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 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 publish. I believe 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 together with your family members in case you suppose it helps clarify how you are feeling when your blood sugar is low.
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What does low blood sugar really feel like?
Making an attempt to elucidate a sense is at all times arduous, and making an attempt to elucidate one thing as distinctive as the sensation of low blood sugar is even tougher.
The bodily features of a low are simpler to explain, so let’s begin with these.
I nearly at all times 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 stage at or under 70 mg/dL. Nevertheless, signs seem at totally different ranges in several folks.)
Gentle low blood sugar signs
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 embrace:
Weak spot
Sweating
Starvation
Tiredness
Dizziness
Lightheadedness
Temper swings (similar to nervousness or concern)
A half-cup of juice or some 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 Learn how to Deal with Lows as Shortly as Attainable.)
Reasonable to extreme low blood sugar signs
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 embrace:
Nausea
Abdomen ache
Nightmares
Abnormally quick or sluggish heartbeat
Confusion
Blurry imaginative and prescient
Vomiting
Impaired cognitive perform (psychological talents)
Fainting
Seizures
Coma and even dying
I hardly ever expertise extra important episodes of hypoglycemia throughout the day as a result of I can catch it earlier than it will get to this stage, however it should generally occur in my sleep.
Nighttime hypoglycemia
I’ll get up in the midst of the evening and comprehend 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 kind) or a nightmare, and I’m sweating profusely and shaking.
After which there’s the sensation — it’s an urge, an nearly primal must 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 arms 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 publish about how I deal with lows at evening, and I at all times attempt to observe that technique. And no, this method doesn’t at all times work (and what works for one particular person could not essentially work for one more).
In case you aren’t experiencing signs of low blood sugar, be taught extra in Hypoglycemia Unawareness.
Learn how to keep away from low blood sugar
For some folks, lows may 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 the whole lot I can to keep away from them.
The truth is, I hardly ever have lows, and I believe 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 may be proactive and stop it from taking place within the first place.
The CGM alarm for lows may be particularly useful throughout the evening, since they wake me up once I’m sleeping and may in any other case not concentrate on the creating low.
I additionally manually test my blood sugar ranges incessantly and have spent a number of time determining my insulin wants for various instances of day, varieties 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 at the moment are rare and barely extreme.
Last ideas
All of us expertise lows in a different way, however I believe anyone who has ever skilled what low blood sugar appears like will agree that it’s past uncomfortable.
So, subsequent time one in every of your family members asks, “How do you are 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 at the very least give them some understanding of what you’re going by way of.
Steered subsequent publish: What Ranges of Blood Sugar Are Harmful?