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Having trouble with hypoglycemia

sueami

Senior Member
Messages
270
Location
Front Range Colorado
Hi all,
I'm resting my way out of a huge pre-Christmas crash. Increasingly, I'm having trouble with hypogylcemia in the afternoons and evenings. Even though I'm eating every two to three hours, I'm still getting frighteningly low blood sugar, as best I can tell. (Planning on DH getting a glucose monitor at the grocery store to double check that this is the problem.)

A) I'm not sure what is causing this, and whether my boosting folate and b12s to bring up my energy levels might be over-driving things, or whether supplementing with @Kimsie 's NAD recipe amino acids (glutamine, glycine, aspartic acid and ribose) might also be causing blood sugar regulations issues. I'm going to back off on both for a couple days to see how that does.

B) But in the meantime, how do I best eat to manage hypogycemia? I'm on the auto immune protocol diet, so GF/DF plus no grains or eggs or nightshades. I'm low sugar (some honey in a coconunt milk tapioca pudding I make, but I can eliminate that) and only herbal teas and water to drink.

What has worked for others in controlling blood sugar through eating?

TY in advance,
Sue
 

picante

Senior Member
Messages
829
Location
Helena, MT USA
I got to thinking about balancing the minerals that affect blood sugar, @sueami, and found this:

"Additional considerations to reduce symptoms of hypoglycemia include the avoidance of Caffeine-containing
and Alcohol-containing beverages, foods and beverages that contain high amounts of Potassium, which
lowers Chromium and Manganese. This also applies to supplementing high doses of Vitamin C, (which
supports insulin and lowers manganese), and Vitamin B6 (which supports potassium, magnesium, and lowers
manganese also)." http://www.acu-cell.com/dis-hyp.html

There's a bunch of other dietary recommendations on that page, but what struck me is that those of us who are taking lots of potassium on the methylation protocol are driving down chromium and manganese. So we need to rebalance all that. I've been focusing more on the potassium-zinc balancing act, because my neck pain resolves when I get them balanced (and the pain switches sides when the balance flips the other way -- it's really a hoot).
 
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taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
I suggest to make sure it is blood sugar issues seeing those symptoms that gives are common in other things too.

If low blood sugar eatting 5-6 times per day complex carbs and not refined sugar things should help.
............

If it is low blood sugar, it could indicate you have an issue with hyperinsulinemia.. a 2hr Glucose tollerance test with the insulin levels also included in the test would be advisable. Insulin spikes high= fall in blood sugar. A diet for those who have high insulin causing low blood sugar is a bit different then the diet needed for those who only have low blood sugar.

I think it would be best for you to find out more about what you have going on.
 

Aerose91

Senior Member
Messages
1,400
When my adrenals are really bad I have to eat something every 30 minutes - 1 hour. Every meal has fat (saturated and unsaturated), protein and vegetables. I eat ketogenic so no carbs. If it's in fact an adrenal thing or a mineral thing it may help to use a higher amount of salt to balance the sodium/potassium ratio that your body has trouble keeping. Not table salt though, good salt like Himalayan pink or Celtic sea salt.

A glucose monitor also helps a lot. I use one and it help a me keep track of things. Take it about 30 minutes after eating to see how high you spike then take it again when u start feeling woozy. You should be able to get a trend down and slowly increase the time between your meals.

Good luck with it, I know annoying this can be.
 

Martial

Senior Member
Messages
1,409
Location
Ventura, CA
A lot of herbs and supplements can actually lower blood sugar levels as a side effect, of course it sounds there are other things also at play here but something to look into.
 

A.B.

Senior Member
Messages
3,780
Before making any changes confirm that it's indeed hypoglycemia. Write down the measurements as you may need them during a doctor's appintment.

It's possible that the diet is not optimal. Check the glycemic index of the things you eat: http://www.glycemicindex.com/foodSearch.php The goal of the ideal diet is to eat a variety of foods that are digested at different speeds which will avoid rapid changes in blood sugar. Too few carbs can make fatigue worse.

Low cortisol, growth hormone, glucagon, or epinephrine are possible reasons for hypoglycemia and should be excluded.
 

drob31

Senior Member
Messages
1,487
Before making any changes confirm that it's indeed hypoglycemia. Write down the measurements as you may need them during a doctor's appintment.

It's possible that the diet is not optimal. Check the glycemic index of the things you eat: http://www.glycemicindex.com/foodSearch.php The goal of the ideal diet is to eat a variety of foods that are digested at different speeds which will avoid rapid changes in blood sugar. Too few carbs can make fatigue worse.

Low cortisol, growth hormone, glucagon, or epinephrine are possible reasons for hypoglycemia and should be excluded.


How do you measure glucagon and epinephrine?
 

sueami

Senior Member
Messages
270
Location
Front Range Colorado
oh my god, you guys are awesome. Thank you for *all* the excellent replies. I am going to get a glucose monitor now and start keeping records. I ran out of trace minerals. I'll get some chromium and manganese and I'm going to stop high dosing C and back off b12 and folate to pre-crash levels. Ribose and the other aminos from that recipe are gone until this is under control. And my diet is pretty darned tight, but I could lower fruit consumption and and definitely need to make sure I'm mixing fats, proteins and complex carbs at every meal.