Side Effects Of Low Blood Sugar

How To Treat A Low Blood Sugar Level Yourself

Follow these steps if your blood sugar level is less than 3.5mmol/L or you have hypo symptoms:

You do not usually need to get medical help once you’re feeling better if you only have a few hypos.

But tell your diabetes team if you keep having hypos or if you stop having symptoms when your blood sugar level is low.

Symptoms Of Low Blood Sugar After Exercise

Exercise-induced low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia, occurs when the body’s stores of blood sugar are used up too quickly. Typically, this only affects people with diabetes, Samar Hafida, MD, an endocrinologist at Harvard’s Joslin Diabetes Center, tells LIVESTRONG.com

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If you have diabetes, there are some important things you need to know about low blood sugar after exercise. If left untreated, hypoglycemia can have serious health consequences.

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Do Not Drive When You Have Low Blood Sugar

It’s very dangerous. If you’re driving and you have hypoglycemia symptoms, pull off the road, check your blood sugar, and eat a sugary food. Wait at least 15 minutes, check your blood sugar, and repeat these steps if necessary. Eat a protein and carbohydrate source before you drive on.

Be prepared. Keep a sugar source in your car at all times for emergencies.

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What To Ask Your Doctor

If you have type 2 diabetes, Ozempic may help improve your blood sugar levels. If you also have cardiovascular disease , it can lower your risk for heart attack, stroke, or death from CVD.

Ozempic can cause side effects in some people. In general, Ozempics common side effects are mild. But in rare cases, the drug could cause serious side effects.

If you have questions about possible side effects with Ozempic, talk with your doctor or pharmacist. They can provide answers to help you feel confident about your diabetes treatment plan. Examples of questions you may want to ask include:

• Whats my risk for serious side effects?
• Is there anything I can do to prevent diabetic retinopathy while using Ozempic?
• If I have kidney disease and have diarrhea with Ozempic, is it safe to drink electrolyte replacement solutions such as Pedialyte to stay hydrated?
• How should I manage injection-site reactions with Ozempic?
• I have gallstones that I manage through my diet. Should I avoid using Ozempic?

For tips on managing your condition, eating wisely, and more, subscribe to our online newsletter for type 2 diabetes.

Who Is Most At Risk For Hypoglycemia

Aside from people with diabetes, Dr. Jennifer Shine Dyer notes that children are more prone toexperience episodes of hypoglycemia because of their smaller body size, as well as having less fat to burn to maintain energy when glucose levels are low. Eating meals every 4 to 6 hours should maintain glucose levels if this is the only cause of hypoglycemia, she says.

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How Is Hypoglycemia Treated

When your blood sugar levels are too low, eating carbohydrates is key. If you have diabetes, try to keep high carbohydrate snacks on hand.

The American Diabetes Association recommends that your snack have at least 15 grams of carbohydrates. Some good snacks to keep on hand are:

• jelly beans or gumdrops
• fresh or dried fruit

You also can take glucose tablets to rapidly raise your blood sugar if its low. These are available without a prescription. Its important to check how many grams are in each tablet before taking them. Aim to get 15 to 20 grams of carbohydrates.

Wait 15 minutes after eating or taking a glucose tablet and test your blood sugar again. If your blood sugar is not going up, eat another 15 grams of carbohydrates or take another dose of glucose tablets. Repeat this until your blood sugar level starts to rise.

Be sure not to overeat. This could lead to blood sugar levels that are too high.

If your blood sugar remains unresponsive, contact your doctor or emergency services right away. When in doubt, treat.

Symptoms of low blood sugar usually get worse if theyre left untreated. Make an appointment to see your doctor if you have diabetes and experience low blood sugar levels often, or if you have symptoms, even if you dont have diabetes.

How Can I Prevent Low Blood Sugar In The Morning

If you have diabetes, make sure you regularly check your glucose levels, especially before bed. If your blood sugar regularly dips while you sleep, consider using a continuous glucose monitoring device, which alerts you when your blood sugar goes too low or too high. Try to follow these guidelines for healthy glucose levels:

• before breakfast: 70130 mg/dL
• before lunch, dinner, or a snack: 70130 mg/dL
• two hours after meals: under 180 mg/dL
• bedtime: 90150 mg/dL

If you dont have diabetes but experience regular hypoglycemia, you may also want to periodically check your glucose levels. Try to keep your glucose level from dropping below 100 mg/dL throughout the day and before bed.

Whether or not you have diabetes, follow these tips to avoid waking up with low blood sugar:

• Eat balanced meals with healthy carbohydrates, proteins, and fats regularly throughout the day.
• Have a bedtime snack.
• If you drink alcohol, avoid excessive intake and have a snack with it.
• Avoid exercising too much at night.

