What To Do When Low Blood Sugar

Manage Your Carb Intake

Your carb intake strongly influences your blood sugar levels .

Your body breaks carbs down into sugars, mainly glucose. Then, insulin helps your body use and store it for energy.

When you eat too many carbs or have insulin-function problems, this process fails, and blood glucose levels can rise.

Thats why the American Diabetes Association recommends that people with diabetes manage their carb intake by counting carbs and being aware of how many they need .

Some studies find that this can help you plan your meals appropriately, further improving blood sugar management (

Foods that are high in fiber include:

The recommended daily intake of fiber is about 25 grams for women and 35 grams for men. Thats about 14 grams for every 1,000 calories .

Summary

Eating plenty of fiber can aid blood sugar management. Soluble dietary fiber appears to be more effective than insoluble fiber for this purpose.

What Causes Low Blood Sugar

For most people, low blood glucose refers to anything below 70 mg/dL, although your number may be different.1

Low blood glucose can be caused by taking too much medication, not having enough to eat or exercising. Dont be too hard on yourself, though. Just focus getting your blood sugar back in range, then consider what might have caused it to help prevent it next time.

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Treating Low Blood Glucose If You Take Medicines That Slow Down Digestion

Some diabetes medicines slow down the digestion of carbohydrates to keep blood glucose levels from rising too high after you eat. If you develop low blood glucose while taking these medicines, you will need to take glucose tablets or glucose gel right away. Eating or drinking other sources of carbohydrates wont raise your blood glucose level quickly enough.

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What Are The Treatment Options For Hypoglycemia

Children with hypoglycemia have different symptoms, and these vary from one child to another. But no matter what your childs symptoms, the overriding goal is the same to bring the blood sugar back up to normal as rapidly as possible and return your child to good health.

Most often, your childs blood sugar can be brought back up to normal by eating or drinking something that has sugar in it, such as fruit juice, regular soda, table sugar, maple syrup, candy, glucose tablets, glucose gel, or cake frosting. Consider encouraging your child to:

• eat regular meals throughout the day
• eat frequent snacks

For children with diabetes, the goal is to consistently maintain a blood sugar level that is in a healthy range. This involves testing blood sugar often, learning to recognize the earliest symptoms of low blood sugar, and treating the condition quickly, based on instructions given by your child’s healthcare providers.

If your child has recurrent or severe hypoglycemia, the first thing is to determine the cause, because different causes have different treatments. While the cause is determined, some children will receive glucose intravenously in the hospital to make sure their blood-sugar level stays normal.

Some causes of hypoglycemia can be treated with changes in your childs diet or medication. For some rare cases of severe hypoglycemia that dont respond to medical treatment, the doctor may recommend surgery to remove most of the pancreas.

Hypoglycemia Tests And Diagnosis

To diagnose nondiabetic hypoglycemia, your doctor will do a physical exam and ask questions about any medicines you take. Theyâll want to know all about your health and any history of diseases or stomach surgery.

Theyâll check your blood glucose level, especially when you are having symptoms. Theyâll also check to see if you feel better when your sugar goes back to a normal level.

If your doctor suspects hypoglycemia, you may have to fast until you start to have symptoms. Theyâll test your blood glucose level at different times throughout the fast.

To check for reactive hypoglycemia, you may have to take a test called a mixed-meal tolerance test . For this, you take a special drink that raises your blood glucose. The doctor will check your blood glucose levels over the next few hours.

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What Should You Do In An Emergency

If mild or moderate hypoglycemia isn’t treated right away, it can turn into severe hypoglycemia. People with severe hypoglycemia usually pass out. If you pass out, someone should 911 right away.

If you have a health problem that tends to cause low blood sugar, it’s a good idea to teach your family, friends, and coworkers about what symptoms to watch for and what to do. You may also want to wear a medical alert bracelet or necklace.

Current as of: April 13, 2022

What If The 15

If you dont feel better after three tries, or if your symptoms get worse, call your healthcare provider or 911. Healthcare providers can use a medication called glucagon. They inject it with a needle or squirt it up your nose. Glucagon is also available for home use. Your healthcare provider can prescribe it and teach a family member or friend how to use it in the event of severe hypoglycemia.

