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Do You Have Hypoglycemia?

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  3. Do You Have Hypoglycemia?
Hypoglycemia
How Do You Diagnose It?

Hypoglycemia is a condition that occurs when your blood sugar (glucose) is too low.  Blood sugar below 70 mg/dL is considered low.

Symptoms you may have when your blood sugar gets too low include:

  • Cold sweats
  • Convulsions
  • Double vision or blurry vision
  • Fast or pounding heartbeat
  • General discomfort, uneasiness, or ill feeling (malaise)
  • Headache
  • Hunger
  • Irritability (possible aggression)
  • Nervousness
  • Shaking or trembling
  • Sleeping difficulty
  • Tingling or numbness of the skin
  • Tiredness or weakness
  • Unclear thinking

Extreme forms of hypoglycemia will show up on a general blood chemistry panel as a glucose level that is below normal. However, many people who experience hypoglycemia have glucose levels that are within the normal range. Therefore testing your blood glucose level is generally not helpful for diagnosing the most common forms of hypoglycemia described above.

The most reliable way for the average person to determine whether or not they are hypoglycemic is simply to realize that their symptoms go away when they eat. This is a sure sign that you are suffering from hypoglycemia. Why do people have hypoglycemia?

Unless you are starving yourself, experiencing extreme athletic activity, treating diabetes, or have a rare metabolic disorder, there must be some other reason for the frequent drops in your blood sugar.

In the patients that we see and in my own personal experience, one of the primary causes of hypoglycemia is that people are not properly absorbing the nutrients from the food that they eat. Therefore even though they are eating a lot and eating frequently, they don’t benefit from their food the way the average person does.

These people get hungry within a couple of hours after eating, and they have to eat again, or ingest some candy to get their blood sugar back up. But it never lasts very long. These people have trouble gaining weight, though it’s not a prerequisite for having hypoglycemia. And people often will say that their need to eat is a sign of a high metabolism. This is incorrect. It’s a sign of malabsorption. Ironically, there need not be any obvious digestive problems when someone does not digest their food well.

What is causing the malabsorption? In my experience the primary cause of this problem is food allergies and intolerances. If you are eating something to which your immune system is responding (which is the case in most food intolerance and sensitivities), then that food isn’t just providing some nutrition, it’s also providing a reason to be attacked as if it were a foreign invader. That interferes with the absorption of nutrients, and it also takes a lot of energy. Eating will keep you alive, but it won’t keep you going like it should. The result being hypoglycemia.

How to Solve the Problem

The goal is to improve your digestion and absorption of nutrients, whether or not you have problematic digestive problems. Sorting out your food allergens and intolerance with the proper blood tests is very important to resolving hypoglycemia. This requires specialized testing not run by most physicians. Then you must eliminate those foods from your diet in order to allow your digestive tract to heal.

And finally, emphasize protein in your diet. It will help the healing process and support your energy and blood sugar levels much longer than carbohydrates can. Other factors can also be involved that can also be sorted out, but most people will find that their energy and endurance will noticeably improve and continue to get better with time.

 

* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The product mentioned in this article are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.   The information in this article is not intended to replace any recommendations or relationship with your physician.  Please review references sited at end of article for scientific support of any claims made.

Category: Gut HealthBy Dr. Jill C. Carnahan, MD, ABIHM, IFMCPMay 31, 20112 Comments
Tags: blood glucoseglucosehealthHypoglycemiamalabsorptionnaturally treat hypoglycemiaTreat Hypoglycemia
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Author: Dr. Jill C. Carnahan, MD, ABIHM, IFMCP

https://www.jillcarnahan.com/

Dr. Jill is Your Functional Medicine Expert! She uses functional medicine to help you find answers to the cause of your illness and addresses the biochemical imbalances that may be making you feel ill. She'll help you search for underlying triggers contributing to your illness through cutting edge lab testing and tailor the intervention to your specific needs as an individual. She may use diet, supplements, lifestyle changes or medication to treat your illness but will seek the most gentle way to help your body restore balance along with the least invasive treatment possible. Dr. Jill is a functional medicine expert consultant and treats environmental and mold-related illness as well

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2 Comments

  1. Donna says:
    November 16, 2016 at 8:58 pm

    Wow this article is so informative!!! This answered my question exactly. I have Hashimoto’s and when I was first diagnosed, my blood sugar was 99. Then a year later, it was 86. Now it’s 73 and that’s without fasting. I’m always hungry, I never get full. And I constantly have low blood sugar. I ate a high protein meal earlier, turkey meat with baked beans. And I had low blood sugar afterwards. I’m always fatigued and shaky. I’ve just dismissed it to my anemia (which I also have), but now I’m starting to wonder if it’s low blood sugar. Is malabsorption most likely what I’m dealing with?

    Reply
    • Jill Carnahan, MD says:
      November 16, 2016 at 9:40 pm

      Hi Donna
      It could be related to malabsorption but there are other causes for hypoglycemia
      Have your doctor do further testing to determine the cause.
      warmly
      Dr Jill

      Reply

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Dr. Jill
Dr. Jill will help you search for underlying triggers contributing to your illness through cutting edge lab testing and tailor the intervention to your specific needs as an individual.
  • Address:
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  • Phone:
    (303) 993-7910
  • Fax:
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