For a bedtime snack, try these suggestions:

• 1 apple with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter
• 1 ounce of cheese and a small handful of whole-grain crackers
• one 8-ounce glass of milk
• 1/2 avocado spread on a piece of whole-grain toast
• handful of berries with a small handful of nuts and seeds

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A Low Blood Sugar Level And Driving

You may still be allowed to drive if you have diabetes or you’re at risk of a low blood sugar level for another reason, but you’ll need to do things to reduce the chance of this happening while you’re driving.

You also need to tell the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and your car insurance company about your condition.

For more information, see:

Foods To Eat And Foods To Avoid With Type 2 Diabetes

If you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes your doctor most likely has recommended dietary changes to manage your blood sugar levels. Simple carbohydrates or simple “carbs” are the primary culprit in raising blood sugar levels in people with diabetes. “Glycemic index” and “glycemic load” are terms used to measure the impact some foods have on your blood sugar levels. Low glycemic foods, for example complex carbohydrates like brown rice, quinoa, steal cut oatmeal, vegetables, some fruits , beans, and lentils don’t raise blood sugar levels very much. However, high glycemic foods for example, sugar, white flour and bread, cookies, pastries, and white potatoes can raise blood sugar levels dangerously high.

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Exercise Food And Alcohol

For people with type 1 diabetes, maintaining the correct blood glucose level involves balancing how much insulin you inject, the amount of food you eat, and how much energy you burn during exercise.

Hypoglycaemia may occur if youve taken your dose of insulin as usual, but your carbohydrate intake is lower than normal or has been used up more quickly. This may happen if you delay or miss a meal or snack, dont eat enough carbohydrate, or exercise more than usual.

People with diabetes whove drunk too much alcohol, or drank alcohol on an empty stomach, can also get hypoglycaemia.

However, its not always possible to identify why a particular episode of hypoglycaemia has occurred, and sometimes it happens for no obvious reason.

How To Treat Someone Who’s Having A Seizure Or Fit

Follow these steps if someone has a seizure or fit caused by a low blood sugar level:

Tell your diabetes care team if you ever have a severe hypo that caused you to have a seizure or fit.

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How Do I Know It’s Low Blood Sugar

To know if you’re suffering from hypoglycemia, you’ll need to begin tracking your glucose levels under the supervision of your doctor. Drugstores and pharmacies carry test strips, as well as glucose meters, which will help. You can even see the effect that different foods have on your body by checking your blood sugar after eating.

Whats The Link Between Diabetes And Hypoglycemia

Hypoglycemia is most common, by far, in people with diabetes. Treatment for the diseaseoften involves taking medication to increase insulin. Hypoglycemia can develop if things like food, exercise and diabetes medications are out of balance.

Common pitfalls for people with diabetes include:

• Being more active than usual.
• Drinking alcohol without eating.
• Eating late or skipping meals.
• Not balancing meals by including fat, protein and fiber.
• Not eating enough carbohydrates.
• Not timing insulin and carb intake correctly .

Also, if someone with diabetes uses the wrong insulin, takes too much or injects it incorrectly, that can cause hypoglycemia.

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When You Have Low Blood Sugar

First, eat or drink 15 grams of a fast-acting carbohydrate, such as:

• Three to four glucose tablets
• One tube of glucose gel
• Four to six pieces of hard candy
• 1/2 cup fruit juice
• 1 cup skim milk
• 1/2 cup soft drink
• 1 tablespoon honey

Fifteen minutes after you’ve eaten a food with sugar in it, check your blood sugar again. If your blood sugar is still less than 70 mg/dL, eat another serving of one of the foods listed above. Repeat these steps until your sugar becomes normal.

What Are Clinical Trials For Low Blood Glucose

Clinical trialsand other types of clinical studiesare part of medical research and involve people like you. When you volunteer to take part in a clinical study, you help doctors and researchers learn more about disease and improve health care for people in the future.

Researchers are studying many aspects of low blood glucose levels in diabetes, such as

• how to diagnose and treat low blood glucose among people with diabetes
• medicines that can treat symptoms of low blood glucose in people with hypoglycemia unawareness
• educational approaches to reduce fear of low blood glucose, which can make it harder for you to control your diabetes

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How To Test Your Blood Sugar At Home

To perform a blood sugar test, you will need to prick your finger with a lancet . Youll put a small sample of blood from this onto a strip inserted into the blood glucose meter.

Before you test your blood sugar at home, its important to find out from your doctor what a healthy blood sugar range is for you. Your doctor will determine this range based on factors such as:

• the type of diabetes you have
• how long youve had diabetes
• whether you have any other chronic health conditions

If you dont have a blood sugar testing machine on hand and are experiencing signs or symptoms of low blood sugar with diabetes, your symptoms may be enough to diagnose low blood sugar.

What Causes Hypoglycemia

Hypoglycemia can happen for different reasons. Anyone with diabetes can get low blood sugar, even people who follow their care plan carefully. Sugar levels can drop if your child:

• skips or delays meals or snacks or doesn’t eat as much carbohydrate-containing food as expected when taking their diabetes medicine. This happens often in kids who develop an illness that causes loss of appetite, nausea, or vomiting.
• takes too much insulin, takes the wrong type of insulin, or takes insulin at the wrong time
• exercises more than usual without eating extra snacks or adjusting the dosage of diabetes medicines

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Find Other Ways To Cope

Once you have more information about the emotions, situations, or thoughts that can trigger eating, you can start to make changes.

