Hypoglycemia (Low Blood Sugar)

I just found out that I am Hypoglycemia (Low Blood Sugar) and not 100% sure how to go about fixing that. And when I say low I mean really low… Only 41 mg/dl (not 100% sure what that means) I just knows it not good! Anyone out there had this problem? If so what did or are you doing about it?

 

I am being treated for it now. Went to the nutritionist, gotta eat low glyc foods.....also take a med to help the levels stay even. I was just diagnosed in Oct. I have not followed the rules. I am really stressed right now and dealing with other issues....... My blood sugar dropped  from 77 to 31 in 2.5 hours during my 3 hour blood glucose test...my blood pressure dropped then just coincidently...... There are books out there......also see a nutritionist......the med they gave me is GLYCET. I have not filled it. Now that my other problems are being worked on I have to focus on the low blood sugar.  I have read that sometimes gastric bypass patients have reactive hypoglycemia......google it I guess. I need to find out more too, so if anyone else knows anything bring on the advice, thanks Tammy

I havent' been diagnosed officially as reactive hypoglycemic but I show the symptoms. When I eat anything that has carbs in it (even some good carbs but mostly white carbs) my blood sugar drops after an hour and a half. I get the shakes and black and white spots. I even feel sort of drunk when it happens. Scary stuff. So I took white carbs completely out of my diet. Only mulit grain and good carbs and fiber and protein in my diet. NO potatoes, no bread, no pasta, no rice (or very very little of it) I can sometimes have flour tortillas but I keep them to a minimum. NO sugar either.  I got the book "Hypoglycemia for Dummies" and it's helped me alot in deciding what I need to cut out and how to control this thing. They also recommend deleting caffeine from your diet but I'm still really hesitant on that one..I love my coffee so we'll see. If it causes me problems, though...It's outta here.

I was diabetic on insulin before WLS, and now have reactive hypoglycemia. If  I stay with mostly protein and some fruits and veggies my levels are ok. Any type of other carb and within 2-3 hrs after the food im crashing. I also eat mostly every 4 hrs, and this seems to help. 41 is low. I usually feel shaky, cranky and tired at 70 or below, anything below 65 reads on my meter as hypo.

I wanted to let you know how this works in case you don't know.  Bad carbs, flour, chips, etc raise your blood sugar quickly and then plummets it back down fast due to the amount of time it takes to digest these foods. (very little time) The good carbs raise it very slowly and remain more level so the blood sugar doesn't drop like the bad carbs. Now as an insulin dependant diabetic for 30 years I can also tell you that the food in your pouch isn't there long and the insulin your body puts out is there longer. Just like in my case where I have to inject it.   So look at it this way. Your food is gone in say 1 hour, the insulin is in your body for say 4 hrs so what's going to happen??? You are going to drop low. Stay with the good carbs, fruit, protein, cheese etc and it should help a great deal. Any time you feel shakey or confused eat something. You can go into a coma quickly with sugars in the low numbers. Not tryin to scare you I just want you to know the ramifications of not treating it. Good luck. Robin

Thank you for the help. My 12 y/o niece is type 1 and she knows how I feel when I go low. I know it is nothing to play with and I need to be more on track with it. I am dealing with other health issues and this one took the back burner. My nutritionist told me to keep life savers in my purse for those lows. I know how scary a low can be as I fell into the 30s at the docs office....at the same time my bp went to 60/90....that made it worse. barnes and noble has some clearance books on hypoglycemic....check em out take care  tammy

I have the same problem.  You need to stay away from sugary/high glycemic foods and you need to eat more often.  It's in many ways the same things you would need to do if you were diabetic because you want to stabilize your blood sugar.  If I eat a high refined carb meal or sugary dessert, an hour or two later I've got the shakes, the world is unsteady, my limbs feel heavy and clumsy and when it gets bad enough, i find it difficult to even speak or think clearly.  It's not fun.  My surgeon said it's pretty common for WLS patients.  Stay hydrated and make sure you eat several small healthy meals each day.  Good luck!

I was told the reason bypass patients get this is because your body is use to producing a lot of insulin when we're obese, after weight loss, your body is still producing high amounts of insulin, over compensating which causes hypoglycemia.   here is a good book I read about hypoglycemia.  I've checked out a couple books and so far found this one to be the best because it focused on both hypoglycemia and reactive hypoglycemia (which is what most bypass patients are diagnosed with) here is the post link about the book http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/wls_grads/a,messageboard/a ction,replies/board_id,5491/cat_id,5091/topic_id,3481009/ take the advice people in this post, eat every 3 hours, focus on protein and stay away from simple carbs like white potatoes, white bread, white rice, white pasta, it will help in avoiding "crashes" (when your blood sugar drops). after being told I have RHG (reactive hypoglycemia) I started a post on how i felt after foods and articles i've found..  heres the link if youre intersted http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/wls_grads/a,messageboard/b oard_id,5491/cat_id,5091/topic_id,3453812/action,replies/ I havent updated my researching this in a while but can tell you that I've been taking 200mg of chromium picolinate (was told it helps with RHG) every morning and not only has lessened my "crashes" but its helped stabolize my blood sugar and now I don't have to eat every 3 hours on the dot like I had to before to avoid crashing.   good luck with everything :) good luck

It could also be nesidioblastosis.  That's where the beta cells in your pancreas  producie way too much insulin.  Diet will not be the complete answer when you have this.  I drop on protein also.  But not consistantly.  One day it will be a protein shake, the next day not.  I had 60% of my pancreas removed at Mayo Clinic in June.  My blood sugars are some better, but I still really need to be careful.  At least I don't drop down to the 30's anymore.  Now the lowest has been in the 50's. 

I eat 6 small meals a day, of mostly protein.  I do stray once in a while but for the most part, protein.  I will drop if I eat too much fruit and I also to be careful of the sugar in milk.  Sometimes that will drop me. 

There's a specific set of tests that should be done if your having problems with hypoglcymia.  If you search for "nesidioblastosis" or "NIPHS" you will find info from Mayo. 

 

Thank goodness I found this post. I have been having this problem for a while. I am 2 years out. My blood sugar when i have my kit gets down to 60 and lower and at that time i will start losing my vision shakes sweats, etc. Now i have been lately trying to see what it is and its either up or down it was almost 300 last week after i ate dinner and today after it dropped i ate a 1\2 protein bar low sugar and it jumped it to over 200. Can anyone please tell me what to do? I get bad where it drops when i have been in a store. I know a couple of times I caught it in the low 40s. Why is it so high one minute after dinner when i eat alot of protein and not much carbs and then drops. I wasn't a diabetic before wls and they tested me about 1 year ago it was good. Please help me. Any idea why  so HIGH and LOW????? Started wt.311 Now  wt 159