Fwd: Re: SC - Liqueurs

[Jenne Heise]

In a message dated 6/27/00 1:28:47 PM US Mountain Standard Time, 
evfemia at mail.com writes:

<< Obviously reactions such as sweating, shaking,
 slurred speech, confusion, etc can occur before the body is able to
 stabilize itself.  But a primary hypoglycemic's body should be able to
 stabilize it's own blood sugar without SERIOUS side effects from my
 experience and research >>

Yes, the above symptoms do indeed occur with enough lead time that if they 
are not ignored, the person can rectify the situation by eating, drinking, 
etc. HOWEVER do not believe that if these symptoms are ignored, they cannot 
lead to insulin shock and coma and death. They do. Frequently. More 
frequently then I would like to admit. Situation: Person is travelling 
through Arizona in car. All snackies are gone, as is water. Person figures 
they will stop at next town and eat; but next town is over 4 hours away with 
no where to eat/stop between. Person had a hypoglycemic episode that spiraled 
rapidly downward into a severe episode, that continued into insulin shock. He 
was discovered by another motorist who called on cell phone and got life 
flight help to hospital. This person was not diabetic or had any other health 
cocerns. It happened a year ago on the I-8 to from Tucson to Yuma. They don't 
even have phone boxes out there until you are close to Yuma.

So, it can happen. The problem is that people don't realize it can, and they 
ignore or "live close to the wire" with their situation all the time; eating 
when they can no longer help it or at the last possible moment before they 
become really ill. A lot of individuals just don't pay attention to the 
symptoms or deliberately ignore them, thinking there is time and/or they 
don't want to be slave to that kind of demand by body (like diabetics, some 
individuals rebel against the diagnoses by refusing to comply with the 
constraints of the illness to stay well; believing it is 'mind over matter' 
situation when not). Some people pay attention to the illness demands, but 
don't take adequate preparations and get caught in the secenario of the 
gentleman on his way to Yuma. In cases like that, it doesn't matter how many 
symptoms you have, you can't do a durn thing about them until you get to 
place that allows you to do something about it.

So, be careful. The only difference between Hypoglycemia and an Insulin 
Reaction (not Shock, shock refers to the comatose stage of the reaction) and 
Insulin Shock (which can kill) is the severity of the symptoms. It is like 
trying to draw a line between Allergic Asthma and Chronic Airways Disease. 
Both have the same symptoms, with varying amount of severity; but either way 
you won't care if you died because of ignoring the symptoms of Asthma or CAD. 
Either way you're dead.

Lars