For people with diabetes, low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) occurs when there's too much insulin and not enough sugar (glucose) in the blood. Hypoglycemia is defined as blood sugar below 70 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), or 3.9 millimoles per liter (mmol/L). Several factors can cause hypoglycemia in people with diabetes, including taking too much insulin or other diabetes medications, skipping a meal, or exercising harder than usual.
Pay attention to early warning signs, so you can treat low blood sugar promptly. Treatment involves short-term solutions — such as taking glucose tablets or drinking fruit juice — to raise your blood sugar into a normal range.
Untreated, diabetic hypoglycemia can lead to seizures and loss of consciousness — a medical emergency. Rarely, it can be deadly. Tell family and friends what symptoms to look for and what to do in case you're not able to treat the condition yourself.
Symptoms
Early warning signs and symptoms
Early signs and symptoms of diabetic hypoglycemia include:
Shakiness
Dizziness
Sweating
Hunger
Irritability or moodiness
Anxiety or nervousness
Headache
Nighttime symptoms
Diabetic hypoglycemia can also occur while you sleep. Signs and symptoms, which can awaken you, include:
Damp sheets or bedclothes due to perspiration
Nightmares
Tiredness, irritability or confusion upon waking
Severe symptoms
If diabetic hypoglycemia goes untreated, signs and symptoms of severe hypoglycemia can occur. These include:
Clumsiness or jerky movements
Muscle weakness
Difficulty speaking or slurred speech
Blurry or double vision
Drowsiness
Confusion
Convulsions or seizures
Unconsciousness
Death
Take your symptoms seriously. Diabetic hypoglycemia can increase the risk of serious — even deadly — accidents. Identifying and correcting the factors contributing to hypoglycemia, such as medications you take or irregular mealtimes, can prevent serious complications.
Informing people you trust, such as family, friends and co-workers, about hypoglycemia is important. Their knowing what symptoms to look for and what to do in case you're not able to help yourself can make a potentially difficult situation easier to manage. It's also important that they know how to give you a glucagon injection, in case it becomes necessary.
Symptoms can differ from person to person or from time to time, so it's important to monitor your blood sugar levels regularly and keep track of how you're feeling when your blood sugar is low. Some people don't have or don't recognize early symptoms (hypoglycemia unawareness). If you have hypoglycemia unawareness, you may require a higher glucose goal range.
When to see a doctor
Hypoglycemia can leave you confused or even unconscious, which requires emergency care. Make sure your family, friends and co-workers know what to do.
If you lose consciousness or can't swallow:
You shouldn't be given fluids or food, which could cause choking
You need an injection of glucagon — a hormone that stimulates the release of sugar into the blood
You need emergency treatment in a hospital if a glucagon injection isn't on hand
If you have symptoms of hypoglycemia several times a week, see your doctor. You may need to change your medication or your dosage or otherwise adjust your diabetes treatment program.
0 Comments