blood sugar issues

[lisa114]

My 20 year old daughter  has type 2 diabetes. Her sugar was so high for a while. We went to a class to learn all the right ways to eat etc.. It worked well. she did not need medication, we were controling it with diet. But now we are having a huge problem, Her sugar will be fine and now about three out of five times after she eats her sugar drops to low, sometimes as low as 74. Her doctor did blood work and said it seems everything is normal, so basically just give her food to bring up her sugar. Not a good idea to me, she is already about 25 pounds overweight, and I was really hoping he would try a little harder to figure out why its happening, and maybe even try a medicine or natural supplement that could help. When her sugar goes below 115 she has severe symptoms of low blood sugar, dizziness,confusion,anxiety sweating etc.. She has tourettes and Bi-polar and seizure disorders and is on tenix, paxil and tegritol for them but the doctor says these are not the problem.Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.She is so miserable .

[Anita Ramsetty, MD]

Hi,
I agree that 74 is definitely not a low blood sugar, mainly in regard to having typical symptoms or serious consequences(such as passing out, having seizures etc). However if your daughter has blood sugars that are usually much higher than that, she may feel terrible in the 70's because it is a relative low for her. First thing: check the glucometer to see if it is working correctly. There should be test solution in the kit, or you can calibrate it to another glucometer at your doctor's office.Let's make sure the meter is not giving you the wrong readings because missing severe hypoglycemia would be quite serious.
I also suggest speaking with your doctor again about gradually altering her treatments to have her blood sugars in a good range so that she gets used to it. I try not to have patients develop the habit of "eat-to-treat" their hypoglycemia because they do gain weight--it is better to alter treatments to avoid the hypoglycemia in the first place.
And I do agree with the other member that you shoud look into other causes for these symptoms as well, especially as they seem concerning from your description.
Hope this helps,
take care.

[KevinHarney]

I am not a Dr. just a diabetic but it sounds to me like it is not an issue with the diabetes.  74 is low but not horribly low and 115 is a normal reading so she should not be having those symptoms with that reading unless it is related to something else.  

Also you can raise sugar levels without giving food if you like to save calories.  You can but Glucose tablets at almost any phamacy or you can buy Glucose gel as well.  Tablets are usually 4g each and gel tubes are like 15g each