Hypoglycemia For Dummies E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 433

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

This no-nonsense, plain-English guide lays out the facts you need to maintain a healthy body. Hypoglycemia simply means "low blood-sugar," but without concrete symptoms it's very hard to diagnose. It is nevertheless a condition that should be watched over carefully. People react differently to low blood sugar as well as to the treatment they receive. Hypoglycemia for Dummies explores this fickle condition and shows you how to manage your blood sugar to feel better. It offers expert advice on identifying symptoms, changing lifestyles, and also extensive coverage on diet, exercise, alternative treatments, and the link between low blood sugar and diabetes. This expanded 2nd edition provides: * A thorough explanation of hypoglycemia and how it affects your body * Exercise routines that lead to a healthier lifestyle * Diet suggestions on what to eat and how often * A basis for choosing a doctor that's right for you * Vitamins and supplements that treat your symptoms * Ways to manage hypoglycemia in the workplace * An explanation of how hypoglycemia affects family and friends * Methods to de-stress yourself Complete with tips on helping other hypoglycemics and myth-debunking facts about the disease, Hypoglycemia for Dummies is the fast and simple way to learn and treat the condition, with the help of the most up-to-date medical information available. Escape the blood sugar blues and starting feeling better in no time!

Leseprobe

Hypoglycemia For Dummies

Cheryl Chow, Writer and Editor

James Chow, MD Director, Nihon Clinic

Hypoglycemia For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2007920018

ISBN: 978-0-470-12170-2

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5

About the Authors

Cheryl Chow has been a freelance writer, editor, and journalist for more than 20 years, concentrating on health and social issues. She has a diverse writing background, having written for magazines, newspapers, webzines, and literary magazines. She and Dr. Chow have coauthored a reference book on hepatitis and other liver diseases.

Coming from a family with a long line of medical doctors, Chow has always been fascinated by medicine and science. After obtaining a BA in psychology from Reed College, she pursued her own studies into the effects of mind over body, and vice versa. She has conquered her own bouts with hypoglycemia, fatigue, and other health issues through attention to lifestyle and diet. She has studied T’ai Chi, chi kung, ba gua, and meditation from some world-renowned teachers, and has also taught T’ai Chi exercises for health.

James H. Chow, MD, is the founder, CEO, and medical director of multispecialty clinics offering integrative medicine and diverse treatment modalities located in New York, Westchester, Chicago, Atlanta, and San Diego. Dr. Chow specializes in emergency and family medicine. Before he went into private practice almost 20 years ago, he was the director of the emergency department at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Chicago for seven years. As an emergency doctor at one of the busiest hospitals in the U.S., he has encountered and treated almost every imaginable type of illness and injury. Dr. Chow is licensed to practice medicine in Illinois, Georgia, and New York. In 1996, Dr. Chow helped set up an American-style clinic in Beijing.

Dr. Chow is a member of American Academy of Emergency Medicine, American Academy of Physician Executives, American Academy of Sports Medicine, American Academy of General Medicine, American Academy of Family Practice, Nippon Industrial Medicine Association, and American Japanese Physicians Association. Having too much time on his hands, Dr. Chow is currently involved with various medical projects. He’s known among his friends and associates for his unbounded energy, personal warmth, and sense of humor — had he not become a medical doctor, Dr. Chow could undoubtedly have become a comedian.

Dedication

We dedicate this book to our mother, who has inspired us with her indomitable spirit. Late in life she became a published novelist and essayist (with fan mail from all over the world). Always young at heart, most of her friends are half her age.

This book is also dedicated to our father, without whose foresight and financial support neither of us would have been blessed with the education and career opportunities that we have had.

Authors’ Acknowledgments

I would like to thank everyone, especially the various healthcare practitioners whose knowledge, expertise, and experience helped shape this book. Thanks especially to Dr. Carolyn Dean, MD; Dr. Colleen Huber, NMD; Raymond Hinish, PharmD, CN; Dr. Michael T. Murray, ND; Dr. Iljong Kim, MD; and EFT founder Gary Craig for giving up their valuable time to answer my numerous questions. Dr. Huber in particular was more than generous in sharing her vast knowledge.

Special thanks and much gratitude also to John Hartsell for his expertise in wordsmithing and his critical eye for detail.

I would like to express my appreciation to my brother and coauthor, Dr. James Chow, for his share of the work, and for his gift of a MacBook, which was used in the writing of the manuscript. I also want to thank the staff of the Nihon Clinic. And last, but certainly not least, I want to thank my agent Elizabeth Frost-Knappman of New England Publishing Associates, and the staff at Wiley Publishing, in particular Michael Lewis, the acquisitions editor, Chad Sievers, the project editor, and Sarah Faulkner, the copy editor.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Project Editor: Chad R. Sievers

(Previous Edition: Tonya Maddox Cupp)

Acquisitions Editor: Michael Lewis

Copy Editor: Sarah Faulkner

(Previous Edition: Greg Pearson)

Technical Editor: Lorna Walker, PhD, nutritionist for the Hypoglycemia Support Foundation, Inc.

Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker

Editorial Assistants: Erin Calligan Mooney, Joe Niesen, Leeann Harney

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Heather Kolter

Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, LeAndra Hosier, Stephanie D. Jumper, Erin Zeltner

Anniversary Logo Design: Richard Pacifico

Proofreader: Aptara

Indexer: Aptara

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies

Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director, Consumer Dummies

Kristin A. Cocks, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies

Michael Spring, Vice President and Publisher, Travel

Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Contents

Title

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

What You’re Not to Read

Icons Used in This Book

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organized

Where to Go from Here

Part I : Addressing Your Ups and Downs: Could This Be Hypoglycemia?

