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Hypoglycemia
My SIL in her 40’s suffers from low blood sugar and nothing would touch it even tweaking her diet. Last week Dr placed glucose monitor on her arm and it was crazy to see how it fluctuates and at night it reached 50! She’s eating protein and fats and fibers before eating any carbs and before bed time she tried some protein and ended with manuka honey trying to stabilize blood sugar while sleeping and it didn’t help. Any tips would be appreciated before she goes the suggested medicines by her Dr. -
9 Replies
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The dr is suggesting very low dose glucophage
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Hey ,
There can be several reasons for hypoglycemia. Players in blood sugar regulation are besides the pancreas, the liver & the kidneys. The liver for example stores and manufactures glucose depending on the body’s needs to keep glucose levels within range. Also, the kidneys help regulate blood sugars.
Dysfunction in these organs can all lead to low blood sugar.
Certain disorders in for example the adrenals or pituitary can also cause low blood sugar.
Also when there is uncontrolled gastric emptying, for example, like in ‘Dumping Syndrome’ the small intestine can signal the pancreas to produce extra insulin leading to a sharp drop in blood sugars causing more fluctuations. With Dumping Syndrome people feel often all kinds of gut-related symptoms like bloating, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, etc.
Do you know what her doctor suspects to be the reason? This could give us some leads on how to give you the best possible advice!
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doctor wants to give glucophage that’s it. She’s been struggling with anxiety and histamine intolerance for years. I posted this question here to know if she shoiid do any specific test for suspected reason. Insulin resistance test was done last year and came normal.
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Hey ,
It would be interesting to know what the train of thoughts of her doctor are. Glucophage (or metformin) is in insulin resistance persons can lower blood glucose.
Dr. Peter Attia believes that insuline resistance can sometimes be pretty wel hidden. He believes that even fasting insulin sometimes can’t diagnose insulin resistance. He believes the best way to spot insulin resistance is measuring blood glucose an insuline 1,2 and 3 hours after a dose of 100 grams of glucose after a fasting glucose is obtained.
I’m not necessary saying you should recommend this by the way. Just know that if other signs of insulin resistance are pressent, this something she can do.
I would love to see how the blood sugars fluctuate over a day as well.
I am very curious about the data from her blood glucose monitor. I for example would love to see how her blood sugars change around a carb containing meal. Preferable I would love to know what she has eaten than as well, inclusive an indication af the amount of carbs.I would also love to know a bit more of her background. Does she experience gut problems (constipation/diarrhea/bloating/nausea, etc)? Has she ever been operated to her gut?
Is there some recent data about her liver function test (ALAT/ASAT/alkaline phosphatase) and kidney function (Blood Urea Nitrogen(BUN), eGFR, creatinine, microalbumin)?
Are there other symptoms besides low blood sugar? Does she frequently urinate? Is there swelling in feet & ankles? How is her blood pressure? How do her stools and urine look? Does she experience itchy skin? Are her eyes and skin looking yellow?
Other stuff about her live might also be important: does she drink (and yes, how much)? Is she doing sports (and if yes, what kind & how much). How would her typical diet look like?
Lots of questions, I know! But if she for example doesn’t digest carbs & absorb sugars we could recommend some digestive enzymes to give her support. Digestive enzymes however wouldn’t help her necessarily if she overproduces insulin during a meal!
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just got more details.
The doctor told her it regulates insulin. And the second dr told her he wants to give her medication to block glucose absorption.
She noticed while having blood glucose monitor that when she’s fasting blood glucose 90-95 and once she eats whatever food even protein and fat the blood sugar drops after two hours. And she has no meal that keeps her glucose stable after two hours.
Sometimes she eats the same food and nothing happens.
Now they’ll check her insulin while having sugar drop attack (sometimes it reaches 50) they think her insulin would high.Note she use to have recurrent UTI and digestive issues but now she’s ok.
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also she noticed at night if she eats meal with rice with protein her blood sugar keeps stable till morning. No drops
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and when she walks the blood sugar starts dropping too
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Hey ,
Did the doctor also explain how the Glucophage would raise her dropping blood sugars? Usually, Glucophage is used to help people manage high blood sugars. Also blocking glucose absorption in someone experiencing low blood sugar is not done routinely. Could the doctor explain his train of thoughts well to your sister-in-law?
Usually, the body makes its own blood sugar when blood sugars drop. The liver will dump glucose in the blood to push blood sugars back to normal. Also, the main function of the stress hormone cortisol is to push up blood sugars when they drop.
Were there liver tests done that you know of? Did she check her stress hormones? (This can be done by for example doing a DUTCH test – at https://dutchtest.com/.
For the production of stress hormones, we need quite a few nutrients as well. If she is a healthy eater she could experience absorption issues. Gut-related complaints can hint in that direction (think of gas/bloating/constipation/diarrhea/cramps etc)
For healthy (nor) epinephrine production we need for example
• Enough vitamin C
• Cupper (which can be depleted by high dosages of zinc supplementation)Cortisol is made in mitochondria in the adrenals. Healthy mitochondria need nutrients like:
• CoQ10
• Vitamin C
• B Complex
• Manganese
• Cupper
• Zinc
• Iron (can be tested at the doctor)Mitochondria can be influenced be negatively influenced by toxins (mycotoxins, heavy metals, pesticides, etc), parasites, heavy metals, alcohol, lack of anti-oxidants.
Do you know if the doctor also examined the pancreas of your sister in low? There could be abnormalities that cause excessive insulin production which could also lead to a lowering of blood sugars.
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the dr said glucophage will help regulating insulin and they now want to check her cortisol. Liver is fine yes, it was tested. I know she had mild exposure before but not sure if it’s related.
There was more gut issues the last few years mainly related to histamine.
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