What Diabetics Need to Know About Hypoglycemia

Being diagnosed with diabetes is one of the worst things that can happen to you. However, one must often braved himself or herself and be strong as well as disciplined enough to achieve a good control in order to prevent or delay the onset of a host of complications arising from poor sugar control.

When diabetics strive to achieve a good blood sugar control by cutting down the amount of calories intake as well as being compliant to the medication regime, they will almost certainly have at least one experience of extreme hunger, often in the wee hours of early morning. This is more common in patients who are on insulin compared to those patients who are only on oral pills for their diabetes.

Essentially, what these patients are actually suffering from is called hypoglycemia (hypo=less), meaning abnormally low sugar levels in the blood beyond the threshold needed for the basic functioning of the body. The threshold blood sugar levels in which a person suffers from signs & symptoms of hypoglycemia varies from one person to another. For a person with a higher daily blood sugar level, he or she might suffer from signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia at a much higher level of blood sugar level instead of the blood glucose level of less than 4.0mmol/l where people usually starts to get signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia.

So diabetics will need to recognize when they are having hypoglycemia so that steps can be taken to correct the situation. If you feel hungry, feel your heart pounding, dizzy, headache or have difficulty concentrating or speaking and sometimes blurring of vision, you might just be suffering from an episode of hypoglycemia. If the above feelings are coupled with sweating, trembling, weakness and even paleness, the likelihood of you suffering from hypoglycemia is very high. Nocturnal hypoglycemia meanwhile manifests itself as headache, nightmares and restless sleep. When hypoglycemia occurs, if it is possible, try to test your blood glucose by using the home finger pricking device although this maybe a tall order when you are trembling away. So the best way is to get someone else to do it for you.

As your body is now deficient of sugar, it would be sensible to replenish your sugar levels. But this does not mean that you can gulp down a big plate of pasta or a hamburger. Instead, for those patients who are well equipped, taking between 5 to 7 dextrose tablets is all that is needed. If you haven¡¯t stock up on these dextrose tablets from the drug store, a good substitute will be 3 to 4 teaspoons of honey. Having done all this, you should then settle down for 15 minutes or so and see if the previous signs and symptoms have subsided. It would be best to confirm it by testing your blood glucose using the finger pricking devices. If your sugar level is still below 4.0mmol/l, repeat the above steps as necessary. However if your next meal is a few hours away, it would be sensible to take half or a piece of sandwich.

So what contributes to hypoglycemia? Some of the common causes include excessive doses of diabetic medications or over injecting oneself with insulin, skipping of meals, excessively small serving of meals, over activity or going overboard with exercise and finally alcohol consumption. You will need to consult your family doctor to try and identify the possible causes of this episode of hypoglycemia. If it is due to excessive doses of diabetic medications, then your doctor will be able to readjust the dosages.

Finally, please do not get discourage by an episode of hypoglycemic attack to continue being compliant on your diabetic medication and healthy lifestyle. One should realize that if there are totally no episodes of hypoglycemic attacks, it can only mean two things: 1) Your sugar control is optimum (which is a bit unlikely in diabetics who basically have problems controlling their blood sugar levels). 2) You haven¡¯t been disciplined at all in taking your medication and controlling your diet, hence your sugar levels is on the higher end all these while which then self explains why you have no problems whatsoever with hypoglycemic attacks. This could only spell trouble as poor sugar control is known to cause both immediate and long term complications.