SC - hypoglycaemia

[Elysant at aol.com]

- -Poster: Elysant at AOL.com>

> << A prolonged 
>  hypoglycemic episode can cause heart and  organic brain damage.
>   >>
 
> A prolonged hypoglycemic epiosde can cause death. 

Both of these statements are true, BUT but almost all people who suffer from 
hypoglycemia learn to recognise their own signs and symptoms of when the 
sugar drops and it becomes so uncomfortable it becomes the number one 
priority in their lives to rectify the situation.

I get it myself, and know when my vision starts going, I get shaky, get a 
gnawing uncomfortable sensation in my stomach, and/or a blinding headache, 
and get grouchy - and I haven't eaten in over 4 hours that I need to stop and 
eat something NOW.  Usually it takes about 20 minutes to start forgetting the 
symptoms again.

If you can recognise the symptoms and take action, the problem can be 
resolved quickly and easily.

I tend to take more smaller more frequent meals, and when travelling or 
eventing, usually take along a snack - usually cheese and wholewheat crackers 
- - in case I get busy or it creeps up on me.  A trick I learned years ago when 
presented with a "hypoglycemic diet" by my doctor. :-)

Just as with a diabetic, if a hypoglycemic ingests "empty" carbohydrate 
calories they are just going to quickly skyrocket their bloodsugar and then 
it will plummet  to potentially even a lower BS.  Adding a protein as was 
mentioned prevents this as it evens out the absorbtion and lasts longer in 
the system.  

Other choices to eat as a hypoglycemic snack would be something like peanut 
butter on celery, or a glass of skim milk and a light sandwich on whole wheat.

One last point.  Usually, in my experience, it has been a diabetic on insulin 
or an oral  hypoglycemic who has not taken sufficient food against that 
medication and the medication is still working to lower what ever sugar is 
there that causes the coma and potential death situations.  Usually, from 
what I have seen and experienced, this does not happen with people who suffer 
from hypoglycemic episodes who are not diabetics.

Elysant
also mundanely an RN