Have you ever seen a video that went viral on Facebook? Are you talking about how four amazing women with type 1 diabetes feel about hypoglycemia?
I love this video and I thought about what hypoglycemia would be like for me and urged me to put it in words in this post. I think this is especially useful for friends and family who don’t know or understand what it is.
If you watch the video and think it will help you explain how you feel when your blood sugar level is low, consider sharing this article with someone you love.
What is hypoglycemia like?
It is always difficult to try to explain emotions, and even more difficult to try to explain things that are as unique as the sensation of hypoglycemia.
The physical aspects of low people are easy to explain, so let’s start with them.
I almost always feel signs of hypoglycemia before it becomes critical. If my blood sugar level is about 60 mg/dL (3.3 mmol/L), I feel it.
(Hypoglycemia is generally officially defined as glucose levels below 70 mg/dl, although symptoms appear at different levels.)
Mild hypoglycemia symptoms
I start to shake a little, my cognitive function goes out the window, I get weaker and I usually start sweating. These are one of the most common mild hypoglycemic symptoms and can include:
- Weakness
- sweating
- Hungry
- Tired
- Dizziness
- Lighthead
- Mood fluctuations (such as tension and fear)
A half cup of juice or some glucose tablets usually brings me back to normal pretty quickly. I’ll continue the day. (You will learn more about following the instructions on the glucose tablets to determine how many you will take and treat hypoglycemia as quickly as possible.)
Moderate to severe hypoglycemia symptoms
But when symptoms become severe and you don’t catch symptoms before the sugar drops, that’s a whole other story. Symptoms of moderate or severe hypoglycemia can include:
- nausea
- Stomach pain
- nightmare
- Unusually fast or slow heartbeat
- confusion
- Haze
- vomiting
- Cognitive impairment (mental ability)
- syncope
- Crucifixion
- coma or even death
You rarely experience more important episodes of hypoglycemia during the day, as you can catch it before you reach this stage, but it happens occasionally during sleep.
Nocturnal hypoglycemia
I wake up in the middle of the night and if I have a “dream of stress” (for example, things move excessively in a dream, or get caught up in some kind of loop), or I get caught up in a nightmare, and I’m sweating and shaking.
And then there is the emotion – it is an impulse, an almost primitive dietary need. I stand in the kitchen, drenched and shaking. All of my instincts screaming, “I’ll feed me!”
That makes sense. At this point, my brain isn’t getting enough glucose to function as needed, so my instinct takes over so I don’t die.
Making it mild is extremely unpleasant. And if you’re not planning, if you have a strategy on what to do during the lowest, you’ll quickly empty the fridge and cabinet and eat whatever you can get.
The normal signal to tell you to stop eating is simply waiting when your blood sugar levels are low.
I’ve written an entire post about how to treat the night’s lowest and I always try to follow that strategy. No, this approach doesn’t always work (and what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another).
If you are not experiencing symptoms of hypoglycemia, Recognition of hypoglycemia.
How to avoid hypoglycemia
For some people, lows can be very scary, but it doesn’t scare me as I’ve never died from a low person or a seizure. But I still do everything I can to avoid them.
In fact, I rarely have low things, and I think there are several reasons for that. Most importantly, wear a continuous glucose monitor (CGM). My CGM warns me before I get low so I can be proactive and make sure that doesn’t happen in the first place.
The CGM alarm on Lows is especially useful at night as it wakes me up while I’m asleep and may not know that it’s low in development.
I’ve also spent a lot of time checking my blood sugar levels manually and figuring out my insulin needs at different times, types of exercise and types of food.
This didn’t happen overnight, but for me I’m happy to say that hypoglycemia is rare and rarely serious.
Final Thoughts
We all experience low levels differently, but I think anyone who has experienced what hypoglycemia feels would agree that it is not uncomfortable.
So next time one of your loved ones asks, “What do you think when your sugar is low?” Consider viewing this article and videos.
It is impossible to fully understand whether you have never put yourself down, but this should at least give you a sense of what you are going through.
Suggested next post: What level of blood sugar is dangerous?