If you notice that you always eat when you feel stressed, its the stress that needs attention. Think about some things you can do to better relieve your stress.

If you notice you eat when youre bored, consider ways to manage your boredom. What else could you do to fill your time?

It takes time and practice to shift your mindset from reaching for food to engaging in other activities. Experiment with different things to find what works for you.

Key Points About Hypoglycemia In Children

• Hypoglycemia occurs when the blood glucose is too low to fuel the brain and the body.

• It may be a condition by itself, or may be a complication of diabetes or another disorder.

• To treat low blood glucose right away, your child should eat or drink something with sugar, such as orange juice, milk, cake icing, or a hard candy. They should follow with food with complex carbohydrates, fat, and protein, such as a peanut butter sandwich on whole-grain bread.

• Severe or long-lasting hypoglycemia may result in seizures and serious brain injury.

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Digestive Endocrine And Circulatory Systems

After you eat, your digestive system breaks down carbohydrates and turns them into glucose. Essentially, glucose is your bodys fuel source.

As your sugar levels rise, your pancreas releases a hormone called insulin, which helps glucose get taken up and used by cells throughout your body. If you have insulin-dependent diabetes, you must take the right about of insulin to get the job done.

Any excess glucose goes to your liver for storage.

When you go a few hours without eating, blood sugar levels go down. If you have a healthy pancreas, it releases a hormone called glucagon to make up for the absence of food. This hormone tells your liver to process the stored sugars and release them into your bloodstream.

If everything works as it should, your blood sugar levels should remain in the normal range until your next meal.

Insufficient blood sugar levels can cause a rapid heartbeat and heart palpitations. However, even if you have diabetes, you may not always have obvious symptoms of low blood sugar. This is a potentially dangerous condition called hypoglycemia unawareness. It happens when you experience low blood sugar so often that it changes your bodys response to it.

Normally, low blood sugar causes your body to release stress hormones, such as epinephrine. Epinephrine is responsible for those early warning signs, like hunger and shakiness.

Where Can I Find Support For My Hypoglycemia

The Hypoglycemia Support Foundation, established nearly 40 years ago, is a national group that offers many resources, including advocacy. They offer salons so that you can personally connect with people like you who are also dealing with bouts of low blood sugar.

Occasionally blood sugar crashes are so extreme they require emergency room care for an immediate dextrose IV treatment. If you have diabetes, wear a medical bracelet so that emergency personnel or bystanders who call for help are aware of this information. Its also a good idea to have a circle of people who serve as close contacts and are aware of your condition and how to help.

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What Causes Hypoglycemia In A Child

Hypoglycemia can be a condition by itself. Or it can be a complication of diabetes or other disorder. Its most often a problem in someone with diabetes. It occurs when theres too much insulin. This is also called an insulin reaction.

Causes in children with diabetes may include:

• Too much insulin or oral diabetes medicine

• The wrong kind of insulin

• Incorrect blood-glucose readings

• Tingling feelings around the mouth

• Nightmares and confusion on awakening

The symptoms of hypoglycemia can be like other health conditions. Make sure your child sees his or her healthcare provider for a diagnosis.

What Is Low Blood Glucose

Low blood glucose, also called low blood sugar or hypoglycemia, occurs when the level of glucose in your blood drops below what is healthy for you. For many people with diabetes, this means a blood glucose reading lower than 70 milligrams per deciliter .1 Your number might be different, so check with your doctor or health care team to find out what blood glucose level is low for you.

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What Are The Treatments For Hypoglycemia

Make an appointment with an endocrinologist if you feel like youre having episodes of hypoglycemia, even if youre not diabetic. Theyll talk you through treatment strategies, including:

• Adjusting your medications. You may need to change how often you take insulin or other medications, which medications youre on, how much you take, and when you take them.

• Working with a registered dietitian on a personalized meal plan that stabilizes blood sugar levels. Theres no one-size-fits-all hypoglycemia diet, but a nutritionist can help you figure out a consistent meal plan tailored to you, and teach you how to count carbohydrate grams to go along with your health and routine.

• Increasing and improving self-monitoring of your blood glucose levels. Knowing your blood glucose level throughout the daywhen you get up, before meals, and after meals etc.can help you keep it from getting too low.

• Limiting consumption of alcoholic beverages. Alcohol interferes with the way your body metabolizes glucose. If you’re prone to hypoglycemia, consider decreasing how much alcohol you consume.

• Glucose tablets . Make sure you always have glucose tablets on hand, whether at home, school, the office, or the gym. After taking the tablet, check your blood sugar. If its still low, take another tablet. If that doesnt help, check with your doctor.