Need Help with Dealing W/ Hypoglycemia

M.,

From one hypoglycemic mom to you...I understand! I have learned tons and am living an energetic lifestyle after 18 years of struggling.

The basic, short of the story is this: You need to eat like a diabetic (sounds like you kind of know that with the snack question). Every three or four hours - and...it needs to be protein and complex carbyhydrates*. If you will stay away from sugar - all sugar, white flour...eat only 100% wholegrains - you will notice a difference soon. Then, the final clincher for me was finding a vitamin that really worked.

I took vitamins (tons) for 18 years after being diagnosed...but still had to take an afternoon nap to survive the second part of the day!! Then I found one that really worked and was able to chuck the afternoon naps in less than a month...plus, now (many years later)I can enjoy more treats than I could in the early days - an occasional dessert, etc. These bodies will do a lot of self healing if we give them the right nutrition to do it.

A high protein, low carb lifestyle will make a difference.

Like I said...that is the short of the story...but feel free to ask me whatever. You definitely will want to take care of yourself - hyploglycemia is the forerunner to diabetes if one does not take care of the up and down strain on the prancreas.

J. B.
www.joyboudreau.com (to contact me)

*snacks like: a handful of nuts; whole grain bread with almond butter; cheese; protein shake (healthy kind not loaded with chemicals and sugar!)- it doesn't have to be a lot...just something to keep your blood sugar on an even keel. If you check low carb diet books - you may find more ideas...

2 moms found this helpful

My 10 year old daughter is hypoglycemic, also recently diagnosed. What our doctor told her was that she needed to eat more often to maintain a steady blood sugar. He said, that doesn't mean you need to eat 5 "meals" a day. That means that periodically you need to eat a few peanut butter crackers or cheese & crackers or something like that. Also, lay off things like cokes, orange juice, products that have high levels of sugar per serving as they spike your blood sugar and instead of leveling off like most peoples does, it crashes because your overactive pancreas creates too much insulin and that insulin attacks the sugar and causes it to crash. My daughter eats a bowl of cheerios or plain oatmeal (both w/ a packet of splenda) for breakfast, has some pb crackers about 2 hours later, eats a healthy low sugar lunch, has more pb crackers approx 2 hours later, eats a snack when she gets home from school, has dinner and then eats another snack before bed and her sugar levels stay pretty good. We have not had a "crash" since we found out what was going on and adjusted.

1 mom found this helpful

M., hello im 37, and have been dealing w/ this for so many years. until recently i bought a book called THE SCHWARZBEIN PRINCIPLE. Ive looked for almost 15 years for the truth, it seemed like most doctors dont even know whats going on. ive prayed and prayed for god to show me something, bring something to my attention. because like you it was really hendering my parenting abilities. please please please check into this book and read it all the way through. also i found a great website for women, because so many women complain of this. check it out, it is www.womentowomen.com and its got tons of info on your health. the main idea is to keep your insulin levels steady. no or low sugar, high protein, this site and book, contain loads of information.for breakfast i eat eggs, with cheese and a piece of whole grain toast. for snack i have a mozeralla cheese stick, or almonds. then lunch is tuna, sardines, or something hight protein. the idea is to get in around 70 grams depending on your weight of protein in every day. the problems were facing is that we are ingesting too much high sugar, low protein diets, and our insulin cant keep steady. i just started the program 2 1/2 weeks ago. and i cant tell you how much better i feel just watching what i eat, and taking a high grade womans vitamin. katherine r

1 mom found this helpful

I have struggled with this same issue for years and what I realized was that I was nutrionally starving. We all eat but the nutrients that we derive from food becomes less and less everyday in our over processed world. I started taking a whole food instafresh juice called The Feast and my blood sugar issues have disappeared. This coming from someone that would panic to get food when that sick feeling would hit me and all the gas would immediately run out of my tank and I thought I was going to pass out. That just doesn't exist anymore. Pretty weird when it has been apart of my life for over 25 years. www.urigetenergy.com is a website you can learn more about it. Not sure if it will change your situation but it has certainly made an incredible impact on mine. I am a little passionate about it so please forgive me if I come on strong. When you have been from doctor to doctor, altered everyone's lives and suffered you get passionate about a solution.

