Recognizing and Managing Low Blood Sugar Symptoms for Optimal Health

If you have hypoglycemia, your low blood sugar symptoms is below the normal range. Your body uses glucose as its primary energy source.

Hypoglycemia and diabetes management often go hand in hand. Low blood sugar may, however, occur in persons without diabetes due to several uncommon diseases and other medications. 

Treating hypoglycemia urgently is necessary. A fasting blood sugar reading of 70 mg/dL, or 3.9 mmol/L, or lower should be a warning sign for hypoglycemia in many individuals. Your figures, however, could be different. Enquire with your doctor.

The goal of treatment is to lower your blood sugar as rapidly as possible, either with a high-sugar meal or beverage or by taking medication. It is necessary to identify and address the source of hypoglycemia for long-term therapy.

Symptoms

Hypoglycemia symptoms and indicators may appear if blood sugar levels go too low and include: 

• Pale
• Shakiness
• Sweating
• Headache
• Hunger or sickness
• A rapid or erratic pulse
• Fatigue
• Irritation or anxiety
• Difficulty paying attention
• Unsteadiness or faintness
• Lips, tongue, or cheek tingling or numbness
• Signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia may include: 
• Unusual behavior, confusion, or both, such as the inability to carry out daily chores
• Inability to coordinate
• Unsteady speech
• Fuzziness or tunnel vision
• Nightmares when sleeping

Extreme hypoglycemia may result in:

• Inability to respond (consciousness loss)
• Seizures

When To See A Doctor

Immediately seek medical attention if:

• You could have signs of hypoglycemia, but you don’t have diabetes.
• You have diabetes, and nothing seems to work despite trying to manage your hypoglycemia by drinking juice or regular (not diet) soft drinks, eating sweets, or taking glucose pills.
• If you have diabetes or a history of hypoglycemia and severe hypoglycemia symptoms or become unconscious, you should seek immediate medical attention.

Causes

You have hypoglycemia when your blood sugar (glucose) level drops too low for normal body processes to continue. This may occur for several reasons. A side effect of diabetic treatments most often causes low blood sugar.

Blood Sugar Control

Your body converts food into glucose when you eat. Insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, aids in entering glucose, the body’s primary energy source, into the cells. Insulin enables glucose to enter the cells and provide the energy your cells require. Your muscles and liver both contain glycogen, extra glucose storage.

You will cease manufacturing insulin when you haven’t eaten in many hours, and your blood sugar level falls. The pancreatic hormone glucagon instructs your liver to release glucose into circulation by dissolving the glycogen stored in your body. Until you eat again, this maintains your blood sugar levels within a normal range.

Your body may also produce glucose. Your kidneys and liver both play a significant role in this process. The body may break down fat reserves and utilize the byproducts of fat breakdown as an alternate fuel during extended fasting.

Potential Causes Related To Diabetes

Diabetes may cause either a lack of insulin production (type 1 diabetes) or a reduction in insulin sensitivity (type 2 diabetes). Consequently, blood glucose levels increase and can rise to dangerously high levels. You could use insulin or other blood sugar-lowering drugs to solve this issue.

However, too much insulin or other diabetic drugs might result in hypoglycemia when your blood sugar level drops too low. In addition, hypoglycemia might happen if you exercise more than average or eat less than usual after taking your daily dosage of diabetic medication.

Potential Causes Other Than Diabetes

People without diabetes are substantially less likely to experience hypoglycemia. Some causes include:

• Medications. Accidentally ingesting someone else’s oral diabetic medicine might result in hypoglycemia. Other drugs can potentially induce hypoglycemia, particularly in young patients or those with renal disease. One such is the malaria drug quinine (Qualaquin).
• Excessive use of alcohol. Drinking excessively without eating may prevent the liver from releasing glucose into the circulation from its glycogen reserves. The result may be hypoglycemia.
• A few serious diseases. Severe infections, renal disease, advanced heart disease, and liver diseases such as severe cirrhosis or hepatitis may bring on hypoglycemia. Additionally, kidney problems might prevent your body from adequately eliminating drugs. Due to an accumulation of drugs that reduce blood sugar levels, this may impact glucose levels.
• Prolonged hunger. Malnutrition and famine may cause hypoglycemia because when you don’t eat enough, your body uses up the glycogen reserves required to produce glucose. One condition that may result in hypoglycemia and long-term malnutrition is an eating disorder termed anorexia nervosa.
• A surplus of insulin. You may get hypoglycemia if your pancreas produces too much insulin due to a rare pancreatic tumour called an insulinoma. An abundance of insulin-like molecules may also be made due to other tumours. The pancreas’ peculiar cells may cause excessive insulin release, which leads to hypoglycemia.
• Hormonal imbalances. Specific diseases of the pituitary and adrenal glands may cause insufficient levels of specific hormones that control glucose synthesis or metabolism. If a child has too little growth hormone, they may have hypoglycemia.

Hypoglycemia After A Meal

Usually, but not always, hypoglycemia happens after not eating. After certain meals, hypoglycemic symptoms can appear, although it is unclear why.

Reactive hypoglycemia, or postprandial hypoglycemia, may happen in patients with procedures that alter the stomach’s normal function. Although stomach bypass surgery is the procedure most often linked to this, it may also happen to patients undergoing other procedures.

