Reactive Hypoglycemia?

Just curious if anyone is struggling with this?  Its something I just developed within the last month and its so hard to get a grasp of!   It seems like all glycemic index rules are exact opposites of any/every diet thought I've ever had in my life (sourdough, pumpernickle, rye or 12 grain with fruit breads are better than wheat bread for starters).. The whole grasp of how a high GI can be lowered if you add a low GI food or vice versa..  There isn't a lot of information out there about it so I was hoping to get insight here. thanks in advance :)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Graduate-OSSG

Yes, it comes free with the surgery, starts about 15-20 months out. Go to yahoo groups and there are literally hundreds of files on it.

Most of use peanut butter on cracker or white bread to come out of the attack, keep 'em everywhere. Glucose and other sugars stop this attack, but guarantee another one later.

Also, please note that while it is called REACTIVE, there is not always a reason for it to happen. The docs where you seek help will insist it's something you ate or didn't, but that is not always the case. It's good if you CAN make a link and avoid the trigger, but after this many years, I sure can't figure out what will cause it. Or prevent it. I only know how to FIX IT once it's too late.

I've been to the board and read through over 300 messages, but I've tried to post twice there and neither are showing up... Is there testing for this other than glucose?  I haven't had sugar since surgery and am not going to test those waters as sugar is what got me to 261 lbs in the first place. I have tons of questions on it and would love to post on the grad board, but both posts I replied to aren't there   Reactive is different than regular hypoglycemia and I haven't found many books out there with information on reactive, just regular hypoglycemia.. any ideas?

You have to join to post. Is that it? You have to be approved to post the first few times.

If you REPLY, you have to hit REPLY ALL or your post goes only to the person you wrote to. It's kind of a safety factor, but it takes some getting used to.

Well, reactive would be different than other kinds, IF it's real. Since MOST of is have it, is it possible the entire population of us is too stupid to figure out how to prevent it? See what I mean?

The other night, the only carbs I got (besides 2 in each protein drink & each bar) were a few bites of potato. Didn't like it, didn't eatmuch. But 11:30, as soon as I brushed and flossed, CRASH! WHAT THE? Another night, I had 6 potato chips or so with my dinner, also 11:30 crash 'n burn, correct with PB on bread, and again at 3am! But I've had it hit me with no traceable carbs at all (except the speck in drinks & bars) and ???

Other days, I've had a carb b-fast, carb heavy lunch and dinner (all breads or potatoes, what we'd consider "normal" and blood sugar remains steady. Makes NO sense to me

Hi Michele, I have been hypoglycemic well over 30 yrs however the past 5 have been normal on my blood wor****il today. All my blood result, protein, B12, hemo etc were perfect except my glucose was  55 where it usually runs is 80. I have been feeling like crap for a few weeks and I honestly didn't expect good numbers so I was surprised until I saw my glucose, the one I least suspected. I am not sure what could have caused that and am wondering if Reactive would show a low reading in our glucose testing. Do you know? Ginny

When mine fell the other night, it was 53. As I ate PB crackers and washed them down with water, my BS rose to 77 in about 4 minutes! Then I felt ok, so went back and redid the whole teeth thing and went to bed.

My actual labs usually show it right around 80, with me full of water, but fasting in the morning.

Just for fun, last labs showed 76, but I'd gotten my new meter that day, so tested it mid-day after food and it was 130. I've never seen it that high, but that was after food.

So, yes, it would show on your meter. I went with someone to her endo about her episodes and she tested normally right then, but while we were sitting there, she got The Stare, started shaking, slurring her words, not making sense. I got them to test and she was at 111. Hardly low, but then she got her own meter out and tested as it dropped to 101 in the time it took for her to work her meter (45 seconds?), and she kept saying her norm was 120-130. Had I not been so shocked to see it happen and the levels still over 100, I woulda bolted for my car to get PB crackers, but as it was, I was trying too hard to make my brain accept that 111 was too low for HER. Also, the speed at which it fell was amazing. The doc, BTW, offered no solutions or anything. ???

Over 30 yrs and I never thought to get a meter. It makes sense to have one so I can pinpoint what might be causing it. I don't do mu*****arb department either but I don't exactly keep a strict count lately since I have been holding at 128 well over a year but now I will start to watch because I know I can't have bread, rice or white potatoes...make me very ill feeling, always have since childhood so I know it wasn't that however I am very curious. I went to the Dr last Thursday and I had been fasting until 4:30 and it was 55. I am puzzeled but then we seem to be solving our own problems here since no one has any advice on out absorption, malabsorption, how many grams of protein we can digest, gow many milligrams of vits we can digest at one time...my best source is to come here to OH. What brand meter do you have? Is it like a regular glucose meter for diabetes where you ***** yourself?  BTW, I picked up the D3 and got the oil by mistake so I just am taking them one at a time several times a day and giving hubby some to get rid of them...I swear I have been into vits all my life and studied it as well and never heard of D3 until I read your posts...all week on TV I hear about D3 and now hubby thinks I am so smart! LOL Ginny

I HAD a meter in my early days, but I think the batts are dead in it. LOL

Finally was a sale thingy, "freebate", they call lit, so I grabbed one.

The short of it being that D3 is what the body recognizes, and we cannot conver (it's bypassed) any other forms of D into D3, ergo, it cannot be absorbed. UVA (tanning) is not vit D. UVB is, but to get enough, the risk of skin cancer is too high. AND you have to be fair, but live in sun zones.

Actually, we dont' rreally "digest" at all, so to speak. We can absorb the mega doses of things that are already broken down into their "final" form, like D3. But sadly, we don't know how much we get until we trial and error the labs forever. And I mean forever.

just curious,  is there a different guideline for glucose readings for post-ops?  what numbers are considered low, high, normal? thanks again for your help, I've read so many of your posts about this topic on this board and yahoo!  :)

OH, I don't have many answers (except not to use sugar to correct it!)

We don't have special ranges, but what feels bad is the suddeness of the drop OR each person has a number that feels bad to them.

Anything below 50 is bad. My last labs (morning, fasting) showed 76 and that feels bad to some, but I was fine. My normal level for routine labs is 83 or so. But some feel bad under 100.

Anything below 40, well, you might not be conscious to read it.

I don't know high, since I didn't actually have diabetes (YET!) pre-op. I know I had glucose ldlevels of 166, doc office freaked out, but the fasting requirement was new then, so my fasting wasn't exactly very fasted. Like, I was plucking fries out of my teeth when I walked into the lab? Um, fries? They don't make me fat, but it sure shot the glucose up! LOL

I pointed out that I wasn't "quite fasting", so lemme try it again. Whew. I have fasted studiously since.