Chapter 1: Riding the Blood Sugar Roller Coaster Isn’t Any Fun

Defining Hypoglycemia

Like a Greased Pig: Easy to Define, Tough to Pin Down

Knowing Who’s Prone

Heading Toward Better Health

Chapter 2: Digesting Hypoglycemia: Your Body’s Role

Absorbing Some Physical Food

Tracing Cause and Effect

Addressing Addictions: The Link to Low Blood Sugar

Chapter 3: Symptoms without a Cause

Jumping on Stage: No, You’re Not Faking It

Eying the Physical Symptoms

Identifying the Emotional Symptoms

Unmasking Hypoglycemia’s Hidden Faces

Hypoglycemia and Diabetes — Flip Sides of the Same Coin?

Nailing Down Hypoglycemia: Symptoms throughout the Ages

Part II : Diagnosing and Treating Your Hypoglycemia

Chapter 4: Matching Up with the Right Doc

Why Seeing a Doc on a Regular Basis Is Important

Paging Dr. Perfection

Choosing a Specialist

Preparing Shows You’re Caring (About Yourself)

Putting Some Ohhhhmm into It: Alternative Medicine

Chapter 5: Getting the Lowdown on Low Blood Sugar

Poking and Prodding Yourself

Getting the 411 on Hypoglycemia Testing

Chapter 6: Gorging on Good Health

Of Food Pyramids and Healthy Eating

The World’s Your Oyster and Your Pear — Foods to Eat

Eating the Right Way

Hypoglycemia in Vegetarians: What Can You Eat?

Chewing on a Food Journal

Chapter 7: Hanging with Herb and His Buddies Vitamin and Supplement

Getting Acquainted with Herb

Saying Hello to Supplements and Vitamins

Taking the Hypoglycemia Mix

Matching Supplements to Ails: Which Makes You Feel Better?

Taking a Whiff: Aromatherapy

Rocking Bach’s Flower Remedies

Part III : Emulating Lifestyles of the Well and Healthy

Chapter 8: Easing Symptoms and Energizing with Exercise

Why Exercise Is Important When Battling Hypoglycemia

Easing Your Way into Exercise

Timing Your Carbs

Improving Insulin and Feeling the Burn: Aerobics

Regulating Blood Sugar with Yoga and T’ai Chi

Kicking Weakness with Weights

Clearing Brain Fog with Qigong

Chapter 9: All Stressed Out and Nowhere to Go

How Stress Impacts Your Hypoglycemia

Determining Your Stress Level

Knotting Off: Relaxing Your Tight Muscles

Taking a Deep Breath to Relax

Surfing the Alpha Wave with Meditation

Making the Ultimate Smoothie: Hypno-Soothing

Chapter 10: Defanging the Depression Demons

Revealing Another Epidemic

Knowing What (Gray) Matters

Getting Comfy on the Couch

Beating the Low Blood Sugar Blues

Feeling Out Antidepressants

Chapter 11: Making It through Your Day at Work

No Rings around Either: Blue and White Collar Workers

Addressing Your Boss and Co-Workers

Putting Up a Cot in the Cubicle? Managing Long Work Hours

Diffusing Work-Related Stress

Part IV : Spinning a Network of Support for Yourself (and Others)

Chapter 12: Jockeying for Support

Grasping the Link between Support and Hypoglycemia

Getting Yourself Out There

Getting to Know Me

Joining the In-Crowd

Buddying Up

Chapter 13: Dealing with Family and Friends: Eat and Let Eat

How Hypoglycemia Can Affect Your Relationships

Explaining to Your Significant Other

Talking to Your Children about Hypoglycemia

Involving the Whole Family

Dealing with the Doubting Thomases

Chapter 14: Suffering Along with Your Sweetie?

Introducing Mr. (or Ms.) Hyde

Talking It Over

Offering Your Offspring Support

Jumping In with Both Feet (and 2.5 Kids, a Dog, and a Cat)

You Be Betty Crocker and I’ll Be Julia Child

Part V : The Part of Tens

Chapter 15: Ten Myths about Hypoglycemia

Hypoglycemia Doesn’t Exist

Hypoglycemics Lack Willpower

Eating Sugar Is a Quick Fix

One Diet Fits All

Eliminating the “Bad” Foods Is All You Have to Do

You Can’t Be a Vegetarian if You’re Hypoglycemic

Having a “Cheat Day” Is Okay

Sugar Can Be Part of a Healthful Diet

Hypoglycemics Should Eat Low-Fat Diets

Blood Glucose Levels Remain the Same throughout the Day

Chapter 16: Ten Hints for Helping Hypoglycemics

Acting Practically at Home

Testing for Sugar

Controlling Blood Sugar

Dining Out: The Do’s and Don’ts

Food Facts for Tasty Health

Noshing on Nourishment

Eating Brainy Foods

Banishing Brain Fog

Remembering How to Deal with Short-Term Memory Loss

Changing Successfully

: Further Reading

Introduction

I f you pick up this book, chances are you’ve been suffering from the blues for a long time: the low blood sugar blues, that is. If you’re hypoglycemic, you know that you don’t have to go to an amusement park to experience the roller coaster effect; your blood sugar does it for you automatically, thank you very much. In addition, you may often get the jitters (especially after a stretch of time without food), and become nervous, edgy, and irritable. You’re chronically tired, and you wake up in the morning not feeling the least bit rested. Or maybe you have other complaints, such as depression, that just don’t respond to medical treatments — or any other remedies.