Complications

Hypoglycemia left untreated might result in:

• Seizure
• Coma
• Death

Hypoglycemia may also result in:

• Weakness and wooziness
• Falls
• Injuries
• Automobile collisions
• Dementia risk is higher in older persons

Ignorance Of Hypoglycemia

Hypoglycemia unawareness may develop over time as a result of recurrent hypoglycemic episodes. Low blood sugar warning signals and symptoms like trembling or vibrations are no longer produced by the body or brain. The risk of severe, maybe fatal, hypoglycemia rises when this occurs.

Your healthcare practitioner may change your therapy, boost your blood sugar level objectives, and suggest blood glucose awareness training if you have diabetes, recurrent hypoglycemia, and unawareness.

Some patients with hypoglycemia unawareness may use a continuous glucose monitor (CGM). The gadget can warn you that your blood sugar might be too low.

Prevention

Diabetes

Observe the diabetes control strategy that you and your doctor have created. Treating your diabetes and your risk of low blood sugar may be affected if you start taking new drugs, alter your eating or medication schedules, or start doing more activity. Discuss these adjustments with your healthcare provider.

Find out the warning signs and symptoms of low blood sugar. This may assist you in spotting hypoglycemia and treating it before it becomes too severe. You can detect whether your blood sugar is going low by often monitoring it.

A continuous glucose monitor (CGM) is a helpful alternative for specific individuals. A CGM may transmit blood glucose levels to a receiver through a small wire implanted under the skin. Some CGM devices may alarm if blood sugar levels go too low.

To assist in avoiding hypoglycemia, specific insulin pumps now include CGM integration and can stop delivering insulin when blood sugar levels are falling too rapidly.

Always have a fast-acting carbohydrate, such as hard candies, juice, or glucose pills, to address a dropping blood sugar level before it reaches dangerously low levels.

Diagnosis

Your healthcare practitioner will probably do a physical examination and go over your medical history if you exhibit signs of hypoglycemia.

Test your blood sugar levels using a blood glucose meter if you take insulin or another diabetic medicine to reduce your blood sugar and experience the signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia. Follow your diabetes treatment plan if the result indicates low blood sugar (less than 70 mg/dL).

Keep track of your blood sugar test results and the steps you took to address low blood sugar levels so that your doctor may evaluate the data and help you modify your diabetes treatment plan.

Your doctor would be curious to know the following if you don’t take any drugs that are known to induce hypoglycemia:

What symptoms did you experience? Your doctor may ask you to fast for a whole day or longer if you don’t exhibit hypoglycemia symptoms during your first appointment. This will enable low blood sugar symptoms to appear, allowing for a diagnosis. You’ll also likely need to observe an extended fast in a hospital environment for up to 72 hours.

How high is your blood sugar while you are experiencing symptoms? Your medical professional will take a blood sample for laboratory analysis. The blood sugar tests could be performed after you eat if your symptoms start right after a meal.

Do your symptoms go away when your blood sugar rises?

Treatment

Treatment Of Hypoglycemia Immediately

Do the following if you have signs of hypoglycemia:

• Consume 15–20 grams of quick-acting carbs. These are sweet, protein- and fat-free meals and beverages that the body may quickly turn into sugar. Try fruit juice, natural (not diet) Coke, honey, glucose pills or gel, or sweet candies.
• Following therapy, 15 minutes later, recheck blood sugar levels. Eat or drink another 15 to 20 grams of fast-acting carbohydrates, and then recheck your blood sugar levels after 15 minutes if they are still under 70 mg/dL (3.9 mmol/L). Repeat these procedures until the blood sugar level is over 70 mg/dL (3.9 mmol/L).
• Eat a meal or a snack. Eating a nutritious snack or meal once your blood sugar has returned to normal will help avoid further blood sugar drops and restock your body’s glycogen reserves.

Treatment Of Severe Hypoglycemia Immediately

If you need assistance from someone to recover from hypoglycemia, it is considered severe. For instance, if you cannot eat, you may need an IV glucose infusion or a glucagon injection.

In general, people with diabetes using insulin should keep a glucagon kit on hand in case of an emergency. The location of the equipment and how to utilize it in an emergency should be made clear to family and friends.

Never attempt to feed or drink someone unresponsive while assisting. Call for emergency medical assistance if you don’t have access to a glucagon kit or if you don’t know how to use one.

Treatment For A Primary Disease

Your healthcare professional must recognise the underlying issue causing your hypoglycemia and address it to prevent recurring cases of hypoglycemia. Depending on the underlying reason, therapy could entail:

• Counseling on nutrition. A qualified dietitian’s evaluation of dietary practises and meal preparation may assist in lessening hypoglycemia.
• Medications. If a drug is to blame for hypoglycemia, your doctor may suggest adding, modifying, discontinuing, terminating the medicine, or lowering the dose. 
• Tumor therapy. The most common form of treatment for a pancreatic tumor is surgical excision. Sometimes, taking medicine to treat hypoglycemia or surgically remove part of the pancreas is essential.

Getting Ready For The Appointment

Whether you have diabetes and have frequent hypoglycemia episodes or notice that your blood sugar levels are falling sharply, see your doctor to see whether your diabetes medication regimen needs to be adjusted.

Make an appointment with your primary care physician if you haven’t been given a diabetes diagnosis to discuss the reason for your hypoglycemia and the best course of action.