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What Can Cause Low Blood Sugar Levels

Some things that can make low blood sugar levels more likely are:

• skipping meals and snacks
• not eating enough food during a meal or snack
• exercising longer or harder than usual without eating some extra food
• getting too much insulin
• not timing the insulin doses properly with meals, snacks, and exercise

Also, some things may increase how quickly insulin gets absorbed into the bloodstream and can make hypoglycemia more likely. These include:

• taking a hot shower or bath right after having an insulin injection increases blood flow through the blood vessels in the skin, which can make the insulin be absorbed more quickly than usual
• injecting the shot into a muscle instead of the fatty layer under the skin
• injecting the insulin into a part of the body used a lot in a particular sport .

All of these situations increase the chances that a person may get hypoglycemia.

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How Do I Treat An Episode Of Hypoglycemia

The American Diabetes Association recommends the 15-15 rule for an episode of hypoglycemia:

• Eat or drink 15 grams of carbs to raise your blood sugar.
• After 15 minutes, check your blood sugar.
• If its still below 70 mg/dL, have another 15 grams of carbs.
• Repeat until your blood sugar is at least 70 mg/dL.

If you have symptoms of hypoglycemia but cant test your blood sugar, use the 15-15 rule until you feel better.

Note: Children need fewer grams of carbs. Check with your healthcare provider.

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How Common Is Low Blood Glucose

Low blood glucose is common among people with type 1 diabetes and among people with type 2 diabetes who take insulin or some other diabetes medicines. In a large global study of people with diabetes who take insulin, 4 in 5 people with type 1 diabetes and nearly half of those with type 2 diabetes reported a low blood sugar event at least once over a 4-week period.2

Severely low blood glucose, defined as when your blood glucose level drops so low you cant treat it yourself, is less common. Among U.S. adults with diabetes who take insulin or some diabetes medicines that help the pancreas release insulin into the blood, 2 in 100 may develop severely low blood glucose each year.3

Do Not Drive With Low Blood Sugar

People will need to avoid driving while they have low blood sugar levels as it could be dangerous. People will need to wait until their levels return to within a normal range before driving.

If people start to experience symptoms of hypoglycemia while driving, they will need to safely stop the car and check their blood sugar levels.

People may find it helpful to store quick-acting carbohydrates, such as orange juice or glucose tablets, in their car if their levels drop while driving.

If people have hypoglycemia or diabetes, they can discuss an eating plan with a healthcare provider. Tips may include the following:

• eating snacks and small meals around every three hours throughout the day
• opting for a variety of foods, including protein, high-fat foods, and high-fiber foods
• limiting foods high in sugar

may help . These include:

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Things To Know About Hypoglycemia Unawareness

Sometimes hypoglycemia may even occur in your sleep, causing nightmares and sweating. Previous research published in Diabetes Care has also indicated that people with type 1 diabetes may have an increased risk of hypoglycemic-related cardiac arrest during sleep.

For people with type 2 diabetes, its possible to experience hypoglycemia after eating a large, carbohydrate-heavy meal due to higher levels of insulin circulating in the body, Dodell adds.

Your risk for hypoglycemia depends on your health and how well youre managing your blood sugar.

Aside from any possible diabetes medication side effects, the Mayo Clinic notes that your blood sugar levels may decrease as a result of:

• Skipping regular meals

Signs And Symptoms Of Low Blood Glucose

Each person’s reaction to low blood glucose is different. Learn your own signs and symptoms of when your blood glucose is low. Taking time to write these symptoms down may help you learn your own symptoms of when your blood glucose is low. From milder, more common indicators to most severe, signs and symptoms of low blood glucose include:

• Color draining from the skin
• Feeling weak or having no energy
• Blurred/impaired vision
• Tingling or numbness in the lips, tongue, or cheeks
• Nightmares or crying out during sleep

The only sure way to know whether you are experiencing low blood glucose is to check your blood glucose levels, if possible. If you are experiencing symptoms and you are unable to check your blood glucose for any reason, treat the hypoglycemia.

A low blood glucose level triggers the release of epinephrine , the fight-or-flight hormone. Epinephrine is what can cause the symptoms of hypoglycemia such as thumping heart, sweating, tingling, and anxiety.