Your colleagues, friends, and family may be tired of your moods, your chronic fatigue, and your various aches and illnesses, none of which seems to have a clear, attributable cause. You’ve been to many doctors. And what do they tell you? They tell you that all the lab tests have come out “essentially negative.” You’re afraid that the doctors regard you as neurotic or, at best, a hypochondriac. Or perhaps you received a clear diagnosis. But now your real struggles begin. No magic pills can instantly cure you.

The good news is that, with a better understanding of hypoglycemia and the program of recovery outlined in this book, you can regain your health, your wits, and your sense of humor. And who knows, you may — depending on your genes and, aside from hypoglycemia, whatever else may be going on with your body — appreciate life more than many of your currently enviably healthier brethren.

About This Book

Since the first edition of Hypoglycemia For Dummies came out in 2002, many more studies have been published on how foods affect your health. Although the basic hypoglycemia diet remains the same, we know much more than we did about the effect of different fats on the body. At the same time, more light has been cast on the dangers of artificial sweeteners and monosodium glutamate (MSG).

When writing this second edition, we hope to provide you, our readers, with the latest information on the subject of health and diet. Thus, we expand many chapters, most noticeably Chapter 6, which tells you what foods to eat and to avoid. You can find many suggestions on various food substitutes throughout the book; we also offer tips on how to make the transition to a hypoglycemic diet. We try to make the book as user-friendly as possible for the busy reader who’s not only pressed for time, but also has health issues that may make it more difficult to read or to absorb new information.

Conventions Used in This Book

To make everything as easy as possible, we use the following basic conventions to help you:

We italicize all medical terms and provide an immediate definition. We also attempt to explain any other words or concepts that may be difficult to understand or may be subject to misunderstanding.

We use monofont to identify all Web sites and e-mail addresses.

We bold all key words in bulleted lists and all the steps in numbered lists.

Furthermore, whenever we mention hypoglycemia, unless otherwise indicated (and we’ll make that amply clear), we mean the hypoglycemia related to one’s diet — the type that people refer to when they feel weak from low blood sugar. We use the word recovery because health is an ongoing process, not something that you can attain with a quick-fix approach. Your challenge is to correct not only the imbalances of your body but also the way you live, work, play, and relate to others.

What You’re Not to Read

We have good news for you busy people! You don’t have to read this book from cover to cover. Of course we want you to read everything, but we understand that you may want to read just the essential info. If that’s the case, feel free to skip

The sidebars. They’re interesting info and appear in the little gray boxes, but they’re not essential.

The Library of Congress info. We’re required by law to include this mumbo jumbo text, but it’s not important to you.

Icons Used in This Book

The icons are signposts to help you identify what parts of the book are indispensable.

This icon indicates useful information about hypoglycemia. It can save you time, or money, if you’re lucky.

The book has a lot of information, but this icon highlights the stuff that’ll do you the most good.

This icon presents very important information that you should be aware of. Don’t ignore this icon! Doing so may be detrimental.

Right, call the doctor! When you see this icon, you’ll know that we recommend that you go see a physician.

Foolish Assumptions

If you pick up this book, we assume that you

Suffer from symptoms associated with hypoglycemia (or someone close to you suffers from the symptoms) and you want to alleviate the symptoms

Aren’t a specialist in the medical field (You want just the basic essential info so you can better grasp your condition.)

Are aware of the controversy surrounding this syndrome but accept — or at least suspect — that such a medical problem indeed exists

How This Book Is Organized

This book has five parts to make navigating easier. It’s a handy reference for the busy person, because much of the relevant info is compiled together under one cover for your convenience.

Part I: Addressing Your Ups and Downs: Could This Be Hypoglycemia?

Part I addresses the most important facts about hypoglycemia. What causes it? Who’s most susceptible? We talk about some of the hypoglycemic complications that may result from diabetes, as well as other common symptoms.

Part II: Diagnosing and Treating Your Hypoglycemia

This part helps you find a supportive doc who can help you determine whether you suffer from this condition. We sort through the complexities and permutations of this syndrome and rule out other possible causes for what’s ailing you. We also discuss everyone’s favorite subject: food. We explain the part that nutrition plays in everyone’s health and the great significance it has for hypoglycemics. We give info on vitamins, herbs, and supplements.

Part III: Emulating Lifestyles of the Well and Healthy

This part maps out the lifestyle that can help you achieve the vibrant health you desire. We show you how to choose exercises that are fun and give tips on how to make your working life easier.

Part IV: Spinning a Network of Support for Yourself (and Others)

Because everyone needs the support of other people, in this part, we show you how to set up a support network, both online and offline. We also reach out to your loved ones and give them a little support.

Part V: The Part of Tens

Are you forever explaining hypoglycemia to people? This part gives you the straight facts on common myths and misperceptions about hypoglycemia. You want some help staying on the narrow and true diet path? You got it with tips and hints on what to do when temptation strikes.

Where to Go from Here

Feel free to turn to the section that seems most relevant to you and start reading. Where should you go? First, check out the table of contents and index to see what topics interest you the most. If you know nothing about hypoglycemia, start with Chapter 1, which gives you a brief overview, and Chapter 2, which gives you the nitty-gritty technical scoop. If you want the lowdown on food and diet, check out Chapter 6. If you suspect that someone close to you is hypoglycemic, start with Chapter 14. No matter where you go, you can find valuable info that can help ease this condition.

