Medical

Everything you need to know about hypoglycemia

Hypoglycemia is a lower disease than a person’s average blood sugar level. You should know that blood sugar is the primary energy source in the body, and its treatment is related to diabetes. Sporadic diseases can lower blood sugar in people who do not have diabetes.

Immediate treatment of hypoglycemia is necessary when blood sugar levels are 70 mg / L or 3.9 mmol / L or lower. Long-term treatment requires identifying and treating the cause of low blood sugar.

Everything you need to know about hypoglycemia

Symptoms of hypoglycemia:

If your blood sugar level is too low, signs and symptoms may include the following:

  • Irregular heartbeat
  • Fatigue
  • Pale skin
  • Tremor
  • Anxiety
  • sweat
  • Hunger
  • bad mood
  • The feeling of burning around the mouth

If your hypoglycemia increases, you will notice the following symptoms:

  • Confusion, abnormal behavior, or both, including the inability to perform daily tasks
  • Visual disorders, such as blurred vision
  • Decreased consciousness
  • People with severe hypoglycemia may behave like a drunk.

Everything you need to know about hypoglycemia

 When should we see a doctor?

If you have symptoms of hypoglycemia and do not have diabetes

You have diabetes, and hypoglycemia does not respond to treatment. The primary therapy for hypoglycemia is water, soft drinks, sweets, or glucose tablets. If this treatment does not raise your blood sugar and does not improve your symptoms, call your doctor.

If you have diabetes or a history of recurrent hypoglycemia, you have severe symptoms or loss of consciousness.

Causes of hypoglycemia:

Hypoglycemia occurs when blood sugar levels drop too low. There are several reasons for this, the most common of which is a drug used to treat diabetes.

Adjust your blood sugar:

But to understand how hypoglycemia occurs, it helps to know how the body naturally processes blood sugar. When eating, the body breaks down various sugar molecules, including glucose, from foods such as bread, rice, pasta, vegetables, fruits, and dairy products.

Glucose is the body’s primary source of energy, but without the help of insulin – a hormone secreted by the pancreas – it cannot enter most tissue cells. When glucose levels rise, specific cells (beta cells) release insulin, allowing glucose to enter the cells and fuel the cells. Excess glucose is stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles.

 If you do not eat for several hours and your blood sugar level drops, another hormone from the pancreas called glycogen is sent to the liver to break down stored glycogen and return glucose to the bloodstream. This will help keep your blood sugar levels regularly when you eat again.

In addition to breaking down liver glycogen into glucose, the body also can produce glucose. This process occurs primarily in the liver as well as the kidneys.

Possible causes of hypoglycemia associated with diabetes:

People with diabetes may not have enough insulin (type 1 diabetes) or have less reaction to it (type 2 diabetes). As a result, glucose in the bloodstream increases and can reach dangerous levels.

To correct this problem, a person with diabetes can take insulin or other medications to lower blood sugar levels, but taking too much insulin or diabetes medications can raise blood sugar levels, which can cause a drop in blood sugar. Hypoglycemia may occur if you do not eat or exercise more than usual after taking diabetes medications.

Everything you need to know about hypoglycemia

Possible causes of hypoglycemia without diabetes:

medicines

 Accidental use of the pill by a person with diabetes is one of the possible causes of this disease. Other medications may lower blood sugar, especially in children or people with kidney failure. For example, cannabis is used to treat malaria.

Excessive alcohol consumption

Drinking too much alcohol releases glucose through the bloodstream into the liver and lowers blood sugar.

Some diseases are critical.

 Severe liver disease, such as severe hepatitis, can lead to hypoglycemia. Kidney disorders can prevent the proper excretion of drugs in the body, affecting glucose levels due to the accumulation of these drugs. As occurs in anorexia nervosa, prolonged starvation can reduce the body’s need for glucose production and lead to hypoglycemia.

Excess insulin production

 A rare pancreatic tumor (insulinoma) may produce too much insulin and lead to hypoglycemia. Other tumors may lead to the overproduction of substances such as insulin. Enlargement of pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin may lead to excessive insulin secretion.

Hormone deficiency

 Specific disorders of the adrenal gland and pituitary gland may lead to a significant deficiency of hormones that regulate glucose production. Children with growth hormone deficiency may have hypoglycemia.

Low blood sugar or hypoglycemia after a meal:

This usually happens when you are not eating (fasting), but this is not always the case. Hypoglycemia sometimes occurs after a meal because the body produces too much insulin. This type of hypoglycemia, called reactive or postprandial hypoglycemia, may occur in people who have had gastric surgery and may also occur in people who have not.

Problems and complications of hypoglycemia:

If you ignore the symptoms, you may lose consciousness because the brain needs glucose to function well. Recognizing the early signs and symptoms as untreated hypoglycemia leads to the following:

  • Epilepsy
  • Decreased consciousness
  • Death

Everything you need to know about hypoglycemia

Unconscious hypoglycemia:

Over time, recurrent periods of hypoglycemia can lead to hypoglycemia. The body and brain no longer warn of long-term signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia, such as tremors or irregular heartbeats. When this happens, the risk of hypoglycemia increases.

Untreated diabetes:

If you have diabetes, recurrent periods of hypoglycemia may cause you to take less insulin to make sure your blood sugar level is not too low. But high blood sugar can also be dangerous and can damage nerves, blood vessels, and various organs.

