2024-01-02 01:45:41
This article is excerpted from<常春月刊>Issue 490
Text/Beatrice
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Mr. Li, 40, often experiences symptoms such as hand tremors, heart palpitations, hunger, cold sweats, and feelings of weakness after lunch. Sometimes he rides a bicycle to go out to do errands, and even needs to stop and eat quickly before his symptoms improve. It turns out that Mr. Li is a patient with so-called “functional hypoglycemia”, also known as “a patient with postprandial hypoglycemia”. Because insulin is less sensitive to rapid rises in blood sugar, it secretes too much after a meal, causing hypoglycemia. He needs to be screened for diabetes. After the examination, the patient was diagnosed with early-stage diabetes. Fortunately, after adjusting his diet and medication, he was able to control his condition regularly in follow-up outpatient clinics.
Huang Xinning, an attending physician at the Department of Metabolism at Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital in Chiayi, said that when the blood sugar concentration of diabetic patients is less than 70 mg/dl, it is called “hypoglycemia.” When the rate of glucose replenishment in the blood is slower than the rate of loss, it will cause hypoglycemia. Postprandial hypoglycemia, like type 2 diabetes, most commonly occurs after middle age. Affected by lifestyle and Western eating habits, cases tend to be younger and younger. The incidence rate in Asia is higher than in Europe and the United States. If you have a family history of type 2 diabetes or have had high blood sugar in the past, you may be a risk factor for prediabetes, so you need to pay special attention.
Many symptoms of hypoglycemia
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The symptoms of mild hypoglycemia are mainly sympathetic symptoms. At this time, the consciousness is clear, but palpitations, hand shaking, sweating, hunger, irritability, rapid heartbeat, anxiety, dizziness, etc. may occur; in moderate hypoglycemia, central nervous system symptoms begin to appear. Symptoms of reduced glucose include inability to concentrate, drowsiness, blurred vision, nausea, etc. Severe hypoglycemia may affect brain nerve function, resulting in loss of responsiveness, convulsions, and even coma.
Former Japanese women’s volleyball team player Akemi Sugiyama once suffered from fatigue, irritability, difficulty concentrating, and sudden hunger. The first onset of the disease was when she felt unusually tired and hungry on her way home. Her fatigue immediately disappeared after eating bread. , thinking she was exhausted due to hunger; Sugiyama Akemi originally thought she was stressed or lacked physical strength, but later she went to see a doctor because of frequent dizziness, hand tremors and other symptoms, and she found out that she was suffering from “functional hypoglycemia”.
4 causes of hypoglycemia
Huang Xinning further pointed out that in addition to the symptoms of functional hypoglycemia in prediabetes, other causes of postprandial hypoglycemia include gastric shrinkage or gastric bypass surgery, insulin autoimmune syndrome, insulinoma, etc.
❶Prediabetes
People with pre-diabetes or early-stage diabetes eat meals, especially rice or pasta with high starch content, which are digested and decomposed into glucose by the stomach and small intestine. After absorption, blood sugar will rise rapidly. Since the initial insulin secretion is relatively insensitive to the rapid rise in blood sugar, in When blood sugar continues to rise, insulin secretion is too high later, causing blood sugar to drop too quickly. On the contrary, hypoglycemia may occur 3 to 5 hours after a meal.
❷Gastric reduction or bypass surgery
Patients who have undergone gastric retraction or gastric bypass surgery are more likely to get it. Because food enters the gastrointestinal tract very quickly, the gastric emptying speed is different from before, and the function of insulin secretion is affected. In addition, high starch in food is more likely to cause blood sugar to rise and thus stimulate In addition to insulin secretion, the secretion of incretin, especially GLP-1, not only enhances the amplitude of insulin secretion, but also inhibits glucagon secretion, leading to a decrease in blood sugar.
❸Drug-induced hypoglycemia
Diabetic patients may also develop symptoms after injecting excessive amounts of insulin or taking oral hypoglycemic agents. The media once reported that a 65-year-old diabetic patient became unconscious at home after using premixed insulin to control blood sugar. He was sent to the emergency room and was found to be caused by hypoglycemia. After being given glucose water in the emergency room, he regained consciousness and was consulted by a doctor. It was later discovered that the woman had no habit of measuring her blood sugar. Even though she had lost her appetite, she still administered the same dose of insulin, resulting in symptoms of hypoglycemia.