Part I

Addressing Your Ups and Downs: Could This Be Hypoglycemia?

In this part . . .

If you want to know the most important facts about hypoglycemia, you can find them here. This part lists the different types of hypoglycemia that are known to the medical world, and how they may affect people at different ages. We cover some of the hypoglycemic complications that can result from diabetes, and we tell you about other common conditions that you should watch out for. We also show you just how many symptoms are associated with hypoglycemia.

Chapter 1

Riding the Blood Sugar Roller Coaster Isn’t Any Fun

In This Chapter

Figuring out what hypoglycemia is

Linking hypoglycemia and diabetes

Identifying symptoms of hypoglycemia

Looking at who’s prone to blood sugar imbalance

Taking the road to radiant health

O ver the years, researchers have coined different names for the condition that people suffer from when they believe that they have hypoglycemia, including functional hypoglycemia, relative hypoglycemia, disinsulinism, hypoglycemic fatigue, and insulinogenic hypoglycemia. Don’t get too hung up on the names, though. Your attention should be on regaining your health, not worrying about what your constellation of symptoms should be called.

No matter what you or your doctor calls your low blood sugar, this chapter is a great starting point. This chapter gives you the lowdown on hypoglycemia, who’s prone to having it, and what you can do to make this roller coaster ride not so rough.

Defining Hypoglycemia

Defining hypoglycemia is easy. It’s low (hypo) blood sugar (glycemia). Modern medicine, or allopathic medicine, which is Western medicine as it’s practiced in developed countries, recognizes two major categories of hypoglycemia — organic and fasting, which both generally have clear-cut causes — as legitimate. Other types of hypoglycemia, which fall under the category of relative and reactive hypoglycemia, aren’t usually recognized by mainstream medicine. It’s still a controversial subject, although some studies indicate that sensitive people can suffer from hypoglycemic-like symptoms even when their blood sugar doesn’t drop to a level that’s medically defined as hypoglycemia. (See Chapter 5 on how blood sugar is measured.)

The diagnosis of idiopathic reactive hypoglycemia, or reactive hypoglycemia for short, isn’t universally accepted by allopathic doctors. This is the type of hypoglycemia that people are referring to when they complain of being hypoglycemic. Reactive hypoglycemia is also this book’s focus. In the rest of this book, unless otherwise stated, we’re talking about reactive hypoglycemia.

But before you get into the rest of the book, take a look at the following sections to discover more about the different types of hypoglycemia and see where your symptoms might fall.

Organic

With organic hypoglycemia, your blood sugar level when you’ve been fasting is invariably low. (The fasting level is the amount of sugar in your blood after fasting — not eating anything — for 10 to 12 hours.) The symptoms are usually continuous.

This type of hypoglycemia is very rare and may be caused by glandular defects or tumors. If you have organic hypoglycemia, it warrants further investigation to determine whether you have an enlarged pancreas, tumors of the pancreas, or other causes that are unrelated to what you do or don’t eat.

Relative

Relative hypoglycemia is a condition where your blood sugar declines from an elevated level to a low level quite rapidly. The group of people most often misdiagnosed as normal suffer from relative hypoglycemia. For example, you’re said to have relative hypoglycemia if

Your blood sugar falls 20 milligrams (mg) or more below your fasting level within six hours after eating, and you experience symptoms.

Your blood sugar falls 50 mg or more within one hour after eating, and you experience symptoms.

During the test that checks your blood sugar level, your blood sugar increases by 20 mg or less after ingesting the glucose that you’re given to drink for the test, and then falls to at least 20 mg below your fasting level. (Chapter 5 describes the test you can take to check your blood sugar level.)

Reactive

Reactive hypoglycemia refers to how your body reacts after you eat. How high or low does the blood sugar go? With this type of hypoglycemia, symptoms fluctuate according to the food you eat, the time of day when you eat, and so on. In reactive hypoglycemia, the level of sugar in your blood when you’ve been fasting may be normal or even a little above what’s considered normal. Your body then overreacts to the glucose in the food you eat by producing too much insulin, which causes the fall in blood sugar. (That’s why it’s called reactive.) Even if the blood sugar doesn’t fall below what’s considered the normal range, a person may experience symptoms of hypoglycemia if the fall is fast enough.

Many health practitioners don’t differentiate between reactive hypoglycemia and relative hypoglycemia. They lump the two together and call it functional hypoglycemia. If you hear this term, it refers to hypoglycemia that typically occurs because of an imbalance in the body chemistry, probably due to an overactive pancreas producing too much insulin.

Fasting hypoglycemia is sometimes classified as being part of functional hypoglycemia. It can occur when you haven’t eaten for a while. How long that is depends on the individual, but it’s generally several hours after a meal.

If your doctor uses the term idiopathic postprandial reactive hypoglycemia or idiopathic reactive hypoglycemia, he’s talking about reactive hypoglycemia. Idiopathic is just a fancy word that doctors use to say, “We haven’t got a clue what causes it.” (Now you know how to profess ignorance and still sound smart!) Postprandial means “after a meal.” Reactive relates to how your body responds to the food you eat. Some researchers have proposed the term idiopathic postprandial syndrome because many people who have the signs of reactive hypoglycemia don’t necessarily have low blood sugar.

If you suffer from reactive hypoglycemia, your body generally reacts negatively to sugar and simple starches, because it can’t handle the excess sugar load. You usually start feeling the effect about 2 to 4 hours after eating “bad” foods.

