Blood glucose and Skydiving

[bmer24]

I went skydiving last summer and it was a blast. I wanted to go again as soon as I got to the ground. About 1 hour after I finished, I started feeling general malaise. I felt sick, shaky, fatigued, cold and generally down (I hesitate to use the word depressed because it was relatively acute).

I experience this occasionally when I go too long without a meal, or when I'm sleep deprived. It's something I usually remedy with food or rest.

When I describe it to people, I attribute the feeling to being hypoglycemic. I am not diabetic, and I doubt this state is directly and solely related to hypoglycemia, but it's the easiest way to explain how I feel.

Back to skydiving- this "hangover" or "hypoglycemic event" was less easily solved by rest/food. I felt pretty terrible for nearly the rest of my day, so much so that I thought that it was bad enough to avoid skydiving again. I attribute this to the huge adrenaline rush that I experienced and the subsequent uptake of glucose rapidly afterward (and other sympathetic rebound mechanisms perhaps). This is pseudoscience of course, but my friends want to go again and i don't want to miss out because of this weird hangover I seemed sensitive to.

Basically, does this sound like an anomaly? Or am I really sensitive to this?

[mammo]

Nobody is saying this happens to everyone.  I have a friend who can't jump due to his equilibrium being thrown off, and my daughter endured the same as the above poster and experienced the exact same symptoms as him, except she also had the vertigo for weeks!  So she spoke with an ENT who knows something about why this happens and was told what I wrote. You can't lump everyone together, as this is not a common thing.
My husband has been a stunt pilot for many years, I fly with him and have no problems, my daughter can't fly with him due to the after effects.  So, obviously there are some people who have a problem with this.

[WaveRider]

Over the years I have learned to be well hydrated to help avoid headaches and altitude sickness prior to playing Skygod. Also, check your blood pressure before going up. Skydiving has been known to increase pulse rate and blood pressure in some people.
Good luck and happy flying.

[caregiver222]

I have done a lot of skydiving, from 800 feet to HALO jumps and I have never experienced a "loss of equilibrium". I have acted as a jumpmaster and never found any soldiers who experienced loss of equilibrium for a week.

In high-altitude free-falls one can do tumbling in the air for fun, but as a beginner, using a static line, you should never ever have any problems.

As for diabetes and skydiving, as long as your glucose levels are checked before a dive, and within normal limits there is absolutely nothing involved in a jump that will affect those levels.

[mammo]

Skydiving can throw off your equilibrium for up to a week or more.  You feel kind of spacey, shaky, have vertigo, etc. I learned this from an ENT.  The only way for you to know if you are sensitive to this is to do it again.  Also, it may not happen again for many jumps, and then out of the blue (pardon the pun) it comes back after a jump.  Since you enjoyed it so much, you owe it to yourself to find out.  I hope it was a one time thing, and you can continue to jump!  Good luck and take care.