

Has anyone found that long periods of concentration can bring on a hypo?

As some of you will no doubt know two years ago it was found that the last of my hearing had dropped off the audiogram scale ? in six months I?d become deafened.

To cope I lip read and to most people I lip read very well ? but the fatigue I endure to be able to do so is frightening, one to one after an hour I am so fatigued I can do no more work, with another person in a meeting (three in total) I can survive for 20, perhaps 30 minutes.

My hearing therapists consider my brain is working something in the order of twenty plus times harder than normal in order to grasp what I grasp and that explains my wipe out fatigue.

What has this to do with diabetes I here you ask?

For the past two days I?ve had phase two of placement with my hearing dog Bruce, nothing physically over these two days have changed to a greater extent, same breakfast, standard lunch, standard supper, exercise if anything less than normal, however, I?ve had to lip read the support instructor for the past two days not so intensely all the time, but far more than normal for me.

Last night at the end of these two days I sat down to upgrade the virus protection on my partners laptop that she?d dropped off in the morning. While doing this I felt quite unwell, all the usual tell tale signs, checked my levels 2.1mmol. It wasn?t close to the time I eat, just seemed to catch me by surprise.

I?ve not had a proper hypo for a good while now, and this has got me wondering if driving the brain in such a way can induce a hypo or is this just a fluke one that slipped through the net and caught me?

Has anyone else ever experienced a hypo follow extensive periods of concentration? Or is it just me?

Nearly all replies and comments appreciated 🙄

 

[bev]

Alex has been having loads of hypo's in the past few days and I put it down to the cold weather! He has been too high for weeks and so this has come out of the blue. I am not sure your probems are to do with concentrating -perhaps just cold weather?🙂Bev

 

[Einstein]

Hi Bev,

Been inside most of the time and the time outside walking has been less than usual. I've also never had a problem with the cold, the heat can increase absorption of insulin, so it's possible the cold will reverse that.

More concerning was the speed this came on, one minute I was fine, the next I wasn't good. Mind you, not had a real hypo for a very long time.

Probably one of those glitches. So I thought I'd ask.

Some days asking me my name confuses my brain But that's what credit cards are for - reminding you 😛

 

[randomange]

I've experienced this before, after long periods of studying or writing. The one thing in particular I've noticed about these hypos is that they're always really unexpected. It can take me a while to realise that I'm low, and I tend to drop lower than I would normally. I figured maybe it's because I'm sitting while it's happening, I'm maybe dropping more slowly? Who knows with these things! 😱

I do remember reading somewhere once that mental work *can* lead to hypos because you're brain is using glucose while you're thinking, which makes sense to me, but I can't remember where I read it!

 

[Patricia]

Yes, we definitely think that lots of focused concentration can bring E low -- we have noticed this in not such productive circumstances: lots of computer or xbox stuff! Like randomange says, these always come on in a completely unexpected way, and go unnoticed for a while...and don't always happen the next time around.

We also have definitely been reliable informed that the brain uses glucose too, and in some circumstances this can produce a hypo in intense situations. I think I've heard too that in exams some people go low, some people go high, depending on brain and stress factors...

 

[Einstein]

Thank you both for your comments, it's really not something I'd considered or experienced before Thursday, but knew someone here would have some experience or decide I'd finally lost it!

My level of fatigue through intensive conversation being so quick (sub one hour of an intensive meeting), I simply don't think I took into account the effect that essentially six hours of 'lighter' discussion and being observed working with Bruce had taken on me. Perhaps too the same work the day before, compounded the effect?

Looking back it's obvious, even more so as I really can't recall very much of what we discussed on the second day - this I know is one of the major downsides of lip reading for me with such intensity - the concentration to lip read is taken from other areas of the brain, most frequently that of the memory, which is a slight problem. Makes sense at the time, but later on, blank!

Having done a few online searches I've come across a few articles, which would have made more sense to me if they were in Chinese, however, they all seem to conclude the brain does use more glucose, seemingly most of all using your eyes and the research seemed to be more with keeping the eyes 'busy' not having them do a task that involved the rest of the brian processing and working towards conversation with another party.

If these scientists could just put a reasonable chunk of their findings in English I'd be so appreciative 🙄

 

[Patricia]

Well that's really interesting, given that we've noticed it with 'screen' work almost exclusively, which uses of course...the eyes...Huh! Fascinating...

 

[grovesy]

if i dont get regular breaks at work to have a drink and or a snack I notice I can't think straight. Dont get hypo but I feel i need fuel to keep me going, so to speak.