Like a Greased Pig: Easy to Define, Tough to Pin Down

Because hypoglycemia is so easy to define, you’d think that determining who has low blood sugar would be a simple matter. All you should have to do is measure the blood sugar and voilà! — you have inconvertible proof that someone has hypoglycemia.

Alas, it’s not that cut and dried. Experts disagree on what constitutes a hypoglycemic condition. Today’s standard medical practice is to consider hypoglycemic levels of blood sugar lower than 45 mg per deciliter of blood. The benchmark used to be higher, but it has shifted downward over the years, and doctors still disagree with one another in terms of finding and diagnosing the condition. For instance, some health practitioners argue no range of blood sugar is definitive in determining hypoglycemia; they believe instead that the speed with which the blood sugar drops is more important than how low it goes. (Chapter 5 gives you more detailed information about diagnoses and measurements.)

And that’s not the only controversy surrounding hypoglycemia. These bits add to the trouble:

Symptoms are nonspecific. (You can read more in Chapter 3.)

Symptoms don’t always correlate with blood glucose (sugar) concentrations measured during an oral glucose test. (More on this test in Chapter 5.) The rate at which the blood sugar drops is just as important, but doctors often ignore this rate.

Glucose levels are rarely measured when people develop symptoms spontaneously (not easy to manage unless someone follows them around with a syringe).

Hypoglycemia is a misnomer. Rather than low blood sugar, it’s more a matter of the body being unable to effectively absorb certain carbohydrates. Different people react differently to ingested sugars and carbohydrates, with some having a higher tolerance level than others. Thus, the condition may be better described as carbohydrate intolerance or glucose instability syndrome.

Many symptoms of hypoglycemia are caused not by the drop in blood sugar, but by the resulting glandular imbalances. For example, to counter the emergency created by the blood sugar falling too low or too rapidly, the body dumps adrenaline (epinephrine).

In the 1970s, after several books popularized hypoglycemia, many people jumped on the hypoglycemia bandwagon, and it became an over-diagnosed condition — a fad disease that most respectable healthcare practitioners strived to steer clear of. So it’s understandable that many doctors are skeptical. It’s also unfortunate, because they’re unable to help patients who ask “If I’m so healthy, why do I feel so bad?”

Although diagnosing hypoglycemia is difficult, you can still work closely with your doctor to figure out what’s causing your symptoms. This section helps you (and your doctor) get a firmer grasp on your symptoms in order to make the correct diagnosis.

Identifying key symptoms

The symptoms of hypoglycemia aren’t fatal, but they can seriously detract from the quality of life. The immediate physical symptoms of low blood sugar are

Mental confusion (brain fog)

Inability to think rationally

Weakness

Shakiness

These symptoms can be alleviated by eating. The more debilitating symptoms of chronic hypoglycemia, however, are longer lasting and not immediately relieved by eating. Chapter 3 talks more about symptoms and syndromes that are often associated with hypoglycemia. We also discuss the various causes of low blood sugar in people of different age groups.

The link between food and symptoms is undeniable. Face food facts! This book can help you do that by offering alternatives to the foods you currently eat. Flip to Chapter 6 for info on the foods you can and can’t safely eat as a hypoglycemic. If you have a partner and/or children, flip to Chapter 13 for help on setting up a diet lifestyle with your family.

Arriving at a diagnosis

Some people may have low blood sugar levels without hypoglycemic symptoms, while others may have symptoms of hypoglycemia, even severe ones, even though their blood sugar is within normal range. Therefore, measuring blood sugar is an unreliable way to diagnose hypoglycemia. Doctors too often ignore the rate at which the blood sugar drops, failing to recognize that some patients develop symptoms when the blood sugar falls quickly.

For these and other reasons, hypoglycemia is often dismissed as imaginary. Despite the protests of some medical organizations, many nutritionally oriented physicians, naturopaths, and other alternative practitioners assert that hypoglycemia is a real clinical entity. Instead of over-relying on glucose tests, which are often inaccurate, these health professionals diagnose their patients through symptoms, and successfully treat the disorder by changing their patients’ diets. You can read more about these medical practitioners in Chapter 4.

The best way to diagnose the disorder is through a combination of various lab tests (which we discuss in detail in Chapter 5) and an assessment of symptoms (which we discuss in Chapter 3). In addition, you can try eliminating foods from your diet to see whether symptoms clear up. As we explain in Chapter 3, food allergies can, at times, cause hypoglycemia. The food journal we talk about in Chapter 6 can also help you determine which foods may affect you.

You should see a doctor before you do anything, especially if it’s been several years since your last physical checkup.

Hit the Web for more resources

In this book we provide tons of helpful info so you can counter your hypoglycemia and not be tied down by its symptoms. However, we have only 288 pages to provide you with just the basic information. If you want more in-depth info and to keep up-to-date on what’s happening in the fight against hypoglycemia and related ailments, then check out the following Web sites:

American Diabetes Association (www.diabetes.org): This Web site provides information on diabetes, guidelines for healthy living, recipes, an e-newsletter, and an online store.

CDC Diabetes Public Health Resource (www.cdc.gov/diabetes): Here, you can find a wide assortment of information and resources on diabetes. The Web site also has links to other good sources of information.

eMedicineHealth.com (www.emedicinehealth.com/low_blood_sugar_ hypoglycemia/article_em.htm): This consumer health information site provides comprehensive info for first aid and emergency situations for injuries and minor medical conditions. It also provides health, medical, lifestyle, and wellness information on a variety of topics, including hypoglycemia. Physicians wrote more than 5,500 pages of content for patients and consumers.