Everything you need to know about hypoglycemia

Prevention of hypoglycemia:

If you have diabetes, follow your diabetes management plan carefully as directed by your doctor. If you are taking new medications, changing your diet and medication, or doing new exercises, talk to your doctor about how these changes affect the management of diabetes and the risk of low blood sugar.

Continuous monitoring of CGM glucose is a good option for some people, especially those with unconscious hypoglycemia. These devices insert a small wire under the skin that can send blood glucose to the recipient.

Some CGM models are alerted if blood sugar levels drop too much. Some insulin pumps are now combined with CGM and can stop insulin while quickly lowering blood sugar to prevent hypoglycemia. Before blood sugar becomes dangerous, use fruit juice or glucose pills to treat your blood sugar.

Home remedies to lower blood sugar or a sudden drop in blood sugar

Hypoglycemic diet: what to eat and what not to eat?

Problems with high or low sugar diets can confuse what to eat and what not to eat. But the bottom line is that lowering blood sugar and other conditions that affect blood glucose requires balance.

By that logic, a perfect balance between sugars, carbohydrates, nutrients, and minerals may be all that is needed to reduce periods of hypoglycemia. If you are currently suffering from hypoglycemia, here are some foods you should add to your daily diet:

Everything you need to know about hypoglycemia

Protein-rich foods

Complex proteins and carbohydrates are broken down into glucose but much faster than simple sugars. This helps the body maintain a more stable glucose level. Eating protein-rich foods before bed reduces the risk of a blood sugar attack or a sudden drop in blood sugar during sleep. Some examples of protein-rich foods are chicken and organic seafood.

Foods rich in soluble fiber

Fiber helps with constipation, digestion, sugar absorption, maintains stable blood sugar levels, and prevents a sudden drop in blood sugar between meals. 2 High-fiber foods include chia seeds, cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.

Carbohydrates that have a low glycemic index

It is best to eat low-sugar foods to help maintain an average blood sugar level by releasing a constant source of glucose. These include raw milk, beans, and lentils. However, make sure you prepare the beans and lentils properly to ensure their nutrients are not lost.

What foods should we not eat to prevent hypoglycemia?

While there are foods that can help you recover from a sudden drop in blood sugar, there are some foods that you should limit or eliminate.

Processed and refined carbohydrates

While it may be a good idea to eat a small number of sweets or other sugary foods when you have a sudden drop in blood sugar, eating simple carbohydrates throughout the day can help regulate glucose in the body and prevent a sudden drop in blood sugar. This is because your body can convert these straightforward carbohydrates into glucose. After all, it raises blood sugar levels and increases insulin secretion even hours after a meal.

Everything you need to know about hypoglycemia

Alcohol

Do not drink any alcohol because it is very harmful to the liver, the organ responsible for releasing glucose in your body. Alcohol consumption can lower blood sugar levels in insulin secretion.

Avoid mixing insulin drugs.

People with diabetes often trust insulin, and some may even take different insulin drugs for various reasons. However, mixing them is not recommended and may even lead to a sudden drop in blood sugar.

One way to avoid taking the wrong medicine at the wrong time is to keep it in the place where you usually take the medication, such as maintaining insulin in the kitchen or dining room and long-term insulin in the bedroom.

Never skip meals

Avoiding meals may be shared among busy people; skipping any meal may interfere with your metabolism because the body has to draw its energy from other sources you eat. Missing any of these meals will have a detrimental effect on your glucose levels and suddenly raise your blood sugar.

Familiarize yourself with the 15/15 rule

Rule 15.15 refers to the process of eating 15 grams of carbohydrates when you have low blood sugar, and you have to wait 15 minutes to re-measure glucose. Repeat this process until your blood sugar returns to normal. Low blood sugar or hypoglycemia is another type of gastrointestinal disorder.

Everything you need to know about hypoglycemia

 Get enough sleep

Lack of sleep has many destructive effects on glucose metabolism and hormone secretion. Be sure to get about 8 hours of sleep each night to give your body enough time to heal.

Home and herbal remedies for the sudden drop in blood sugar in traditional medicine:

Licorice root

Divide licorice root into small pieces, put it in a glass of water, boil it, and drink it once a day.

Istanbul wild potatoes

Peel a squash, grate it and mix it with milk to make a paste.

Everything you need to know about hypoglycemia

Apple

To combat low blood sugar, eat two apples a day.

Molasses (beetroot juice)

Add a small amount of molasses to a glass of warm water. Drink this twice a day to increase your blood sugar level.

Dandelion root

Add the dried dandelion root to a glass of milk and mix. Eat this milk daily to get good results.

parsley

Drink parsley leaf extract to enjoy its benefits against hypoglycemia.

tomato

Add fresh tomatoes to all diets to reduce pancreatic disorders and thus balance blood sugar levels.

Sunflower seeds

Raw sunflower seeds regularly help raise blood sugar levels.

Everything you need to know about hypoglycemia

Pumpkin seeds

Pumpkin seed powder should be mixed with a glass of milk and used for its beneficial results.

Gentiana roots

Boil Gentiana roots in water and drink twice a day.

Barley

Barley in the right amount helps compensate for low blood sugar levels regularly.

Eliminate low blood sugar with a balanced diet

A diet consisting of meat, dairy products, bread and vegetables, and fruits supports the body to maintain stable blood sugar levels.

Leave a Reply