abdominal pain after eating sugar...are these symptoms of diabetes?

[kristin627]

my daughter is 14 years old and for the past few months she's been having very weird symptoms but we are not sure what they might be. it all started when she had a smoothie and shortly after she was on the verge of passing out, had pains in her neck and arm, and was sick for the rest of the day. a few days later she was in school and had chocolate milk with her lunch and nearly passed out. she complains about how she cant have anything with sugar in it because if she does she will either get very sharp pains in her upper abdominals or she will get very thirsty and tired, which i know are symptoms of diabetes. my mother had diabetes so i wouldnt be surprised if she has it also. i noticed that she also goes to the bathroom often after she has eaten something with sugar. we know shes not lactose intolerant, which is one of the first things the doctor suggested. i know she doesnt have any reactions when she avoids foods that contain sugar. we have gotten a fasting blood sugar test but the doctor said the results were fine. i want to get a glucose tolerance test done as well. can anybody help us figure out what's wrong??

[JDRF-VOL-SG]

Neither diabetes (high blood sugar) nor hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) cause pains, so those symptoms need to be evaluated by your daughter's doctor, and not simply ignored while looking at the other symptoms. The pain sensations would cause me some alarm, and I would suggest that you keep poking around until there is an explanation for the pains.

The other symptoms you describe could be due to hypoglycemia. When blood sugar levels drop below normal, fatigue and dry mouth (sort of like being thirsty) and eyes are typical symptoms. Sometimes a headache is part of the symptoms, sometimes  hunger, sometimes nausea, too. From your description, I would suspect that a glucose tolerance test is indeed in order to check for reactive hypoglycemia, whereby if a person eats or drinks food with high sugar content, the body over-reacts and sends too much insulin out to cover that sugar, dropping the glucose levels too low. As for pains, I notice that if I have any tendonitis or any other aches and pains, they ARE worse when hypoglycemic, for the muscles can draw up tight, straining those tendons. I have also notices that muscle cramps are very common when hypoglycemic, so those things may explain her pains.

Yes, if a person is severely hypoglycemic, that person CAN pass out entirely, although most people's bodies will recover without help by releasing stores of emergency sugars from the liver to protect themselves. I applaud you for getting some tests run to help your daughter. At her point in life, she needs to be very aware if she IS a person who is prone to hypoglycemia. This can make her unsafe when driving (reaction times are slow when hypoglycemic), and it can make her temporarily completely unable to recall data if she has a hypo episode while taking a test. Check out wwww.hypoglycemia.org for more info and some dietary tips.