Health Connection Radio (www.healthconnectionradio.com): This station (WKAT 1360 AM) in South Florida has been providing information on health, wellness, and nutrition since 1996. Topics include hypoglycemia, diabetes, and alcoholism. Download the programs, hosted by Jay Foster (the director of Body Chemistry Associates and a certified clinical nutritionist), from the Web site.

Hypoglycemia Health Association of Australia (www.hypoglycemia. asn.au): This nonprofit charitable organization provides information to its members on hypoglycemia and other nutritional disorders. It offers numerous articles, useful links to other sites, and recipes for hypoglycemics for free. The association mails newsletters, covering lectures on hypoglycemia and other related subjects, to members. Membership is $20 per year.

Hypoglycemia Homepage Holland (hypoglykemie.nl): This Web site offers general information about hypoglycemia, as well as health tips, a newsgroup, and lists of other helpful resources.

Voice America: Health & Wellness (health.voiceamerica.com): This Internet Talk Radio was the first to air live, online radio broadcasts. Since 1998, the station has been offering shows about a wide range of health issues discussed by physicians, alternative healthcare practitioners, writers, and others who are active in the health field. Audiences can listen to any of the station’s network programs at any time through on-demand audio streaming or podcasting links. Guests featured are professionals from various walks of life, all related to health and wellness.

Knowing Who’s Prone

Hypoglycemia can strike anyone at any age. Unlike diabetes, not enough studies have been performed to create an accurate profile. Nevertheless, because reactive hypoglycemia can be an early sign of diabetes, it’s reasonable to believe that hypoglycemics and diabetics share a genetic predisposition for metabolic disorders and similar risks for environmental triggers.

Research suggests that the following people are hypoglycemia’s likeliest victims:

Women suffering from premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

People suffering from severe stress.

People who are overweight (although some are underweight due to their faulty carbohydrate metabolism).

Alcoholics. Some researchers have concluded that alcoholism is actually an unrecognized problem with body chemistry, and that all alcoholics are, in fact, hypoglycemics.

This section discusses why hypoglycemia affects certain people and briefly examines the relationship between hypoglycemia and diabetes.

Prevailing problem: The pudge!

The sugar and refined carbohydrate-laden diet that the majority of people in developed countries eat has led to a host of health problems, and hypoglycemia is one of them.

Although most medical and health organizations recommend that no more than 10 percent of total caloric intake be derived from the refined sugars added to foods, the fact is that most people in developed countries eat far more than that (possibly three times that amount), and despite recommendations, the ideal amount is zero. And what’s even more alarming is that some lesser-developed Asian countries are getting a sweet tooth that rivals the richer nations! Statistics show that the consumption of sugar worldwide is increasing by 1 to 2 percent every year. Small wonder so many people have a pudge of a problem.

Like a couple of hooligans: Linking hypoglycemia and diabetes

You probably know someone who has diabetes. But you may not know that hypoglycemia and diabetes are linked. Blood sugar imbalance underlies both disorders. In the case of hypoglycemics, experts theorize that over a prolonged period of time, too much insulin (from eating sugar and simple starches) followed by a blood sugar drop results in cells losing their sensitivity to insulin. Thus, although hypoglycemia may seem to be the opposite of diabetes, it’s, in fact, considered to be a pre-diabetic condition.

Both diabetics and hypoglycemics should treat their condition through dietary means. The recommended diet for diabetes and hypoglycemia is, in fact, quite similar — although low blood sugar sufferers are often advised to reduce their carbohydrate intake, at least during the early part of treatment. Chapter 3 gives more information about diabetes and hypoglycemia and how they’re related. Chapter 6 gives the scoop about using your diet to your health’s advantage.

Heading Toward Better Health

A paradigm shift has been taking place in recent years in most Western countries, as more people are searching for alternative practices for attaining good health — something that crisis-driven Western medicine is unable to offer. The new paradigm holds a high regard for the nutritional basis of disease. The new paradigm, with its holistic, body-mind approach to health and healing, can more fully address hypoglycemia’s spectrum of problems. A holistic approach looks at the patient’s entire lifestyle, in addition to diet, for clues to what’s causing the illness.

Think of this as a journey toward greater health — a journey of transformation to a new approach to living and a greater sense of well-being. In this book, we show you how the transition into a healthy life can be smooth and not as painful as you may suspect.

The following list shows where you may be starting. If you follow the physical and food advice given in this book, you can come out on the other side looking and feeling a whole lot better.

Not eating right — right now: You should be eating six small meals, or three small meals and three light snacks, per day, although you may eat more frequently if you need to when you first embark on the program. This diet is very similar to a diabetic diet and doesn’t include sweets or sugars.

If you want healthy recipes, the Internet is a great source. Plenty of good diabetes cookbooks exist as well, including the Diabetic Cookbook For Dummies, byAlan L. Rubin, MD, Alison G. Acerra, RD, and Chef Denise Sharf (Wiley). You can safely follow any recipes created for diabetics as long as you refrain from using artificial sweeteners.

People are often surprisingly uninformed regarding diets and facts about hypoglycemia. Chapter 15 sets the record straight on commonly held misperceptions.

Overweight: For various reasons, low blood sugar can lead to weight gain. One reason is that you may be giving in to an increased desire for sweets; Chapter 8 can help get you motivated to get moving. In addition, overeating sweets and starches overstimulates insulin production, and too much insulin causes excess storage of fat.

