I'm not sure? Need advice, please!

[kelly2881]

When I was 10, I fainted in a store and was taken to the hospital where the dr. said the only think it could be was low blood sugar.  But my sugar has always tested about normal.  

Here is what happens, has anyone EVER experienced anything similar?  I can feel pain in my chest, and my heart beats really hard, it hurts.  Then it moves up my throat.  Then I pass out and my face and my head hurt.  Sometimes I have felt my face or tounge "asleep" during the process.  People have told me that my one arm will move back and forth.  It only lasts about 10 seconds.  I usually have a very vivid dream.  Last time I woke up and wasn't sure where I was, sometimes I know right away.  One time it happened while I was asleep and I came to with a big cut on my head, and I don't know how it happened.  It's very scary.  It's getting worse...and has heppened once a month for the last 4 months.  Sometimes I go a year without it happening.  Immediately after it happens I feel much better.  Often (weekly) I feel like it will happen but it doesn't.  I have no other symptoms or complaints.

Years ago (I'm 30), the doctor said that what happens is I eat sugar and then it rises so high it makes me faint.  I have been to many doctors since and I've been tested for seizures, migranes, I know it's not panic attacks.  Has anyone ever felt these symptoms?  HELP!!!

[JDRF-Team-sgg]

Have you ever been given a glucose tolerance test? I am not a doctor, and so cannot offer medical knowledge, but your symptoms DO sound very much like what happens to a diabetic (I am one) when we don't have enough carbs in our sytems for the insulin to work on. The problem is that your glucose level actually drops too low (NOT high), and the numbness, tingling in the mouth, the dreamlike sensation, the mucle flailing, and bad headache are all pretty typical symptoms of a pretty severe low blood sugar. Unconsciousness can happen because of this, and it can be deadly if it happens while you are driving a car. I have had numerous friends who are classic hypoglycemics, and they will actually pass out cold occasionally, too, if they do not watch what they eat and when they eat very carefully. The good news is that this is treatable.

A comment here is that you may be mistaken about what your doctor said about why you faint. It is not likely that your sugar goes HIGH enough to make you faint, for people who are diabetics can walk around and function pretty normally with extremely high glucose readings. The fainting is caused by either high glucose that has been that way for a long time (and if this were the case, you would be a diabetic, and your doctor would be treating for diabetes) OR the most common cause of the fainting is glucose that is too LOW. It only has to be low for a very short time in order to make any person faint.

The best test for reactive hypoglycemia (when the body reacts to either the person not eating enough carbs OR when the person eats something that triggers the pancreas to produce insulin by overproducing insulin, therefore causing the hypoglycemia) is the glucose tolerance test. The lab will draw a fasting blood sugar and then have you drink a very sweet solution, allow you time to digest it, and then draw more blood to see whether this syrup caused your glucose levels to change dramatically.

The unfortunate reality is, though, that sometimes people do just fine with this test, but do seem to suffer from hypoglycemia at other times. There are many things in your life that can trigger the pancreas' overaction, and hormones are certainly one of them -- in my case, I tend to have a day or two of severe danger of hypoglycemia at the end of each cycle when certain hormones shift. For other people, stress of any type can cause the hypoglycemia to happen. For others, eating a chocolate chip cookie can trigger the reaction, or missing a meal can do the same.

So while you may or may not be able to get  a real diagnosis from a glucose tolerance test, you might be wise to ask your doctor about hypoglycemia and read up on it from any sources you can find. Do a Google search, and you will find lots of info. Most hypoglycemic people tend to need to eat frequently, more of a nibbling all day rather than large meals, and they tend to do better with somewhat low-carb diets that won't put any stress on the pancreas to over-react. Also, it is wise to keep some juice handy for those severe lows, and if you have one of these episodes, try popping a can of juice and see if it stops the faintness. It should take a few minutes for the juice to do its job. If this does help, then it would seem likely that your problem is hypoglycemia. I would encourage you to keep small boxes or cans of juice in your purse (2 of them in case 1 is not enough) and try this the next time you feel funny.

Also, I would keep a record of when this happens to you, not only when the severe times happen that cause you to actually pass out, but also when you feel funny as if it is going to happen. Look carefully to see if there is a pattern -- did you skip a meal or eat only a salad (not enough carbs)? Did you perhaps eat a candy bar or cookie or something else high in sugar a few hours before the episode? Are you under some sort of other stress that might be affecting the balance of hormones in your body? Or is this happening fairly frequently at the end f your monthly cycle? If you find a pattern, you may be able to figure out what the triggers are for you and then better know how to deal wtih them.

I would encourage you to seek a second doctor's opinion if this does not seem to fix your problem. As one who has suffered from passing out due to hypoglycemia in the past, I am with you in that it can be very serious if you hit your head or if you wreck a car as a result. I have found that many doctors do tend to take it lightly, and I would encourage you to find one that does treat hypoglycemia as a real health issue. If this is not the cause of your problems, of course you need medical tests to find out exactly what IS causing the problems. I would not rest until I had answers. If your doctor won't help you, find another.

