Hypoglycemia is a condition in which your blood sugar glucose level is lower than normal. Glucose is your body's main energy source. Hypoglycemia is often related to diabetes treatment.
But other drugs and a variety of conditions — many rare — can cause low blood sugar in people who don't have diabetes. Hypoglycemia needs immediate treatment when blood sugar levels are low.
But your numbers might be different. Ask your doctor. Treatment involves quickly getting your blood sugar back to normal either with high-sugar foods or drinks or with medications. Long-term treatment requires identifying and treating the cause of hypoglycemia. Seek emergency help for someone with diabetes or a history of hypoglycemia who has symptoms of severe hypoglycemia or loses consciousness. Hypoglycemia occurs when your blood sugar glucose level falls too low.
There are several reasons why this can happen; the most common is a side effect of drugs used to treat diabetes. When you eat, your body breaks down carbohydrates from foods — such as bread, rice, pasta, vegetables, fruit and milk products — into various sugar molecules, including glucose. Glucose, the main energy source for your body, enters the cells of most of your tissues with the help of insulin — a hormone secreted by your pancreas.
Insulin enables the glucose to enter the cells and provide the fuel your cells need. Extra glucose is stored in your liver and muscles in the form of glycogen. If you haven't eaten for several hours and your blood sugar level drops, another hormone from your pancreas signals your liver to break down the stored glycogen and release glucose into your bloodstream. This keeps your blood sugar within a normal range until you eat again. Your body also has the ability to make glucose.
Low Blood Sugar Hypoglycemia. Minus Related Pages. Have low blood sugar without symptoms? You may need to check your blood sugar more often.
Hypoglycemia Unawareness. To receive updates about diabetes topics, enter your email address: Email Address. What's this. Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website. Go over with others the steps they need to take when your blood sugar is very low. Treat low blood sugar early Treat low blood sugar levels as soon as you or someone else notice the symptoms.
Check your blood sugar often. If you have had diabetes for many years, you may not have symptoms until your blood sugar is very low. Checking your blood sugar regularly and also whenever you think it may be low will take the guesswork out of treating low blood sugar levels. Encourage others to tell you if they notice you are developing signs of low blood sugar.
Keep a record of low blood sugar levels. Write down your symptoms and how you treated your low blood sugar. Look for patterns in when and what you ate, your activity especially if more than usual , and medicine that could have caused the low blood sugar.
Notify your doctor. Let her or him know if you are having low blood sugar problems. Your insulin dosage may need to be adjusted. Standards of medical care in diabetes— Diabetes Care, 40 Suppl 1 : S1—S Beaser RS Hypoglycemia unawareness puts the person at increased risk for severe low blood sugar reactions when they need someone to help them recover. People with hypoglycemia unawareness are also less likely to be awakened from sleep when hypoglycemia occurs at night.
People with hypoglycemia unawareness need to take extra care to check blood sugar frequently. This is especially important prior to and during critical tasks such as driving. A continuous glucose monitor CGM can sound an alarm when blood sugar levels are low or start to fall. This can be a big help for people with hypoglycemia unawareness. Hypoglycemia unawareness occurs more frequently in those who:.
If you think you have hypoglycemia unawareness, speak with your health care provider. This helps your body re-learn how to react to low blood sugar levels. This may mean increasing your target blood sugar level a new target that needs to be worked out with your diabetes care team. It may even result in a higher A1C level, but regaining the ability to feel symptoms of lows is worth the temporary rise in blood sugar levels. This can happen when your blood sugar levels are very high and start to go down quickly.
If this is happening, discuss treatment with your diabetes care team. Your best bet is to practice good diabetes management and learn to detect hypoglycemia so you can treat it early—before it gets worse. Monitoring blood sugar, with either a meter or a CGM, is the tried and true method for preventing hypoglycemia.
Studies consistently show that the more a person checks blood sugar, the lower his or her risk of hypoglycemia. This is because you can see when blood sugar levels are dropping and can treat it before it gets too low. If you can, check often! Together, you can review all your data to figure out the cause of the lows.
The more information you can give your health care provider, the better they can work with you to understand what's causing the lows. Your provider may be able to help prevent low blood sugar by adjusting the timing of insulin dosing, exercise and meals or snacks. Changing insulin doses or the types of food you eat may also do the trick. If you're new to type 2 diabetes, join our free Living With Type 2 Diabetes program to get help and support during your first year.
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