Have you ever seen the video that went viral on Fb wherein 4 wonderful ladies with kind 1 diabetes discuss what hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) appears like?
I like this video, and it impressed me to consider what a low blood sugar appears like for me and to place it into phrases on this submit. I feel that is significantly helpful for family and friends who could not know or perceive what it’s like.
Please watch the video and contemplate sharing this text along with your family members should you suppose it helps clarify how you are feeling when your blood sugar is low.
What does low blood sugar really feel like?
Attempting to clarify a sense is all the time exhausting, and making an attempt to clarify one thing as distinctive as the sensation of low blood sugar is even more durable.
The bodily features of a low are simpler to explain, so let’s begin with these.
I nearly all the time really feel the indicators of a low blood sugar earlier than it turns into crucial. I’ll really feel it when my blood sugar is round 60 mg/dL (3.3 mmol/L).
(Hypoglycemia is mostly formally outlined as a glucose stage at or under 70 mg/dL. Nonetheless, signs seem at totally different ranges in numerous individuals.)
Delicate low blood sugar signs
I’ll begin shaking a bit, my cognitive operate goes out the window, I get weak, and I usually begin sweating. These are among the many commonest delicate low blood sugar signs, which might embrace:
- Weak point
- Sweating
- Starvation
- Tiredness
- Dizziness
- Lightheadedness
- Temper swings (akin to nervousness or concern)
A half-cup of juice or some glucose tablets will often get me again to regular fairly shortly, and I’ll transfer on with my day. (Observe the directions in your glucose tablets to find out what number of to take, and be taught extra about treating hypoglycemia in Learn how to Deal with Lows as Shortly as Doable.)
Reasonable to extreme low blood sugar signs
However after I don’t catch my signs earlier than they get extreme and my sugars dip decrease, that’s a complete different story. Signs of reasonable or extreme hypoglycemia can embrace:
- Nausea
- Abdomen ache
- Nightmares
- Abnormally quick or gradual heartbeat
- Confusion
- Blurry imaginative and prescient
- Vomiting
- Impaired cognitive operate (psychological skills)
- Fainting
- Seizures
- Coma and even loss of life
I not often expertise extra vital episodes of hypoglycemia through the day as a result of I can catch it earlier than it will get to this stage, however it’s going to generally occur in my sleep.
Nighttime hypoglycemia
I’ll get up in the course of the night time and realize it’s dangerous if I’ve had a “stress dream” (for instance, issues will transfer excessively quick within the dream or I’ll be caught in a loop of some type) or a nightmare, and I’m sweating profusely and shaking.
After which there’s the sensation — it’s an urge, an nearly primal have to eat. I’ll stand within the kitchen, drenched and shaking, with all of my instincts screaming “feed me!”
It is smart. At this level, my mind isn’t getting sufficient glucose to operate because it ought to, so the instincts take over to ensure that me to not die.
It’s, to place it mildly, extraordinarily uncomfortable. And should you don’t have a plan in place, a method for what to do throughout lows, you’ll shortly have emptied the fridge and cupboards and eaten something you may get your arms on.
The conventional alerts that inform you to cease consuming are merely placed on standby when your blood sugar is low.
I’ve written a complete submit about how I deal with lows at night time, and I all the time attempt to comply with that technique. And no, this method doesn’t all the time work (and what works for one particular person could not essentially work for an additional).
In the event you aren’t experiencing signs of low blood sugar, be taught extra in Hypoglycemia Unawareness.
Learn how to keep away from low blood sugar
For some individuals, lows might be very scary, however I’ve by no means handed out from a low or had a seizure, so lows don’t scare me as such. However I’ll nonetheless do all the things I can to keep away from them.
Actually, I not often have lows, and I feel there are a number of causes for that. Most significantly, I put on a steady glucose monitor (CGM). Since my CGM warns me earlier than I am going low, I might be proactive and forestall it from taking place within the first place.
The CGM alarm for lows might be particularly useful through the night time, since they wake me up after I’m sleeping and may in any other case not concentrate on the growing low.
I additionally manually verify my blood sugar ranges regularly and have spent a variety of time determining my insulin wants for various instances of day, kinds of train, and sorts of meals.
This didn’t occur in a single day, however I’m joyful to say that for me, low blood sugars at the moment are rare and infrequently extreme.
Ultimate ideas
All of us expertise lows in a different way, however I feel anyone who has ever skilled what low blood sugar appears like will agree that it’s past uncomfortable.
So, subsequent time considered one of your family members asks, “How do you are feeling when your sugar is low?” contemplate exhibiting them this text and video.
It’s not possible to totally perceive you probably have by no means had a low your self, however this could a minimum of give them some understanding of what you’re going via.
Prompt subsequent submit: What Ranges of Blood Sugar Are Harmful?