If the blood sugar glucose continues to drop, the brain does not get enough glucose and stops functioning as it should. This can lead to blurred vision, difficulty concentrating, confused thinking, slurred speech, numbness, and drowsiness. If blood glucose stays low for too long, starving the brain of glucose, it may lead to seizures, coma, and very rarely death.

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Whats Considered Low Blood Sugar

Your blood sugar tends to fluctuate throughout the day. Itll be lower when you first wake up, especially if you havent eaten for the past 8 to 10 hours.

Your blood sugar will go up once you eat. Depending on when you last ate, heres whats considered to be a normal blood sugar range:

Low blood sugar, also known as hypoglycemia, is when your blood sugar levels fall below 70 mg/dL.

The point at which low blood sugar symptoms become noticeable is different from one person to the next.

Some people may feel jittery, irritable, or lightheaded when their blood sugar level falls to 70 mg/dL. Other people may not feel any symptoms until well below that mark.

A quick, simple blood test can measure your blood sugar level. If you have diabetes or another medical condition that sometimes causes episodes of low blood sugar, its important to regularly check your blood sugar with a home test.

If a test shows that your blood sugar is below normal, you can take steps to adjust it quickly.

Symptoms of low blood sugar vary from person to person and can even be different from one episode to the next. You may experience specific symptoms the first time your blood sugar dips, and different symptoms the next time.

The most common mild to moderate symptoms of low blood sugar include:

• jitters or shaking

More severe symptoms of hypoglycemia include:

• inability to eat or drink
• unconsciousness

Possible Causes With Diabetes

Diabetes affects your bodys ability to use insulin. Think of insulin as the key that unlocks your cells, letting in glucose for energy.

If you have diabetes, a variety of treatments can help the cells in your body use the glucose in your blood. Among these are insulin injections and oral medications that increase insulin production.

If you take too much of these types of medications, your blood sugar may drop too low. You may also sometimes experience low blood sugar if you plan to eat a big meal but then do not eat enough.

Skipping meals, eating less than usual, or eating later than usual but taking your medication at your usual time can also lead to low blood sugar levels.

Unplanned excess physical activity without eating enough can also cause a drop in blood sugar levels.

Drinking alcohol when youre on these medications can also lead to low blood sugar, especially if it replaces food. When your body is trying to get rid of alcohol, it becomes worse at managing blood sugar levels.

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What Are The Complications Of Low Blood Glucose

Mild-to-moderate low blood glucose can be easily treated. But severely low blood glucose can cause serious complications, including passing out, coma, or death.

Repeated episodes of low blood glucose can lead to

• high blood glucose levels, if worry or fear of low blood glucose keeps you from taking the medicines you need to manage your diabetes8
• hypoglycemia unawareness, a condition in which you dont notice any symptoms of low blood glucose until your blood glucose level has dropped very low

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Preventing Low Blood Sugar

Preventing low blood sugar is better than having to treat it. Always have a source of fast-acting sugar with you.

• When you exercise, check your blood sugar levels. Make sure you have snacks with you.
• Talk to your provider about reducing insulin doses on days that you exercise.
• Ask your provider if you need a bedtime snack to prevent low blood sugar overnight. Protein snacks may be best.

Do not drink alcohol without eating food. Women should limit alcohol to 1 drink a day and men should limit alcohol to 2 drinks a day. Family and friends should know how to help. They should know:

• The symptoms of low blood sugar and how to tell if you have them.
• How much and what kind of food they should give you.
• When to call for emergency help.
• How to inject glucagon, a hormone that increases your blood sugar. Your provider will tell you when to use this medicine.

If you have diabetes, always wear a medical alert bracelet or necklace. This helps emergency medical workers know you have diabetes.

What Are Clinical Trials For Low Blood Glucose

Clinical trialsand other types of clinical studiesare part of medical research and involve people like you. When you volunteer to take part in a clinical study, you help doctors and researchers learn more about disease and improve health care for people in the future.

Researchers are studying many aspects of low blood glucose levels in diabetes, such as

• how to diagnose and treat low blood glucose among people with diabetes
• medicines that can treat symptoms of low blood glucose in people with hypoglycemia unawareness
• educational approaches to reduce fear of low blood glucose, which can make it harder for you to control your diabetes

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