Glucerna brand products are designed to meet the nutritional needs of people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Originally, Glucerna was designed as a complete source of nutrition to be used for tubefeeding people with diabetes. Today the brand has expanded to include a variety of products that can be helpful in managing hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar. The products are also useful in preventing episodes of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar.
Consult with your doctor before using any products to manage hypoglycemia.
Glucerna Products
Glucerna products are designed with slowly digestible carbohydrates that will minimize both spikes and drops in blood sugar. If you want to use the Glucerna products, like shakes, meal replacement bars, snack bars or cereal, you should incorporate them into your regular diabetes meal plan. If Glucerna products are used in addition to your meal plan, your carb intake may be too high. You may be adding calories and carbs that can sabotage both your blood sugar and weight management goals.
Preventing Hypoglycemia
Glucerna can be useful in preventing hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. Hypoglycemia is defined as a blood sugar less than 70 mg/dL. Hypoglycemia may occur if you take too much medication or insulin. It can occur if you are more physically active than usual without eating additional food. If you drink alcohol without eating, you might also experience low blood sugar. Most commonly, however, hypoglycemia occurs when you skip meals, especially if you take certain diabetes medications or insulin. Keeping Glucerna or similar meal replacement products with you to ensure you don't skip a meal is an easy way to help prevent the problems associated with hypoglycemia. The slowly digesting carbs in the products will help you to maintain your blood sugar at a normal level for longer periods of time.
Treating Hypoglycemia
Glucerna products should not be used to treat hypoglycemia. Because the carbs in Glucerna products are slowly digested, you should not use them to treat your low blood sugar. Instead, you should eat or drink 15 g of fast-acting carbs, according to a PubMed Health article on hypoglycemia. Some examples include 4 oz. of orange juice, 4 oz. of of regular soda, 3 glucose tablets or 1 tbsp. of honey. After eating the 15 g of fast-acting carbs, wait 15 minutes and check your blood sugar. If your blood sugar is within your target range, you do not need to take further action. If your blood sugar is still below 70 mg/dL, continue to eat 15 g of fast-acting carbs every 15 minutes until your blood sugar is above 70 mg/dL. Then, eat your next meal at the regular time.
Hypoglycemia Without Diabetes
Some people without diabetes also experience episodes of hypoglycemia. This type of hypoglycemia may be related to excessive alcohol consumption, medication side effects or critical illnesses such hepatitis, kidney disease and anorexia nervosa. Low blood sugar may also occur in people with pancreatic tumors or endocrine deficiencies. In some cases, hypoglycemia is a result of the body producing too much insulin after a meal. Glucerna products have not been studied in relation to these types of hypoglycemia. If you experience non-diabetes-related episodes of low blood sugar, you may want to follow similar guidelines to those for people with diabetes. Use the products as part of your regular meal plan to prevent symptoms and complications of low blood sugar, but do not use the products to treat hypoglycemia.
