Have you ever seen the video that went viral on Fb during which 4 wonderful girls with sort 1 diabetes speak about what hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) appears like?
I really 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 take into account sharing this text along with your family members in the event you assume it helps clarify how you’re feeling when your blood sugar is low.
What does low blood sugar really feel like?
Attempting to elucidate a sense is all the time onerous, and making an attempt to elucidate one thing as distinctive as the sensation of low blood sugar is even more durable.
The bodily elements of a low are simpler to explain, so let’s begin with these.
I virtually all the time really feel the indicators of a low blood sugar earlier than it turns into essential. 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 degree at or under 70 mg/dL. Nevertheless, signs seem at totally different ranges in several individuals.)
Gentle low blood sugar signs
I’ll begin shaking just a little, 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 embody:
- Weak point
- Sweating
- Starvation
- Tiredness
- Dizziness
- Lightheadedness
- Temper swings (reminiscent of nervousness or concern)
A half-cup of juice or some glucose tablets will often get me again to regular fairly rapidly, and I’ll transfer on with my day. (Observe the directions in your glucose tablets to find out what number of to take, and study extra about treating hypoglycemia in Learn how to Deal with Lows as Rapidly as Doable.)
Average 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 average or extreme hypoglycemia can embody:
- Nausea
- Abdomen ache
- Nightmares
- Abnormally quick or sluggish heartbeat
- Confusion
- Blurry imaginative and prescient
- Vomiting
- Impaired cognitive operate (psychological skills)
- Fainting
- Seizures
- Coma and even demise
I hardly ever 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 would generally occur in my sleep.
Nighttime hypoglycemia
I’ll get up in the course of the evening and realize it’s unhealthy 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 virtually primal must 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 in the event you don’t have a plan in place, a technique for what to do throughout lows, you’ll rapidly have emptied the fridge and cupboards and eaten something you will get your fingers 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 whole submit about how I deal with lows at evening, and I all the time attempt to observe that technique. And no, this method doesn’t all the time work (and what works for one particular person could not essentially work for one more).
When you aren’t experiencing signs of low blood sugar, study 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 every thing I can to keep away from them.
In reality, I hardly ever 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 evening, since they wake me up after I’m sleeping and would possibly in any other case not concentrate on the creating low.
I additionally manually verify my blood sugar ranges continuously and have spent numerous time determining my insulin wants for various instances of day, sorts of train, and sorts of meals.
This didn’t occur in a single day, however I’m pleased to say that for me, low blood sugars at the moment are rare and barely extreme.
Remaining 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 one among your family members asks, “How do you’re feeling when your sugar is low?” take into account displaying them this text and video.
It’s unattainable to completely 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 by.
Instructed subsequent submit: What Ranges of Blood Sugar Are Harmful?