1 mom found this helpful

Hi M.,

The best way to deal with hypoglycemia is with a diet that is also excellent for diabetics. My son, who is 18, has been diabetic for 17 years, and I understand what you are going through. The glycemic index is the measure of how fast a food raises your blood sugar level. When your sugar rises quickly, it drops quickly, too and you have a hypoglycemic episode. You need eat low-glycemic foods not more than 4 hours apart (except when sleeping, of course). Many common foods are high-glycemic, and cause our insulin levels to rise too quickly- resulting in a low, shaky feeling when from too much insulin in the bloodstream. This also causes our stress hormones to "kick in"- definitely something we don't need, especially as moms!

Eating the low-glycemic foods will keep your blod sugar levels more steady, which is much more healthy for you anyway. I can provide a pretty thorough list of food choices for you, but the basic idea is to stay away from the simple carbohydrates in foods such as white bread, cookies, donuts, etc. and add more fiber and whole grains, fruits and vegetables. I'm sure you have heard this all before <smile>
There are some surprises, too- A bowl of cereal is probably the worst breakfast for you(besides a donut) as it will spike your blood sugar, then your insulin, and you will have a hypoglycemic episode mid to late morning. Add protein(eggs, peanut butter on whole wheat toast)and/or fiber to ease the problem. Good snacks include nuts, peanut butter on celery, whole wheat crackers, many fruits, raw veggies.

I can recommend a good book: "Healthy for Life" by Dr. Ray Strand. He discusses a way to eat in a healthy way to prevent insulin resistance( and to promote healthy weight loss). This may or may not be the reason you are experiencing hypoglycemia, and there will be sections about diabetes that you will feel doesn't pertain to your own situation, but the information will still be quite useful in finding a solution to your low blood sugar. In the meantime, remember to eat frequent, but not sugary snacks, if you feel the need to raise your blood sugar with a candy or juice, do so, but follow that up with protein and/or medium or low glycemic snack. I hope you feel better soon. You can contact me directly for more specific information. Also, I can recommend some excellent and delicious snack bars that are very low glycemic and help prevent my son's hypoglycemic reactions.

Take care,

R. T

1 mom found this helpful

Hi M.,

I am also Hypoglycemic, I carry glucose tablets with me, flavored, can be found at CVS, AND in a pinch a bag of potato chips (small bag) will help you.
The potato chips are usually my choice until I can get some real food in me because flavored or not, I don't really like the Glucose tabs but carry them just to be on the safe side.
I keep a small bag of chips in my truck.

I would say Welcome to the club! But it's not really a fun one.
Good luck!
B.

1 mom found this helpful

HI M.,
I do have Hypoglycemia and I feel your pain it sucks when you get so weak and grumpy due to low blood sugar. What works for me is that I'm always eating every 2 to 3 hours and I eat healthy foods such as cut up veggies or fruit even the zone protien bars are really good and the are great to take with you no matter where your going. drink plenty of water and watch how much fast food you eat n fact I have been fast food free for over a year now and I feel great. There is a great book you can read on eating better its called Clean Eating and it's change my experince with daeling with this condition. Good luck and I hope this helps.
S.

1 mom found this helpful

M., I also have Hypoglycemia and my best advice to you is to get on the Hypoglycemia website and order the book the Do's & Don'ts of Hypoglycemia. It gives you alot of great advice especially with your diet. I know people react differently to foods with Hypoglycemia so maybe for a few weeks I would keep a log of everything that you eat and then when you are feeling really tired and not yourself. Look at what you ate that day and avoid that food for a while to see if this helps. I find that if I keep a pack of peanuts or almonds in my purse, when I start feeling an episode, then I immediately eat and avoid most all soda and caffeine. That is what makes me feel really bad is caffeine. I would also advise you to get atleast 7-8 hours of sleep every night. I really struggle when I do not get much sleep. Let me know if you have any problems finding the website and I will look it up for you. I think the book will be a huge help to you as I found it very hard to really find alot of materials on Hypoglycemia and different Dr's would tell me different things which can get very frustrating. I hope that this helps you in some way. T. G

1 mom found this helpful