Hypoglycemia occurs when you have low levels of blood sugar, or glucose, in your body. Glucose supplies energy to your body to maintain bodily functions and to support muscular exertion. Glucose also provides raw ingredients to create important brain chemicals, called neurotransmitters, which aid concentration and regulate mood. When blood sugar is low, your brain and your body don't operate properly. The condition of hypoglycemia occurs with diabetes, but can also occur with other illnesses. Hypoglycemia is remedied by increasing and maintaining blood sugar within a normal range through diet, medication and exercise.
Symptoms
Signs that you may have low blood sugar include confusion, inability to complete routine tasks, visual disturbances, such as blurred or double vision, heart palpitations, tremor, sweating, anxiety and hunger, according to MayoClinic.com. Less common symptoms can include loss of consciousness or seizures. People who are overweight or obese have an increased susceptibility to diabetes and hypoglycemia, though people of any weight can develop problems with blood sugar. Get an evaluation from your doctor if you have these symptoms. A fasting blood test can determine if you have problems with hypoglycemia.
Causes
Diabetes or other conditions, such as medications, excessive alcohol consumption, endocrine deficiencies and metabolic syndromes, can cause disruption in the normal process of blood sugar regulation. Normally, carbohydrates, such as sugar, starches, pasta, vegetables and fruit from food you eat are broken down and released into your bloodstream in the form of glucose. Your pancreas detects the sugar and releases insulin, which then escorts blood sugar into cells where it is used for fuel. Leftover sugar is stored for later use. As your blood sugar drops, insulin production decreases.
People with diabetes are resistant to insulin or don't produce enough insulin. To avoid having too much blood sugar, they take medication to lower blood sugar. Conditions of low blood sugar can occur if they don't eat often enough, if they take too much medication or they exercise and consume their blood sugar without replenishing it. Diet and dietary habits can help to stabilize blood sugar.
Many Meals
One strategy of hypoglycemic diets aims to help you stabilize blood sugar by eating more, smaller meals rather than eating two or three larger meals. Most hypoglycemic diets suggest you eat six small meals spread out throughout the day, with about half your calories coming from carbohydrates, 20 percent coming from protein and the remainder from fat, according to ClearLeadInc.com.
Eat
Diabetic diets focus on consumption of complex carbohydrates such as non-starchy vegetables and fruits; legumes such as beans, lentils and peas; and whole grains, such as whole wheat products, brown rice and whole-wheat pasta. Diabetic diets also include lean proteins, such as skinless turkey and chicken and non- or low-fat dairy. All of these foods are low glycemic index foods, meaning they take a long time to digest and therefore release sugar into the bloodstream slowly.
The glycemic index, or GI, rates foods on how quickly they release sugar into the bloodstream. Foods with low GI ratings take longer to digest and slowly release sugars. Low glycemic diets have you eat foods with GI ratings below 55 and allow some foods with medium GI ratings between 55 and 70, according to LowGlycemicDiet.com. The website MedIndia.com provides GI ratings of foods.
Don't Eat
High glycemic foods, foods with GI ratings greater than 70, should be avoided. These are foods that quickly release sugar into the bloodstream. Foods to avoid include sugary, sweet and starchy foods, such as white bread, white rice, flour tortillas, pancakes, bagels, muffins, candy, potato chips, french fries, cookies, fruit juices and sugary sodas.
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