By the way, hypoglycemia happens to normal people who are NOT diabetics, too. And they usually will come to on their own after their body retrieves the needed sugar from stores in the liver, so your patterns do sound familiar. We wish you the very best ... keep that juice handy!

[kelly2881]

I can't tell you what your response means to me!  Thank you.  I feel like nobody cares, the doctors just look at me funny.  I've posted my story in many different health related forums and nobody responds or if they do, they ask if I'm depressed!  

I have had the tests where they've made me drink the pop-like liquid and they said my sugar was not too low to be concerned but boarderline.  I am going to begin on a low carb diet to see if that helps and I will begin tracking my symptoms.  I am so glad to hear from your response that my symptoms actually may be something.  I'm to the point where I just need to know whats wrong with me and I actually feel stupid going to the doctors again and again after all these years of this happening.  

It has happened twice while I was driving.  But I can always tell when it's going to happen and I have been fortunate enough to be able to pull off in time.  I know that next time I may not be so fortunate.  When you've had these spells, can you tell when they are about to happen?  I can tell because I can feel it in my chest and it moves up my throat.  I get confused because once I ate a big sundae and then about 5 minutes later I had my "spell".  Then, would more sugar be what I would need (like you say...juice)?  Or did too much sugar lead to my attack?  I have read about hypoglycemia on the internet, and I guess I need to do more reading.  

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond!!!

[JDRF Team SGG]

In the instance when it happened after eating the sundae, it would have been the large load of sugar in the sundae (probably in the syrupy topping) that did you in. The balancing act is hard in a case like this. The trick is to get just enough of a sugar "fix" to stop the sudden plummet downward without triggering the pancreas again to make it worse. I know that for us diabetics, we only drink 1/2 cup of juice to fix a hypoglycemic episode. Then, we wait about 15 minutes (it really takes that long for the sugar to start to come up at all) and test again. If it is not rising, we drink another half cup, but it doesn't take more than that. So in your case, the amount may be different, but I am telling you this to let you know that a spell after eating ice cream or pie would only take a very small amount of juice to bring up a little. You may feel a little odd for several hours after this happens, and I have been told that after the juice fix, you should probably eat some nuts or cheese or other protein to slow down the carb load that you ate that caused the problem. I have one sister-in-law who is very hypoglycemic, and one chocolate chip cookie can put her into a daze. She keeps nuts and cheese on hand for snacks to slow down the digestion of all the carbs she eats.

Do keep a couple of cans of juice in your glove compartment, for sometimes you may not be safe enough to find a place to pull over. I know of one diabetic who has had two accidents because of hypoglycemia, and in one of them he actually killed someone. This is a real risk, for if you are woozy, your reaction times are not going to be normal in traffic. I like the small 6-oz. cans of either apple or pineapple juice. They keep until you open them, and have the perfect amount of carbs for me, personally, at 22 carbs. Not so much that they would spur your pancreas to work harder, but just enough to probably avert a passing out episode. It may be smart to also keep a couple of individually packaged snack sized nut packages handy, too, for the combination of carb plus protein is better than just carbs for the hypoglycemic person, from what I have read.

I have read that the low-carb diet does help hypoglycemic people, although some that I know have had to modify the low-carb diet to make sure that SOME carbs are in each meal. In the case of these people, if they simply eat a salad, they will get hypoglycemic, although not a rush or dangerous low. So they try to eat about 15-30 carbs per meal, but no more. Eventually, in theory, this kind of diet causes the pancreas to quit being stimulated and relax some and the hypos stop happening.

If you feel one coming on, do treat it IMMEDIATELY, and my bet is that you won't pass out anymore. The juice will be the quickest fix for you, but keep the dose small like in the 6-oz. can, which is way smaller than we tend to think of as a normal serving size.

Do read more about it, for I know way too many people who are hypo but whose glucose tolerance tests do come back normal to feel that a normal glucose tolerance test is absolute proof that this isn't what is happening. It may be borderline on the day it was tested, but on another day with other combinations of food or hormones or stress, it may be very different, but you just didn't happen to be tested on that day.

And DO match up the dates of episodes to see if hormonal cycles are at work, for just about every severe low I have ever had has been at the end of my cycle, a few days before the start of a menstrual period. At this time, there are some insulin-blocking hormones that have been working and suddenly dissipate, and this can cause both diabetics and normal people to become hypo for a couple of days.

No, you are not crazy. Your symptoms sound mighty familiar. Here are some other symptoms you may notice: dry mouth or eyes, unexplained yawning, sleepiness, a dazed feeling, headache, or sometimes even a nauseated feeling. The symptoms can vary some from episode to episode, so be alert for ANY of them.

It is interesting to me that personally I have known more women who are hypoglycemic than men. I don't know if this is due to the hormonal swings or not, but I find it interesting. I have not done any reading on how many women as opposed to men have this problem, so it may be coincidence that most of the hypo folks I know are women.