Underweight: You may have been gorging yourself on sugars and starches in a futile attempt to gain weight. (And evoking jealousy among your friends in the process.) If so, addressing your underlying metabolism disorder can help you put on the pounds that you want and need.

Combating depression and mood disorders: When Abraham Lincoln said, “People are as happy as they make up their minds to be,” little knowledge existed about the basics of depression. (Ironically, evidence suggests that Lincoln himself was a generally depressed person, who never did fully “make up his mind” to be happy. Could he have suffered from hypoglycemia? Or an associated condition?) Chapter 10 talks more about depression.

Lacking a solid support structure: When you have a condition that undermines your effectiveness in daily life and chips away at your confidence and self-esteem, you need a bridge. The support structure that you create for yourself is this bridge. (See? It’s all up to you: Not only are you responsible for food and exercise, but finding support is all about you, too.)

A support person or group can help guide you through, especially when you’re just beginning your recovery program. Chapter 12 tells you how to get the support you need. In addition, we give you plenty of online resources that can help you.

Every individual is so different that predicting a time frame of recovery is difficult, but in general, you should start to see a noticeable improvement in your health in about three months. Having an occasional bad food day won’t negate your progress — but don’t kid yourself. Going off your food plan for several days, not to mention weeks, will definitely impede your progress.

Chapter 2

Digesting Hypoglycemia: Your Body’s Role

In This Chapter

Looking at what happens when you eat

Examining potential causes of hypoglycemia

Breaking the cycle: How too much sugar can lead to low blood sugar

B efore you can completely understand hypoglycemia and how it affects your body, you first need to know how and why some individuals develop hypoglycemia. You needn’t get a medical degree, but knowing some sweet and simple facts about sugar and how the body strives to maintain blood sugar equilibrium can most definitely help you take a proactive role in making sure that you won’t have to suffer again from not having enough sugar in your bloodstream to fuel you properly.

In this chapter, we don’t rhapsodize about the marvel of engineering that is the human body. We tell it like it is so that you know the hormonal basics that take place whenever you chow down. That way you can understand why diet is the cornerstone of treatment for a hypoglycemic.

Absorbing Some Physical Food

Generally, a meal provides nutrients that reach your body over a span of about four hours. However, your cells demand nutrients around the clock. (They were the first to demand 24/7 service.)

Digestion begins in your mouth — this is why your parents and other well-meaning people tell you to chew your food — and continues in your stomach. Your body has to break down the food before it can use the nutrients. The process is complex and can be a mouthful to describe in just a few words. This section breaks down the way your body digests food to help you better digest the info.

Breaking down proteins

When you bite into your favorite food (or even those lima beans you’re eating because your mom taught you well), your digestive system is starting to work. The following steps show how your body breaks down proteins, beginning with that first nibble.

G’head, take a bite:

1.Saliva comes into contact with food.

The salivary enzymes in the mouth partially break down some of the starch into a simple sugar called glucose. Glucose is the sugar in your bloodstream; it’s also your body’s energy source.

2.Your body recognizes any alien proteins and breaks them down into basic amino acids.

Amino acids are molecular units that make up all proteins. For an example of an alien protein, think of steak. Steak is composed of protein, carbohydrates, and fat. The protein in the steak is in the form of beef protein, which doesn’t do you a whole lot of good if you’re a Homo sapien. (We presume you are, because you’re reading this book, but if you’re not — well, we’ve heard of stranger things!) Why? Because it has to be converted into human protein before your body can use it.

3.Your body reconstructs some of the amino acids into human protein.

That protein is now available for growth, repair, and other vital physical functions.

4.Some of the amino acids become human carbohydrates, which are converted into basic sugars: glycogen and glucose.

Glycogen is the sugar your body stores, mostly in the liver but also in muscle tissue. Hundreds of branches stick out from glycogen, and on each branch is glucose, which is attached to the next glucose. All are readily accessible to the glycogen-splitting enzymes.

Your body normally converts excess glucose to glycogen or fatty acids. If you’re in the fasting state, however, the triacylglycerols (fat stores) and amino acids produce glucose. Glycogen isn’t produced. The fasting state is reached many hours after you’ve eaten, when the body has completely absorbed all the nutrients from the last food consumed. When the body reaches a fasting state, your body meets its energy needs by turning to nutrients that are stored in the body.

5.The liver converts some of the excess energy into fat.

Excess fat is stored in the fat cells to meet long-term energy needs.

Pancreas plays its part

After your liver converts excess energy into fat, your pancreas begins its work. The pancreas is an organ that

Manufactures enzymes to digest food

Manufactures bicarbonate to neutralize stomach acid

Manufactures glucagon, a protein hormone that stimulates the release of glucose into the blood

Secretes insulin when alerted that you’re eating carbs (Insulin is a powerful hormone that, among other things, chaperones the glucose to the body’s cells, instructing the cells to take in the glucose. That’s critical, because glucose is your body’s fuel. For more info on insulin, check out the nearby sidebar, “What’s in insulin?”)

Carbohydrates are basically chains of sugar molecules. The carbs you eat are mostly chains of glucose molecules. The shorter the chain, the sweeter the taste. Some chains are longer and more complicated, having many links and even branches. Hence, short chains are known as simple carbohydrates, and longer ones as complex carbohydrates. Simple or complex, carbs are composed entirely of sugar.

If the blood delivers more glucose than the cells can take in, the liver and muscles take up the surplus.

