If you are wondering if you are hypoglycemic or have hypoglycemia it is important to see your Doctor. No website can substitute. If you are experiencing symptoms – or think something is wrong with your “system” or “body”. Go see a Doctor.
What is hypoglycemia?
The easiest lay definition is to say that hypoglycemia is low blood sugar. That is the simplest way to answer someone if they ask you, “what is hypoglycemia anyway?”. With this definition you can expand upon it and know that to be hypoglycemic does not mean that you have an ongoing condition. You can be hypoglycemic (experiencing low blood sugar) for a variety of reason at any given time.
Let me explain this another way. If you have hypoglycemia, you have an ongoing condition that causes you to have low blood sugar. If you are hypoglycemic it can mean that you have hypoglycemia or that you are experiencing low blood sugar levels at a given point in time. The following picture graphically illustrates what I am saying.
As you can see not all hypoglycemics have hypoglycemia.
Therefore you can be in a “hypoglycemic state” yet not have an ongoing condition. You may simply be experiencing low blood sugar at that specific moment in time.
Remember that hypoglycemia is “low blood sugar”. Therefore if you are experiencing hypoglycemia symptoms you are simply in a state where your body is not accessing enough glucose. Glucose is the official word for the sugar in your blood. Of course the next question is that if you are low on glucose then how do I get more. Or more simply, why am I low on Glucose. That is a question that absolutely needs to be determined by your Doctor.
I will spare you the scientific explanation and instead give you a quick summary. When you eat your body separates the food into various elements. Each type of food has different elements. When you eat carbohydrates one of the elements your body takes from the carbohydrates is sugar. One type of sugar it gets is glucose. Glucose is the sugar in your blood. Glucose travels well through your blood but cannot actually do it’s work unless it can get into the cells of your body. This happens when glucose teams up with another body element called insulin. Insulin is a naturally occurring hormone therefore it is supposed to be in your body already. There is an entire process where your body determines how much insulin to release based on the amount of glucose in the blood.
The problem occurs when this balanced system falls out of balance. Maybe the body releases too much insulin therefore allowing too much glucose from the blood to be absorbed. With too much absorbed then there would not be a normal level in the blood. Therefore you would have low blood glucose, or low blood sugar levels and hence be experiencing hypoglycemia symptoms. There are many other possible causes that we may explore at another point. But most of these explanations revolve around the systems in the body not functioning properly.
This could be because your hormones like your insulin is not working properly or because you have overloaded your system over time with too much glucose and therefore overloaded your system in such a way that it will not operate properly again. There are a variety of explanation, reasons, causes all of which can be precisely determined by your Doctor.
At least you now when someone asks you, what is hypoglycemia, you can give them the basics. Hypoglycemia is when your body has low blood sugar. This is cause by a variety of reasons that all can be explained by the same thing. For some reason the body is not processing sugar properly and therefore it causes a person to be hypoglycemic. This can be temporary or an ongoing condition – only a Doctor can determine the precise condition after several tests.
Low Level Hypoglycemia
- Unexplainable severe hunger.
- A general feeling of nervousness and/or “the jitters”.
- A general feeling of nausea.
- Sweating or cold/clammy skin that is not explained by external factors.
- A racing heart.
- Trembling in the body, the limbs, the digits, or simply general “trembling”
- In the tips of the digits or “in” the lips a tingling sensation.
Mid Range Hypoglycemia
- A general lack of coordination.
- A general lack of energy.
- Feeling fatigued or lethargic. Feeling abnormally tired.
- Trouble with mobility. Such as tripping or staggering. A lack of coordination.
- Fuzzy or blurred eyesight.
- General dizziness feeling or headaches.
- Unexplained mood changes. Such as feeling abnormal anxiety or unexplained anger.
- General feeling of restlessness with or without anxiety.
- Difficulty in your ability to concentrate and/or difficulty in keeping your mind “thinking”.
- Weakness.
Extreme Hypoglycemia
- Losing your consciousness for brief or long periods, even into a coma.
- Abnormally low body temperature that is unexplained by surrounding conditions.
- Experiencing seizures or what you could consider convulsions.
Common Hypoglycemia Symptoms For All Levels
- Abnormal hunger and the feeling that you need to eat.
- Unexplainable nervous feeling
- A feeling of being “shaky”
- It is common to have problems with your sight such as double vision, fuzzy vision, or other oddities in your sight.
- Heart tremors, heart irregularities, and palpitations.
- Sweating that is not warranted given external conditions
- A general and nagging feeling of being sleepy even though you have had adequate sleep.
- A light headed feeling almost so that you could consider as being slight, moderate, or even severe dizziness
- A reoccurring feeling of confusion represented by “not being able to think straight” or not being in your right mind. This can show itself as confusion or behavior that is not consistent with your normal behavior. Not being able to complete normal daily duties.
- Difficulty with motor functions including the trouble with speech.
- A feeling of anxiousness or anxiety.
- A general feeling of weakness in parts or throughout your body.
The above list is certainly a very general one. These symptoms can explain a number of ailments, not just hypoglycemia. But the key component is that you are reading this website, therefore there must be more reasons than the above that you suspect you may have hypoglycemia. You will read the following repeatedly throughout this website:
- If you think you may be hypoglycemic. See your Doctor.
I am going to emphasize this point repeatedly because it is common for us to ignore symptoms to our own detriment. If you are not feeling well or are noticing a pattern of symptoms from your body. Listen to your body and go see your doctor. Maybe you have hypoglycemia and maybe you do not. Maybe you have diabetes and maybe not. How about hyperglycemia, you may have that. The key is to go see a doctor and find out. If you do not have insurance then go to a community clinic or emergency room and get an examination. There are many programs that can possibly help you pay for the visit. But the key is to get checked out.
Go To The Doctor – Did I Say That Again?
I hear many people say they do not want to get checked out because of the cost. I will tell you what I tell them. If you go and owe money then you are alive and in debt. A debt that you probably can negotiate away or have paid for you through community programs. If you do not go to the Doctor you may die. Of course then you will not have to worry about the debt. But owing on medical bills and being alive is much better than being debt free and dead. Just my opinion.