The reasons that easily lead to hypoglycemia are related to some diabetes drugs. For example, after taking insulin or hypoglycemic drugs without taking food, some of them are due to excessive dosage of drugs or excessive exercise, which may cause the body to consume too much sugar, and then Causes hypoglycemia.
For patients with poor liver and kidney function, drinking alcohol on an empty stomach may also cause hypoglycemia, because the liver can help produce and store sugar. When the liver function is poor, it will affect the storage and release of sugar. After adjustment of medications and lifestyle habits, it can be improve.
❹Insulinoma
Insulinoma is a rare and slow-growing tumor that mainly manifests as fasting hypoglycemia. Insulinoma is uncommon, with an incidence rate of 1 to 3 cases per million people per year. It can occur at any age, peaking at the age of 40 to 50 years old. Expect. Huang Xinning once met a 60-year-old Ms. Zhang. She often felt hungry and kept eating, causing her weight to gradually increase. She was sent to the emergency room for dizziness and discomfort, and was found to have hypoglycemia. Later, she was found to have insulinoma.
For patients with insulinoma, insulinoma secretes excessive amounts of insulin, causing hypoglycemia, resulting in hypoglycemic coma and damage to brain tissue. Since there are not many cases of insulinoma, it is easy to be misdiagnosed. The main treatment is surgery, which needs to be treated as soon as possible. Due to excessive secretion of insulin, blood sugar levels decrease. Patients often feel hungry and have to eat all the time to relieve symptoms. Therefore, 30 to 50% of patients gain weight and are prone to coma due to repeated hypoglycemia. The lack of glucose in brain cells causes functional impairment. Damage, memory loss, slow movement, affecting life and work.
6 factors to improve hypoglycemia
Whether taking too much insulin, not eating regularly, exercising too much, or drinking too much, blood sugar in the brain may be too low to function properly, causing the patient to pass out. If your body suffers from hypoglycemia, first determine the cause of the hypoglycemia.
Find out whether it is caused by functional hypoglycemia or other causes, and then go back to the source to prescribe the right medicine. If it is functional hypoglycemia, it is recommended to increase fiber intake in the diet. When blood sugar rises slowly, insulin will not be stimulated to be secreted so quickly. If the diet cannot be improved, medication can be used.
❶Control your diet: The goal is to reduce fluctuations in blood sugar levels and reduce starch intake at each meal. In terms of diet, eat small and frequent meals, and try to eat low-GI foods. Avoid over-eating foods with high GI values, such as cakes, desserts, sugary drinks and other processed refined foods.
❷Eat at regular intervals: Eat small and frequent meals to avoid long intervals between meals, as well as long periods of fasting or excessive dieting. The staple food is mainly brown rice, soba noodles, whole wheat products, and skimmed milk with low GI index. Pay attention to a balanced and diverse diet.
❸Moderate exercise: Avoid exercising too intensely or suddenly increasing the intensity of exercise. Excessive exercise may cause the body to consume too much sugar, leading to hypoglycemia.
❹Get proper rest: Don’t overwork, but don’t stay up late either, as this will lead to poor blood pressure regulation. Adjust your lifestyle to prevent the occurrence of hypoglycemia.
❺Pay close attention to your doctor’s advice: avoid changing the dosage of oral hypoglycemic drugs or insulin on your own.
❻Monitor blood sugar levels regularly: Check and record blood sugar levels regularly, and adjust the dosage of oral hypoglycemic drugs or insulin in a timely manner.
Eating order affects blood sugar fluctuations
The order of eating may also affect blood sugar control. Eating vegetables first can increase the amount of vegetables, such as leafy vegetables, legumes, and mushrooms, but not roots. Next are protein foods, such as meat, fish, and eggs, which can slow down gastric emptying and reduce blood sugar fluctuations. Put carbohydrates at the end, rice or rice mixed with roots or stone fruits to reduce intake and calories, which is more conducive to stabilizing blood sugar.
(Picture source: Dreamstime/Dianjiang Image)
Further reading:
·If you have severe thirst, excessive urination, or headache, be careful because your blood sugar is soaring!Doctors warn that “two odors coming from the mouth” are often an emergency
·Cold sweats, trembling hands, hunger, beware of hypoglycemia!Doctors reveal “10 emergency foods”: Stop eating chocolate
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