Have you heard of hypoglycemia? Hopefully, you have only read about it. However, if you have the unfortunate experience of a hypoglycemic event you will know firsthand the dizzying array of bizarre symptoms associated with this poorly-understood condition.

The term "hypoglycemia" means "low blood sugar." It is characterized by a period of time when your blood sugar drops too far, too fast and symptoms occur. That doesn't sound too scary, right? However, if the blood sugar drops too low you will die. Since this is a potentially life-threatening condition, we need to treat it with the respect it deserves!

Symptoms of hypoglycemia
Low blood sugar has been called "the great mimicker." That's because it can mimic almost any other condition within the human illness experience. For example, it can look like a heart attack, panic attack, migraine or MS. It can look like depression, Lupus, tinnitus/Meniere's disease or indigestion. Hypoglycemia can look like almost anything. It can affect almost any body system, but it seems to show up in symptoms related to the liver and brain.

Low blood sugar triggers the "fight-or-flight" emergency response. During fight-or-flight, your body shuts down non-emergency systems and pours stress hormones into your bloodstream. Any sugar remaining in your liver is mobilized as fuel (glucose) and this quickly brings your sugar levels back to normal. (If your liver is exhausted and cannot mobilize sugar, your body will rip it from your muscles and kill the muscle cells.) Once the sugar levels return to normal, the fight-or-flight stress response is turned off and normalcy eventually returns.

Causes of hypoglycemia
There are four causes to all illness: trauma (injury), toxins, deficiency and stress. Prolonged stress was proven to cause diabetes as long ago as 1865 by Claude Bernard, M.D. ("Today's hypoglycemic are tomorrow's diabetics"). Short-term changes in blood sugar can be brought on by simply holding your breath (oxygen deficiency) and longer-term deprivation of oxygen from pollution (toxins) can keep you on a hypoglycemic roller coaster!

Other deficiencies can cause hypoglycemia as well. For example, dehydration, a sleep deficit and nutrient deficiency can create an imbalance in blood sugar metabolism. Since people low in Vitamin D quickly become hypoglycemic, and since Vitamin D is associated with healthy sun exposure, a sunshine deficiency can cause hypoglycemia.

Other nutrient deficiencies can also foster hypoglycemia. Deficiencies of B vitamins such as pantothenic acid and minerals such as chromium and magnesium are implicated in low blood sugar. An essential fatty acid imbalance such as Omega-3 deficiency can cause recurrent episodes of hypoglycemia.

Toxins such as mercury and lead can trigger hypoglycemia. Allergies can trigger hypoglycemia. In fact, many times allergy will be confused with hypoglycemia and vice versa. For example, many people wake in the middle of the night with an "empty" feeling in the pit of their stomach. This is often a flash of histamines associated with allergy, not a direct symptom of hypoglycemia. (Low blood sugar can mimic these same symptoms during the daytime.) Super Sublingual B-12 can often turn off these distressing symptoms.

Even injuries can cause hypoglycemia as your body activates inflammation in the repair process. Low-intensity trauma caused by a sedentary lifestyle causes chronic blood sugar swings. Exercise – especially in morning or evening sunlight – can activate Vitamin D and reduce the blood sugar swings associated with hypoglycemia.

Can you fix it?
Hypoglycemia is not a disease in itself; it is more of a reaction to the four causes of all imbalances (trauma, toxins, deficiency and stress). Hypoglycemia is a major trigger for distressing symptoms. As mentioned, it can be fatal in rare instances if the blood sugar dips too low, such as in insulin shock. Find the cause and hypoglycemia can often be resolved.

Many supplements can help, especially those that focus on filling nutrient deficiencies, draining away toxins, allaying emotional distress and repairing tissue traumatized by injury. By using these recommendations as a blueprint, you may be able to get off the roller coaster and find balance from imbalanced blood sugar and hypoglycemia.

Learn More!

• More on Hypoglycemia
• Hypoglycemia and Type 1 Diabetes
• Exercise and Hypoglycemia

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8/17/2010

GlucoManage

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