What Low Blood Sugar Feels Like

Have you ever seen the video that went viral on Fb wherein 4 wonderful ladies with kind 1 diabetes discuss what hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) appears like?

I 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 put up. I feel that is notably helpful for family and friends who could not know or perceive what it’s like.

Please watch the video and contemplate sharing this text along with your family members in case you suppose 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 at all times onerous, and attempting to elucidate one thing as distinctive as the sensation of low blood sugar is even tougher.

The bodily elements of a low are simpler to explain, so let’s begin with these.

I virtually at all times really feel the indicators of a low blood sugar earlier than it turns into vital. 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 beneath 70 mg/dL. Nonetheless, signs seem at completely different ranges in several folks.)

I’ll begin shaking slightly, my cognitive perform goes out the window, I get weak, and I sometimes begin sweating. These are among the many commonest delicate low blood sugar signs, which may embody:

• Weak point
• Sweating
• Starvation
• Tiredness
• Dizziness
• Lightheadedness
• Temper swings (comparable to nervousness or concern)

A half-cup of juice or 2 to three glucose tablets will normally get me again to regular fairly shortly, and I’ll transfer on with my day. (Observe the directions in your glucose tablets to find out what number of to take, and be taught extra about treating hypoglycemia in Methods to Deal with Lows as Rapidly as Potential.)

However once 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 gradual heartbeat
• Confusion
• Blurry imaginative and prescient
• Vomiting
• Impaired cognitive perform (psychological talents)
• Fainting
• Seizures
• Coma and even demise

I not often expertise extra important episodes of hypoglycemia in the course of the day as a result of I can catch it earlier than it will get to this stage, however it would typically occur in my sleep.

I’ll get up in the midst of the night time and understand it’s dangerous 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 kind) or a nightmare, and I’m sweating profusely and shaking.

After which there’s the sensation — it’s an urge, an virtually primal have to eat. I’ll stand within the kitchen, drenched and shaking, with all of my instincts screaming “feed me!”

It is sensible. At this level, my mind isn’t getting sufficient glucose to perform 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 case you don’t have a plan in place, a technique for what to do throughout lows, you’ll shortly have emptied the fridge and cupboards and eaten something you will get your fingers on.

The traditional indicators that inform you to cease consuming are merely placed on standby when your blood sugar is low.

I’ve written a whole put up about how I deal with lows at night time, and I at all times attempt to comply with that technique. And no, this method doesn’t at all times work (and what works for one individual could not essentially work for one more).

Methods to keep away from low blood sugar

For some folks, 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 all the pieces I can to keep away from them.

Actually, I not often 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’m going low, I might be proactive and stop it from occurring within the first place.

I additionally manually test my blood sugar ranges steadily and have spent plenty of time determining my insulin wants for various instances of day, forms of train, and sorts of meals.

This didn’t occur in a single day, however I’m glad to say that for me, low blood sugars are actually rare and barely extreme.

Remaining ideas

All of us expertise lows in another 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 certainly one of your family members asks, “How do you’re feeling when your sugar is low?” contemplate 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 not less than give them some understanding of what you’re going via.

Steered subsequent put up: What Ranges of Blood Sugar Are Harmful?