Here’s what happens to the excess glucose:

The muscles hog two-thirds of the body’s total store of glucose.

The liver stores the other third and makes it available when the brain or other organs need to draw on the supply.

The following shows how the pancreas helps regulate your blood sugar level:

1.You eat a meal, and insulin becomes the dominant hormone in your body.

2.Insulin is suppressed four to six hours later when glucagon shows up.

Glucagon shows up as your metabolism shifts gears. Glucagon suppresses insulin by releasing glucose into the blood.

• When blood glucose levels drop too low, the pancreas releases glucagon.

• Suppression of the insulin allows the liver to release glucose.

3.As long as the blood glucose levels are within normal range, insulin regulates glucose metabolism.

If the blood glucose level dips too low, counter-regulatory hormones (hormones that oppose insulin’s action) are released.

Insulin stores the glucose in the liver and muscle cells, and glucagon removes it from storage as needed.

What’s in insulin?

The pancreas releases insulin directly into the bloodstream to regulate the level of glucose (sugar) in the blood. Cells can’t use glucose for energy or nourishment without insulin, which is why insulin is critical to animal and human life. Without insulin, organisms quickly die.

Insulin transports the glucose from the blood into the body’s cells. It forces the liver and muscle cells to store glucose in the form of glycogen. When insulin levels are lower, the liver cells convert glycogen to glucose and excrete it into the blood.

Conversely, when insulin is released, glucose in the blood is decreased. If the level of glucose is too low, the person suffers from hypoglycemia. By definition, you have hypoglycemia if your blood sugar is too low. (Flip to Chapter 1 for a definition of hypoglycemia.)

Within the body is a constant interplay of hormones that affects the level of glucose in the blood. For instance, during periods of stress, the body releases the stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine (noradrenaline), which inhibit the release of insulin and increase hepatic glycolysis, the conversion of glycogen to glucose in the liver, thereby increasing the level of glucose available for energy.

Insulin has numerous other effects on cells, such as increased fatty acid synthesis. Insulin forces fat cells to take in blood lipids (fatty acids). The lack of insulin causes the reverse — a reduction in the uptake of blood fatty acids by cells. A reduction can mean less available energy. Other effects of insulin include increased amino acid and potassium uptake.

Insulin gone awry

In order for your body’s check-and-balance mechanism to work properly, the demand for insulin must subside at times. Assume this nasty scenario:

1.You repeatedly chow down on snacks high in sugar and starch.

2.Your body has to constantly pump out insulin.

As a result, your body has too much insulin!

3.The insulin receptors on the cells lose some of their sensitivity.

4.The pancreas secretes more insulin, hoping to get the receptors to respond.

Now you have way too much insulin!

5.Insulin rounds up the glucose from the bloodstream and drives it into the cells.

The result is hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. (Doctors who don’t believe that hypoglycemia exists in so-called healthy people — in other words, nondiabetic people — would argue that hypoglycemia can’t occur as just described.)

6.The insulin receptors become desensitized, and insulin can’t deliver enough glucose into the cells.

The result is a condition known as insulin resistance. See Chapter 3 for more on this condition and its link to hypoglycemia.

7.Eventually, more sugar remains in the bloodstream.

The result is type 2 diabetes.

This list is an admittedly oversimplified picture and just one scenario that can cause hypoglycemiain people who are genetically susceptible. (Check out the next section for more on the causes.)

The point to remember is that when a person who’s sensitive to carbs (see Chapter 3 for more) eats carbs, the blood sugar increases more rapidly than it should. This situation results in a rapid rise and fall in both insulin and blood sugar levels.

Bear in mind that carbs make up only part of the foods that directly affect blood sugar levels. Protein and fats are slowly absorbed, so the sensitive insulin apparatus is less likely to be triggered. Thus, small, regular meals consisting of protein or fats and some carbs keep the blood sugar stable, preventing sudden rises and falls in glucose.

Now you can appreciate what a complex dance the chemicals and hormones have to perform in order to keep your blood sugar level within a narrow range. The picture isn’t yet complete, however. The process includes more dancers and more steps, as you see later in this chapter.

Tracing Cause and Effect

Hypoglycemia has many causes, some of which aren’t related to what you eat, but this section only briefly covers them. Just remem- ber that hypoglycemia treatment depends totally on the underlying medical illnesses. So go see your doctor first — don’t diagnose yourself!

Multiple causes

Numerous factors can cause hypoglycemia, some of which are too technical for a lengthy discussion in this book. However, we do want to at least briefly tell you about the potential causes. You can check with your doctor for more scientific details.

The following are some of the causes of hypoglycemia:

Genes: In some patients, low blood sugar occurs mainly because of a defect in glucose production, while in others, the problem is the result of an excessive use of glucose. Some- times the low blood sugar level is the result of both reasons.

An underlying medical illness: Although it’s a matter of debate, most doctors argue that hypoglycemia doesn’t occur without an underlying medical illness that’s unrelated to what you eat. When a patient has no organic causes for hypoglycemia, the hormone epinephrine (adrenaline) is likely involved. It appears that insulin can stimulate epinephrine release in some sensitive people.

Profound malnutrition: If you’re severely deficient in nutrition, you’re at risk for hypoglycemia because you don’t have enough glucose in your blood.

Prolonged exercise: Exercising intensely for too long without eating causes hypoglycemia because the body uses up the sugar that’s stored in your liver.

Late pregnancy: Some women may experience hypoglycemia in late pregnancy as the result of a drop in glucose production.

Severe liver deficiency: