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Symptoms of a low blood sugar and what to do

by Alivia Nyhan
Published: Last Updated on

Hypoglycemia is a drop in blood sugar that can make you feel pretty bad. Anyone with blood sugar levels below 70 milligrams per deciliter can suffer from various symptoms such as irritability, weakness, or confusion, among others. It is usually more common in those who have diabetes and want to correct their disease only with medication.

If you want to know what symptoms you may feel and what to do before a drop in blood sugar, we invite you to continue reading this FastlyHealarticle. In addition, you will find fascinating information that can help you improve your health problem.

Normal blood glucose values

Blood sugar, known medically as glycemia, is necessary for the entire body to perform its functions properly.

Blood glucose levels must be between 70 and 100 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl) for each tissue to receive the necessary fuel supply, including the brain.

When you eat carbohydrates, the sugar that the body needs is absorbed, and it circulates through the body.

After a while, without eating, the sugar drops slightly. This generates the body’s reserves, and thus the necessary glucose requirements are covered.

You can see more information in the article Normal blood glucose values.

Symptoms of a low blood sugar

Blood glucose can vary, especially when there are metabolism problems. The most frequent case is in diabetes treated with drugs intended to lower blood sugar levels. If you have diabetes, the problem is that the pancreas is exhausted and does not produce the amount of insulin it needs to metabolize the sugar you eat.

By indicating medication to lower your sugar, you are only treating a symptom, but you are not going to the original cause for which you are in that condition.

Because the drop in blood glucose occurs “artificially,” the body cannot activate standard regulatory mechanisms. These mechanisms are the ones that fail due to unhealthy habits and eating in a person with this disease. If you only regulate your sugar with drugs and injectable insulin and do not put aside what makes you sick, you are damaging your body more and more.

When is it considered low blood sugar?

Blood glucose is low when it drops below 70 mg/dl. The body is trying to function at that time, but it does not get the necessary fuel. The brain needs to act, but it does not have the essential thing: sugar.

Faced with this drop in sugar, it is very likely that a series of symptoms will appear that alert the body so that you can correct it:

  • Hungry.
  • Fatigue.
  • Lack of strength.
  • Confusion.
  • Irritability.
  • Anxiety.
  • Sweating
  • Tremors
  • Palpitations
  • Tingling in the face
  • Pallor.
  • Blurry vision.
  • Loss of consciousness
  • Seizures
  • Disorientation.
  • Alteration in behavior.

The severity of your symptoms will depend on how low your blood sugar is and how long you’ve been in that state. As we have said, self-regulatory systems fail because you are not allowing your body to function correctly.

What to do before a drop in sugar?

If one or more of the symptoms of low blood sugar suddenly appear, you must stop and take action to feel better.

If you have diabetes, you must measure your blood glucose to know if what you feel is a drop in sugar. You can take into account the following tips:

  • Sit down.
  • Measure your sugar: if it is below 70 mg/dl, you have hypoglycemia.
  • Eat easily absorbed sugar. A tablespoon of whole wheat or muscovado sugar (or every day, although refinement makes it undesirable for the body), two teaspoons of honey, or caramel will suffice. Avoid eating other types of foods simultaneously, such as fats or proteins, so that the absorption is faster.
  • Wait 15 minutes at rest.
  • Measure the sugar again.
  • If your levels are still below 70 mg/dl, eat the same dose of sugar again.
  • Recheck your blood glucose in 15 minutes.
  • Repeat the steps until the sugar is over 70 mg/dl.

If you do not have diabetes and suffer from these symptoms, you should eat something sweet and go to a health center as soon as possible.

These symptoms can also be due to heart, vascular, and nerve problems. If the symptoms persist even after consuming sugar, you should receive a medical check-up.

What to do if you have frequent low blood sugar?

It is possible that if you suffer from hypoglycemia frequently, your body gets used to not emitting signals when this happens, which can put you in a state of greater vulnerability.

If your body constantly alternates between high and low glucose levels, you should review what you do to improve your disease. As we have mentioned, you cannot relax because you already have diabetes medication since you are only hiding one of the many signals that your body sends you to tell you that something is not correct.

Diabetes is a chronic disease that can significantly improve and even be cured if you decide to change your habits since these habits are the origin of your pathology. Think if:

You stay still for most of the day.

A sedentary lifestyle favors all metabolic problems. Performing at least 30 minutes of movement daily helps your muscles use the glucose that circulates in the blood and, in this way, lowers it naturally.

On the other hand, when exercising, endorphins are generated to make you feel better both physically and emotionally, but be careful because excessive exercise is not healthy either since it causes progressive weakness.

Your diet is hurting you.

If you frequently consume unhealthy foods, your body is not adequately nourished and generates too much toxic waste that makes it difficult to function. Among them are:

  • Processed: products with colorants, preservatives, sweeteners, oils or vegetable kinds of butter, etc. The light products are the most misleading since by pretending that they are healthy, too large amounts of these unhealthy “foods” are consumed.
  • Refined: sugar, flour, and salt are present in most of the products consumed daily, and their effects on the body are very harmful.
  • Excess meat: even more from the origin that we usually consume, from poorly fed animals, excessively injected with chemicals, and highly passive.
  • Excess dairy: only warm milk of good source and small quantities can be well digested. When the amounts are excessive, the cows that supply it are sick, or extreme dairy products are consumed, problems appear.
  • The wrong combination of foods.
  • An excessive amount of food.
  • Eating too often: If your dishes include an adequate amount of whole-grain cereal, a healthy protein (such as legumes), and two or three seasonal vegetables, you will be eating a healthy dish that will give you satisfaction until the next meal. In this way, you give your body the possibility to digest correctly, nourishing it and maintaining adequate sugar levels.

Your mind plays a trick on you.

Channeling anxiety or emotional distress into food is a tremendous mistake that most have made.

Check what is wrong with you and try to avoid it. Calming the mind and seeking peace are ways to stop trying to solve your problems by opening the fridge.

Seek help if you need it. There are many people trained for this.

This article is merely informative. At FastlyHeal .com, we do not have the power to prescribe medical treatments or make any diagnosis. We invite you to see a doctor if you present any condition or discomfort.

If you want to read more articles similar to Symptoms of low blood sugar and what to do, we recommend that you enter our Endocrine System category.

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